Went out to the Shenandoah Valley to visit friends. Here's a short video I took just a few steps away from their home. That's the North Fork of the Shenandoah River as the autumn leaves start to turn. If you listen carefully as the river flows below, you can hear Amy Mitchell singing the classic song from the bridge.
Yet while we were out looking at the Fall foliage, we drove through Shrine Mont and made a startling discovery. Tall chain-linked barbed wire fences now surround the area around the fields behind the old Hotel and Pennsylvania House and the open pavilion. The barbed wire gave the place a shocking sense of being locked down. What's up with that?
6 comments:
BB, we believe you are becoming paranoid! That fence has obviously been there for years; its purpose is to control the traffic inflow and outflow during the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival concerts (and other such events). If you look in your video, perhaps you will see the trees and weeds which are growing up through the fence, and the rusted wire and pipe, and crooked poles. Definitely nothing new, and really has nothing to do with Shrine Mont at all. We have lived here in Basye for five years, and attend the SVMF, and the fence has been here all this time.
Barbed wire has been there for years. Comments like these are beneath you - and I fear they are hurting your credibility. For instance, your perhaps overly quick (speaking frankly, and I regret saying this - know it comes in a spirit of truth and love) headline regarding the Bishop of Virginia seizing control over all of the property of Christ Church, when it was simply a deeding of whatever interest they might have in the Falls Church) - it doesn't help our cause. The revisionists look for any factual error, or failure to correct one, to drive a wedge into our unity. I urge you to take a deep breath, check your facts, and stop reacting. We need your voice for truth.
Frankly, you and I have left the Diocese. Let's leave them be. They'll implode on their own. You tell the Good News of Christ, Truro, ADV, CANA and Common Cause. They need positive proclamation, not being seen as simply a negative reaction. Even George Will's column, as wonderful and blessed as it was, framed us too much as a negative reaction to the Episcopal Church.
We're much more.
I urge you to move on, leave them be, and tell our story of love and faithfulness.
Did you see anyone of interest while you were there? I'd love to know if there was a rogue's gallery!
What's up with the barbed wire, no really? The fence, okay - keep the balls and babies from running off. But the prison-style barbed wire? What's up with that?
There weren't very many people there - you can see just a few cars in the upper parking lot. It was very peaceful, beautiful, God's own. I spent 20 years going up there. Grew up there.
I'm not sure exactly which weekend The Falls Church used to go to Shrine Mont, but it's about this time of year. The autumn is simply beautiful. And so is the spring.
By the way, I'm still a card-carrying Episcopalian (though it's becoming very difficult). I continue to take communion in select Episcopal churches. I'm an Episcopal member of a church that is in CANA. Episcopalians and Anglican laity are welcomed in CANA. And this is a free country.
I was not turned away from the Lord's Table this morning at Christ Church Alexandria, either - for the table is the Lord's Table and they stuck with Rite II. The sermon really was very good - totally Jesus-centered. I will remember it and remember "who's there." But the other bits ... very very troubling indeed.
In the meantime, we are on watch for the development of the new Anglican province - and it's coming - unless there is an extraordinary change from TEC which, since God is alive, is always indeed possible, come Holy Spirit.
But the signs do grow dim. As Bob Dylan writes:
Shadows are falling
and I've been here all day.
It's too hot to sleep,
time is running away;
Feel like my soul has
turned into steel.
I've still got the scars
that the sun (pun on "the Son?")didn't heal.
There's not even room enough
to be anywhere
It's not dark yet,
but it's getting there.
And this morning was like that.
bb
Falls Church was out here last weekend, along with St. George's, Fredericksburg.
I will admit that I do not know why barbed wire was used on that fence, but I do know that the fence itself has been there for a long time. When the Music Festival concerts are held, the entire area is fenced off to allow control of the crowd, ticket-taking, etc. Some roads are blocked off, so there are only two ways for cars to get in and out. The fence helps with that. Otherwise, Shrine Mont is entirely open, and we take all our visitors over to wander the grounds whenever the weather is nice, and show them the cathedral where my daughter was married. There are very few weekends during the year when there are not people there; cars in the parking lot are not necessarily an indication, since often we see buses come and go, leaving folks there for the weekend, then picking them up again on Sunday afternoon.
Still want to know what the prison-style barbed wire is all about. When The Falls Church was at Shrine Mont the place was filled, obviously this "Falls Church" is the shadow congregation propped up by the diocese for the litigation. The near empty parking lot speaks volumes.
Perhaps it is time to sing Shenandoah.
bb
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