MN Mondays #13: St. Christophers

We were unloading from the bus at one church or
another and one of the basses snapped this.
#youngandthin

In 2000, Jacob became the music director at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Roseville, his first gig in MN though he had years of experience in WI.

We had agree that it was absolutely not a good idea for me to sing in his choir.  Too many opportunities for things to get uncomfortable and dysfunctional.  So I was going to look for a section leader position someplace and he'd run his choir.

Then he came home from his first choir rehearsal.  "I have one man.  I need you to sing."  And so I have been ever since.  :)

St. Christopher's was the first community we joined "together."  And it was a special place for us.  We met some folks who have been our close friends ever since.  We made some great music and did some really fun things.  Like singing monthly Compline services at the (haunted) mausoleum in Northeast Minneapolis.  Or doing Halloween Organ Crawls around to churches in the Twin Cities as fundraisers.  Or doing creepy Good Friday Tenebrae services.

But the biggest and most special thing we did together was to take the choir to England in 2008.  The whole group planned and fundraised for over a year.  We recorded audition materials were accepted to sing in several places.

We landed in London and went straight to Coventry where we sang a joint evensong with the parish church choir right next to the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral.
We were supposed to sing evensong at Yorkminster but there was the unfortunate event of a tourist dying whilst climbing the tower... So we ended up offering up some songs including Beautiful Savior by F. Melius Christiansen (of course) after a said Evening Prayer service.  (We were mobbed after that by some weeping Minnesotans who went to St. Olaf College and just happened to be there on vacation...  Of course...)
We sang in the Lady Chapel of Ely Cathedral right below the "diving Barbie" statue of Mary.
We sand in Durham Cathedral after having to walk up from the bottom of the hill because the bus couldn't navigate the tiny streets.
Ripon Cathedral...
Touring Windsor Castle...
All Saints Margaret Street...
Seeing Westminster and Kings College Cambridge...
And on and on.

It was a wonderful trip and I know Jacob and I are dying to go back.  So, hopefully this is a case of a memory to be revisited.