What’s Happening at St Paul’s,(emailed to parish July 21)

Summer is here!  And so my summer reading is progressing. I’m enjoying Jonathan White’s Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean (2017).  My love of the ocean is as deep and vast as it.  Throughout the book, White discusses the wonders of remarkable tides in various locations. He tells of the science, as well as the human history, related to these tides. One destination White explores is the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel, facing the English channel and engaging a forty five foot tidal range. White writes of the relationship between the moon, the sun and the tides.

By the time I descend the many steps of Mont Saint-Michel’s abbey, even the village below is empty and silent.  The moon has almost completely traversed the night sky, leaving dew clinging to cafe awnings and tile roofs.  Having risen in the east many hours ago, the moon now hovers in the west.  The tide is long gone.  In a few hours the moon will drop below the western horizon, and just as the last of it disappears, the sun will rise on the opposite horizon. (58)

White goes on to describe the phenomenon known to the Greeks as syzygy, as it relates to  alignment between the moon and sun.  While reading, I remembered  the lesson Carolyn offered regarding the Greek concept of syzygy, meaning “yoked together.”  She suggested we think of it in terms of marriage. However, I imagine its reference expanding to any relationship that might hold unique, compelling forces within it. I often feel “yoked together” with my three-year-old daughter, Estella. Forces beyond my control and, I think, hers propel us in the dance of life.

In addition, I am reminded of the  syzygy of our congregation at St. Paul’s. Almost three years ago, it was this close union that Estella and our family experienced during her baptism. Early in the morning, Estella’s cousins trudged down to Casco Bay to collect seawater, seaweed, shells and rocks. Estella’s baptism was to be an event intimately connected to the ocean. She would be baptized with seawater. Her cousins decorated the baptismal vessel with seaweed and shells to adorn her birth into the Body of Christ. I will never forget the awesome feeling of gratitude for all the good works of God and our congregation during her baptism. May your summer continue in its ebb and flow, enhancing the union of the Body of Christ at St. Paul’s.  And don’t forget the syzygy of the total solar eclipse on August 21.

In Peace,

Johanna Wigg, Junior Warden