For those who don't know, Saint Barnabas is the Episcopal Church I attend. I'm the resident Baby of the Alto section in the Choir. This year the Parish is celebrating its 125th anniversary, with the Parish School celebrating its 35th anniversary as well.
By the way, it's also a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence!!
A note about the pictures--I took all the pictures with my camera-phone so, the light might be fairly bright in some of the pictures. That and, I didn't really get to catch a lot of stand-still's so, it's all fairly spur-of-the-moment.
Now, that all said, here are the highlights...
Upon entering, hey!! the Church is packed!! And even StarKnight Ani got into the spirit of dressing up 1880's-ish for the occassion [as the Parishioners were invited to do for this celebration].
Our Church Organ looked nice and lovely for the festivities. And the Choir sounded magnificent! And, I even caught a good shot of the Acolytes and the Assistant Bishop, Hugo Pena-Lopez, who presided over the Service.
The Children's Choir kicked off the Service with "Forever", and the Service went very, very well.
After the Service we had the Procession to the new Family Life Center for the dedication and Proclamation. In front of me, Acolytes. Right behind me, the Choir, Bishop Hugo, the Clergy, and the Congregation. Thankfully I kept my eyes in FRONT of me!!
Standing onstage, the Choirs [both Adult and Children's] sorta assembled, and we waited patiently for the rest of the Procession of Congregants and Clergy to arrive.
![Choirmaster Peter [left] chatting up a storm with some of our Choir.](http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t90/starknight1sun/Saint%20Barnabas%20125/1021071149.jpg)
After the Congregation arrived and the Processional Party assembled, we had the final festivities before the Lunch! Some "historical figures" gave their account of remembering when Saint Barnabas was founded, which was around the same time as the City of DeLand. Our Mayor Rob Apgar was also present to proclaim Sunday 21 October 2007 as Saint Barnabas Day in DeLand, which was a HUGE thrill to witness.
Then came the Blessing and Dedication of the Building, and then the Choir led in the Doxology "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow." Afterwards Father Don led in the Blessing of the Food, and then it was lunchtime!! Now, you have to understand this funny tidbit--when Bishop Hugo's armed with holy water, no one [I repeat, NO ONE] is safe!!
After eating lunch with Terry and Steffi, I tagged along with a tour of the new upstairs classrooms in the new Building. There were four new classrooms, one of them being the new Skybox. In each classroom Bishop Hugo blessed the four corners, and he even told us some inspiring stories too.
All in all, that was one AMAZING day in Church. I'm glad to have been a part of the festivities, and I can't wait for the next adventure with the Church and my beloved Choir!
^_^
More later but, until the next round, Cheers!!
And Happy 125th, Saint Barnabas!!
~ 'Sunshine'
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