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Presiding Bishop Joins Anniversary Celebration at Church in Key West, Florida

Episcopal News Service. February 12, 2003 [2003-029]

Mary W. Cox, Director of Communications for the Diocese of Southeast Florida and Editor of the diocesan newspaper

(ENS) Even though it was a Saturday morning rather than Sunday, there was standing room only at St. Paul's, Key West, on January 25, as Episcopalians from throughout the Diocese of Southeast Florida joined with St. Paul's parishioners--and Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold--in celebrating the 170th patronal festival of the oldest congregation in the diocese.

Responding to Bishop Leo Frade's urging to make the event "a diocesan family gathering," parishioners from churches in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade Counties spilled out of buses, vans and cars and began to fill St. Paul's more than two hours before the 11 a.m. service. A congregation estimated at more than 750 filled the pews, as well as chairs set up in every available space inside the church and on the side porch. Some worshipers stood in the back of the church, and children sat on the floor in the center aisle.

In addition to Griswold and Frade, Assistant Bishop James Ottley, Onell Soto, retired assistant bishop of Alabama, and about 40 diocesan clergy and six interfaith clergy representing Key West congregations participated in the service.

Skateboards and all

With the resounding call of a conch shell horn and the skirling of bagpipes, Verger George Noel led a grand procession, including acolytes, choir, church and community leaders, visiting clergy and the four bishops out of the church grounds and around the block to Mile Marker 0, where the bishops and archdeacons paused at the spot marking the beginning and the ending of U.S. Route 1. The procession gathered some of the city's young people, with a gaggle of skateboarders and inline skaters falling in line as the procession moved down Duval Street to St. Paul's.

In his sermon, Bishop Griswold reflected on the conversion of St. Paul, telling the congregation that, like Paul, "we must each undergo conversion...that lays claim to everything." Like "the reluctant apostle Ananias," who ministered to Paul, we are "instruments of salvation for each other." He told the congregation that "each one of you, by your baptism, is called to be a minister of reconciliation."

St. Paul's welcomed the presiding bishop by presenting him with a conch shell horn, which, according to vestry member Jim Richardson, "symbolizes our oneness with the land, and with the sea around us." After a demonstration of conch horn technique by 9-year-old Norman Alexander, who sounded the horn for the procession, Griswold managed to make a sound with the shell, much to the delight of the congregation. He thanked the parish for the unique gift, saying, "I can truly say I don't have one!"

Richardson read a proclamation from the City of Key West, recounting the history of the parish and naming the day as a festival to be celebrated by the community in honor of the 170th anniversary of St. Paul's.

New archdeacons

Frade congratulated St. Paul's on its anniversary, saying, "We talk a lot about missions and evangelism. Well, this is what happens when a church is planted -- and grows..."

Smiling, he added, "I'm glad the City Council way back then [1831] had such good taste as to petition the Diocese of New York to send a priest to start an Episcopal church."

The service was also the occasion of the formal induction of the Ven. Dr. Bryan Hobbs and the Ven. Paul Rasmus as archdeacons for the diocese. For both archdeacons, having this service at St. Paul's had particular significance: Rasmus was rector of St. Paul's for eight years before taking his new position on the diocesan staff in December of last year, and Hobbs, who comes to his new ministry from 24 years as rector of Holy Sacrament in Pembroke Pines, began his ministry in the diocese in Key West.

After the service, the day's festivities continued with food and entertainment on the church grounds.

[thumbnail: Verger George Noel and ac...] [thumbnail: Presiding Bishop Frank Gr...]