Our grandson Tommy’s christening was yesterday, so we headed up to Lynn. The plan was for Mark’s sister and Kate’s brother to be the grandparents (nicely symmetrical), but Chris was 2500 miles away getting packed. (He and Celeste are relocating from Seattle to the Oakland/Berkeley area this week.) So I had to stand in for Chris, which I was happy to do*. (Perhaps I should Photoshop Chris’s face into this picture!) And of course Tommy took it all in his stride….
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* The deacon conducting the christening was one of those loud, enthusiastic types that shouts out the prayers and the responses, so I didn’t have to profess any beliefs that I didn’t have. On the other hand, the priest who conducted the regular mass (and who appears in this photo) was a fascinating character; we had a long discussion with him afterwards. At one point when he was talking about how he’d like to conduct services, I pointed out that he had nearly 1700 years of imperial pretension to get rid of; he agreed that the problems he was thinking about really started with Constantine. Let’s hope Benedict’s authoritarianism doesn’t squeeze all of his imaginative aspirations out of him.