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11/14/2004: "Dedication"

The communion table was decorated with a cloth of earthen hues, and the traditional fruits of autumn. There were flowers on the piers, flowers in the narthex (from the memorial service), flowers in the chapel (from the wedding). There was the treasure chest, open to receive the members' pledge cards. A child forgot the words, waved to his family, and clapped a beat after everyone else. He sneezed once in the middle of the song; it was charming. There was a musical setting of the scriptural reading, an anthem, and a postlude. Coffee in fellowship hall; pickups of the mission market orders, pecans from Wilson College, registration for the Progressive Dinner. I will go with the Micawbers. It was another in a string of clear, cruel Sundays, beautiful and heartless, cold and crumbling like the earth beneath us.