AIDS walk: Call to register!

It is time once again for members of Saint Paul’s Cathedral to join our team to contribute, participate in the walk or run, and contact at least 10 friends and family members to commit a donation of any size to our team. Jack and I support this event because we, like many of you, have witnessed devastating losses of friends and family to this disease since its inception. We gather to remember them, their caregivers and the many researchers who were on the front lines of searching for treatment in the absence of any government recognition, support and funding.

Recall that in 1980 Ken Horne of San Francisco was the first recognized case of AIDS, exhibiting Kaposi’s Sarcoma and other symtoms. By 1984, thousands of gay men in the United States were dying every year. Reagan had still failed to mention its existence. In San Francisco, our friend, Dr. Larry Waites along with Dr. Martin Delaney and the immunologist, Dr. Alan Levin, did pioneering work researching dead ends like Compound Q, while also forming advocacy groups like Act Up to change the FDA’s arcane rules limiting access to drugs that showed promise in clinical trials. Today, pioneering work continues on a vaccine by researchers at Scripps and other San Diego institutions.

Thank God for our heroes then and now.

Our goal is to raise vital funds to support those living with the disease today.

To join our team at the march Sept 30:

1. Visit http://www.aidswalksd.org
2. Scroll down to “join a team”
3. Enter the team, “St. Paul’s Cathedral”
4. Click, “join”
5. Select the appropriate participant options.
6. Make a donation online.
7. Share with your friends on Facebook.


Many thanks,

John Clemens, Team Captain

(on behalf of Saint Paul's Peace and Justice Committee)

Honors and Privileges

Sunday evening at Evensong, I was installed (sort of sounds like a kitchen appliance) as a verger at St. Paul’s Cathedral. I am deeply honored at being asked to join this august group of worker bees who keep the services humming at the cathedral. The ceremony promised to be brief during which I switched from my black cassock to a cathedral purple one and then donned a white vest called an anthem. They then gave me a ‘virge’, a ceremonial stick, with which I led the procession out of the nave at the conclusion of the service.

Ah, but that’s not all. Next week we celebrate the Festal Evensong of St. George, an annual tribute to our Anglican roots, and in that parade, I get to carry the Union Jack. Why, you may ask, is someone with my last name presuming to carry the banner of the British Empire, representing the Queen and all the pomp and circumstance that has been handed down to us from our British forebears?

Well, I’ll tell you. My mother’s maiden name is Allison, a part of clan McAllister, and according to her oldest brother (long deceased) who researched our roots, our clan arrived on these shores sometime around the 1680s or 1690s, supplied troops for the Revolutionary War, gave us such distinguished ancestors as Daniel Boone (I have no idea how he fits into this), and later, a renegade named Morgan who staged raids into Ohio during the Civil War. There was also some whiff of a bank robber who showed up at family reunions before he was caught and hanged in Kentucky. All stemming from clan McAllister, a Scottish family of worthy reputation and colorful descendents.

If that’s not enough, my adopted family name is related in some mysterious way to the Wellendorfs of Saxe-Coburg who were distant cousins to the Hanovers, the family that spawned Queen Victoria and the current reigning monarch of what remains of the British Empire. This last piece of astonishing news came from my paternal grandfather, who was wont to talk on grandly about this connection to anyone who would stay still long enough, often begging the question from my grandmother, looking askance at him, as to why we hadn’t been invited to the coronation nor to any of the royal weddings.

With such upstanding credentials as these, I take up my duties as flag bearer alongside a splendid US Naval officer who will be carrying the Stars and Stripes. I won’t cut as fine a figure as he will, but we will each in our own way be proud to be a part of what has become a St. Paul’s Cathedral tradition, even if my name doesn’t seem to be British in the least. But now you know the facts that should curb any disdainful whispering among the congregation next Sunday evening as I swan down the aisle toting the Union Jack.

Come join this wonderful Evensong, and don’t forget to bring your sandwiches (or whatever Anne Walter got you to sign up for) to the reception afterward.

Robert Heylmun

Crack Gabriel’s Code at the June 2 Masked Ball!

Can a group of festive masked Episcopalians crack the code of the mysterious Angel Gabriel (atop the Abbey) during the forthcomimg June 2 Masked Ball Gala?

  

Just two years ago, The Abbey celebrated its centennial as a 1910 landmark.  It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1983 and also more recently a recipient of the distinguished Presidential Design Award from the National Endowment of the Arts. 

More culturally significant, the Abbey at 2524 Fifth in Bankers Hill is believed to be the only classical revival structure still standing in San Diego!

No one seems to know for sure if Gabriel was blowing away in 1910 as part of Los Angeles architect Norman Foote Marsh's design for the Park Place Methodist Episcopal Church at Fifth between Olive and Palm---the same year as the U.S. Grant Hotel was constructed downtown in the Gaslamp District!

Back then, just a few blocks away, Kate Sessions was planting her trees in Balboa Park while in Washington, D.C.  President William Howard Taft held forth with vigor in the White House. Later, in 1951 the church morphed into the Balboa Park Baptist church until 1984 when the building was purchased by the Hornblower Cruise restaurant group as a historic venue for weddings/receptions.

    

According to an 'anonymous' neighbor, the metal Gabriel first appeared coated with new, shimmering gold leaf in 1984; did Architect Marsh intend originally for Angel Gabriel (plus horn) to keep watch over the original, rather stuffy Methodist parishioners?

Masked Ball patrons from St. Paul's Cathedral may offer a clue during the festive evening while dancing away under the pale yellow glow of elegant, domed stained-glass skylights.

Ellen Shaw Tufts

The Integrity Masked Ball on June 2nd at the historic Abbey will raise money to support LGBT outreach and programs of St Paul's.  Enjoy a silent auction while dancing the night away!  Tickets here.