Povey Prattle

Chris and Trish Morck were parishioners at St. James’s, Cambridge, MA when I was Rector there.   It was with the greatest of joy and affection that we were able to be together for Chris’s ordination in the (Episcopal) Diocese of Central Ecuador on October 2 nd 2010. An additional joy was that I took with me a gorgeous hand made green stole, a gift from the people of St. James’s. That Diocese is one of seven ( Colombia , Dominican Republic , Central Ecuador , Litoral Ecuador , Honduras , Puerto Rico , Venezuela , which form what is called “Province IX” of the Episcopal Church.) These Dioceses have, for various reasons, chosen not to be autonomous, thus they are an integral part of the Episcopal Church. The Bishop of Central Ecuador is the Rt. Revd. Luis Fernando Ruiz. He was consecrated Bishop in September 2009.   (The previous Bishop of Central Ecuador was deposed in 2006 for failure to provide adequate financial information over the course of a number of years. Subseque...

Here is the second of my "on the spot" e-mails, dated 2nd October 2010. Tomorrow I will write about the Ordination of Chris Morck to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church in Ecuador. =========================== Saturday 2nd Oct 2010  8:35 p.m. Quito time . The ordinations went so well this morning in a service which lasted for 2 3/4 hours.  Chris is now a Priest in the Church of God, and I will be present on Sunday 3rd when he presides at the Eucharist for the first time.  More about all this when I get back home. ----------------------- More excitement.  Eight of us went out tonight -  for a fine celebratory dinner in  the La Mariscal district of Quito.The nickname for this area is "GRINGOLANDIA"    it is a tourist area. After dinner as we were getting into a cab a young man ripped my camera away from the cord by which it was hanging on my wrist. There was no point in resisting.  (Yes it should have b...

A week in Ecuador. My first two  postings (today and tomorrow) will be copies of e-mails as I sent them, so that you will get a sense of immediacy,  (with apologies to those who’ve already seen them).   Then I’ll write a bit about Chris Morck’s ordination and first Eucharist, and about a couple of tours I took.     My first full day in Quito, Ecuador: Thursday 30 th September 2010. The morning started well.  I took a good walk around the park which is across the street, then I mosied down two blocks to investigate a "hullabaloo".  It turned out to be one of the police demonstrations against the President.  I was severely castigated by one policeman because I took a photo'.  I did not argue with him. It seems that the National Police are attempting to oust the President, but so far, the Army is backing him.  I decided to take a cab into Centro Historical (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) but the taxi driver told me th...