I keep writing about our new church while the main post of introduction is still rambling about in my head. But so it goes sometimes.
Today we celebrated Feast of Saint Francis with the Blessing of the Animals. Although we've been in several churches that observe this practice, this is the first in which the blessing was done during the service, and thus the first we've experienced. (It's technically not true that we have no pets, but I declined to bring our uncountable number of worms—well over 2000, I believe, and they don't stay still enough to count; plus, they keep hatching.)
For the occasion, we combined our two services into one, and held it outdoors in the warm (but not too hot) Florida sunshine. The rest of the service was a normal, Episcopal, mostly Rite II worship service. The Blessing of the Animals occurred after the Passing of the Peace and before the Eucharist. (And in case you were wondering, after touching all those animals, the priests did wash their hands before serving Communion.)
By far the majority of the beasts were dogs, but I also saw cats and rats (but no elephants) and birds, including an owl (barn owl, I think, but I didn't ask), which came with someone who works at a birds of prey rescue center. And, there was ... a snake. A sweet little corn snake, and not only did both priests handle it, one let it climb around over his neck. So yes, we are now attending a church of snake handlers. 
Through the magic of YouTube I can also include a record, for myself if no one else, of the two anthems we sang. Not of us singing them, however.
First, Praise His Holy Name by Keith Hampton.
[Update 10/11/2019. I'm pretty sure there was orginally more post between this and the final paragraph, but it seems to have disappeared.]
And those who know me well will get an inkling of why I love this church when I say that I happened to be standing right in front of the speaker (this being an outdoor service, we relied on an electronic keyboard for accompaniment), and while I would rather have not been so close, it was bearable, even without earplugs, unlike many of my previous experiences.
I almost can't believe that last sentence. Could anyone else hear anything? I'm so happy that you're singing music you love at a volume you can take!
I'm not sure what the congregation heard, but the speaker was facing them, so I'm pretty sure it was good. We were only up by the speaker for our two anthems. Dad was in back of the speaker and to the side, and heard it fine. The rest of the time we were obliquely away from the speaker and also did all right. I think some of the harder-of-hearing folks would have had trouble.
The other trick was that I was standing right in front of the speaker for only a short time, and during that time the main purpose of the amplified sound was so that the choir could hear it. Tim wanted the choir to be heard over the keyboard, so it wasn't blasting. As I said, it wasn't perfect for me, as I had a hard time hearing the rest of the choir. But for an outdoor event, I think it went just great.
