News Flash: High Noon at the OK (HC) Corral

It felt like the tide began to turn last week. I kept feeding Manny Roberto. I kept coming in a little early each day to sit on the bench next to the Have-A-Heart trap. I didn’t come in on the 4th of July but visited with him on Friday. Manny Roberto had an appetite and was more comfortable getting into the very front of the trap because he saw there were delectable morsels of watermelon along with the chicken feed he’s grown partial to. I had been planning to check in on him Saturday but thought perhaps a little edge of hunger would help make him braver about getting into the trap and stayed home. On Sunday I ran to Publix after church then went back to my bench. This time, I put the plate of food quite a bit further in. And he went right in, though he kept backing out every few seconds to check his surroundings, making sure all was well. 

In the meantime, for 3 weeks in a row, I asked our landscape folks to stay away from that area and I knew that on Tuesday, when they’d be back, I couldn’t ask again. I won’t claim it was only my concern for Manny Roberto that has been waking me up in the wee hours of the morning. But he is who my mind turns to when I do wake up at some ungodly hour. There’s gracious plenty else to pray about in those wee hours. In short, it was time.

This morning when I got to church I put a few small chunks of watermelon on the plate I’ve been using for his food and pushed it waaaay back, almost to the trigger of the trap and walked away. At about 12:30, with the sun blazing hot and not even a hint of a breeze, I came back out. This time, I filled the plate with all kinds of deliciousness. Then, I found a thin, light stick that could fit through one of the holes of the trap and carefully pushed into the trap so it was touching the trigger ever so lightly. I also left my hand on the stick. I said hi to my boy who was hiding in the bushes; sure enough, out he came from the bushes and made a beeline for the food. A couple of times he went in, backed out, strutted around for a second and couldn’t stay away from the banquet. Finally, I saw he was all the way into the trap with no tail feathers hanging out. One quick push and that was it. I had him.

I covered the cage with a cloth to minimize the stress of the drive home. I played a long soundtrack of chickens doing what chickens do on an ordinary day. When a rooster crowed on the soundtrack, he crowed back. He clucked a bit. And then we were home and I was putting him in the special chicken run I use for bully girls who need a time out or for girls who are under the weather. He is not happy. Not at all. But he’s stopped to eat and drink and hop on the jungle gym I brought in for him so he could let loose a mighty crow.  He’ll need to be isolated from the hens for a couple of weeks and I will make sure he has no parasites or other diseases. But the girls are mighty curious and have crowded around the part of the henyard closest to where Manny Roberto has landed.

I pray that as hard as these first days will be, they will give way to a good life. If nothing else, “blessed is he amongst all women”—what rooster wouldn’t appreciate having 16 wives to live with????

SUNDAY, 10:00 AM

HOLY EUCHARIST

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History of

The Church of the Holy Comforter:

Stained Glass Mystery

by Lyn Frazer

The glorious stained glass window above Holy Comforter’s altar was installed at the same time as the altar (1887), but has received less attention in the church records than the altar has. Nothing is known about the creator of the window, as it was left unsigned and does not show the earmarks of a well-known stained glass company. This was the era of Tiffany glass, and two nearby Episcopal churches, St. Paul’s in Selma and Holy Cross in Uniontown, are the proud possessors of Tiffany windows. Holy Comforter’s main window, although just as majestic, do not indicate a Tiffany origin. Kathy and Joe Albree have become our detectives, searching over many months to solve the mystery. They have ruled out several possible creators, including a company in New England suggested by an expert during the recent renovation and repair of our window. Although the history of the window remains unknown, Kathy and Joe are determined to find the window’s creator. The window was moved, along with the other historic windows near the altar, in about 1960 from the original building on Goldthwaite Street, to the newly-built sanctuary in our current location.

Andrew, Dorothy, and their latest addition to the family, Patrick, join the Sunday morning children's service in McMaster Hall.