This morning is a condensed symbol, as it were, of what we are about at St. Dunstan’s.
We started, as always, with Morning Prayer — joined by a guest, as we often are at the Daily Office, in this case a monk of Subiaco Abbey pursuing graduate work in education. We chanted the Psalms, read from II Kings and I Timothy, and we sung the Venite, the Te Deum, the Jubilate Deo, and “Awake my soul stretch every nerve” to the Tallis Canon, finishing with the Doxology in rounds.
It’s Folk Music Friday, which means that out come the banjos and guitars after Morning Prayer. The banjoists are working on Cripple Creek in the bunkroom. The guitarists are learning a couple of new Gospel tunes on the porch.
(Meanwhile, a giant tractor-trailer arrived with SIPs panels for the Great Hall, rather interrupting the guitarists’ work.)
By 9:30 AM, the guitars and banjos are away, and out comes the .308 rifles for riflery lessons in anticipation of deer season.
After lunch the Joshuas will move back onto ongoing projects — drywall and cubby-building in the basement; whitewashing tongue-and-groove ceiling boards for the Great Hall; preparations for raising the portico frame over the entrance to the Great Hall.
We’ll finish our day with Evensong, where we expect to be joined by a second guest, and then the Joshuas will head to a faculty home for dinner and a jam session based on what they learned in the morning.
