Dear Readers,

It has been an intense, exhausting day for the people of St. Andrew's in the Valley, Syracuse NY. Listening and watching the proceedings (The Diocese of CNY vs. St Andrew's in the Valley, their wardens and vestry), watching Matt Kennedy+ and his fingers flying over the keyboard, seeing the faces of my fellow parishioners as they intently watched, listened and prayed during the proceeding will stay with me forever. Families with babies and young children, teenagers, the elderly. One count estimated that 120 people were in that courtroom-approximately twice the average attendance of parishes in this diocese. (The exception is St. Andrew's whose ASA is 175 over the summer)

St. Andrew's has always been known as a praying church-a worshiping church and I believe this is what truly carried the day and prevented the church from being shut down. We have many brothers and sisters in other churches in the city, indeed all over the country who were with us in prayer. I didn't realize till later that one church had sent a prayer team who prayed out in the hall the whole time we were in the courtroom.

I cannot possibly do any better than linking to other blogs concerning what happened today-so check them out.

And I praise God for all the faithful prayer warriors! This is just the opening volley and there is more to come, so please continue to hold us up before the Lord.

Pat Dague