In the Red
Sunday, June 8, 2025 at 1:56PM
Several years ago, my wife was hired to play for a wedding to be held at the Marriott in downtown Des Moines. One of the grooms was her colleague in the Des Moines Choral Society and had asked her to play. As her significant other, I was also invited.
So we were ascending the escalator on wedding day. My wife was heading into Salon A to prepare for the wedding. At the top of the escalator, I noticed outside Salon B the seal for the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa. As any other curious and self-respecting Episcopalian who didn’t live there would have done, of course I had to poke my head in and ask, “Hey, what’s going on in here?” to which a very nice lady replied, “Oh, we’re electing a bishop! Would you like to see the ballot?”
Well, that ballot had three candidates on it, all women –– a deliberate effort on the part of the delegates. This election was going to seat Iowa’s first female bishop. Now, all this is significant and rates a blog post because of the inclusion and tolerance represented by the gay wedding in Salon A and the all-female bishop ballot next door in Salon B, all in a state not generally recognized for its tolerance. For one brief moment, all was well in the world. I thought, “I’ll take it.” But it got even better:
At the same moment that the two grooms started down the aisle to get married, the Episcopalians next door had completed their balloting and now had a bishop-elect (the soon-to-be Right Reverend Betsey Monnot). Therefore, there was much cheering and rejoicing from Salon B, which we could hear from the wedding in Salon A. I had no problem appropriating in my own mind the neighbors’ applause for the wedding’s purposes, and I am confident they wouldn’t have minded. Matter of fact, they would have come next door themselves and continued the celebration.
Perhaps you needed to be there. But for me, it was a moment worth preserving and sharing, and I have delighted in sharing this story with all who will listen, including the two grooms, the bishop, the bishop’s priestly husband, and the dean of the cathedral. And now you. Who’s next?