After celebrating Ozzie Whittaker (1st bishop of the missionary district of Nevada & Arizona) Day, I hung around Virginia City which was thronged with tourists for Labor Day Weekend. Half the town was in Old West costume. I met up with Ken who plays the good guy Marshall in the gunfight show and we hatched a plot against one if the other actors. It went like this:
A volunteer is always called from the audience. Marshall Ken helps her shoot the bad guy Kyle. But another actor, Lefty, falls and Ken tells her she has missed the bad guy and shot innocent Lefty instead. Unbeknownst to anyone but Lefty and Ken we arranged that Lefty would not fall.
I was sitting in the front row. When the shot was fired I clutched my chest and fell splayed into the hay. Ken exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! You not only missed the bad guy! You shot Bishop Dan! He's the bishop of the Episcopal Churchall all over Nevada! You are in deep do-do!" I couldn't see the reactions because I was technically dead lying prostrate and slack-jawed across a hay bale. Reports are the volunteer from the audience handled it well enough but bad guy Kyle was pretty surprised.
It was a great day at St Paul the Prospector. We commissioned one of the flock, Christy Anne Strange, to serve as lay chaplain to the Sheriff's Department. After the service, we dedicated the Western Missionary Museum. They have quite the collection of artifacts and records there. The museum now has a docent and a gift shop. "The scribe trained for the kingdom of heaven brings out of his treasure that which is old and that which is new." A new museumm does both at once. Quite a way to mark their 150th anniversary!
For those who may not be Nevada church history buffs: it was important for me to get shot on Ozzie Whittaker Day. When Ozzie was elected Bishop of Pennsylvania, somebody took a shot at him during his installation service in Philadelphia. He survived and had a good long episcopacy back east to balance out his long years in the saddle between Virginia City and Tombstone. "Whistle back a memory. Whistle back where I wanna be ... To Tombstone Territory."
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1 comment:
Now see, that's unusual. We rarely get rid of our bishops in Nevada by shooting them. Our preferred method is simply to wear them out with constant travel between Las Vegas, Reno, and Elko until they just drop in their traces somewhere on the road outside Tonopah... well, either that or get them elected Presiding Bishop.
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