As I prayed for those attending Christmas services at their Episcopal churches this year, my soul hearkened back to the Episcopal Church of my youth.
With apologies to Glenn MacDonough and Victor Herbert, and their 1903 operetta "Babes in Toyland", I offer up the following,
When you've grown up my dears,
And are as old as I,
You'll often ponder on the years
That roll so swiftly by, my dears,
That roll so swiftly by.
And of the many Christian lands,
You will have journeyed through,
You'll oft recall
The best of all,
The Christian land your childhood knew!
Your childhood knew.
Chorus:
Episcopal land, Episcopal land
Wonderful all is well land
While you dwelt within it,
You were ignorant and happy then.
Revisionists’ joy-land.
Gay and faerie church land,
Once you pass it’s borders,
You will never return again.
When you've grown up, my dears,
There comes a dreary day.
When 'mid the locks of black appears
The first pale gleam of gray, my dears,
The first pale gleam of gray.
Then of the past you'll dream
As gray-haired grown-ups do,
And seek once more
Its phantom shore,
The church your childhood knew!
Your childhood knew. Chorus
Chorus:
Episcopal land, Episcopal land
Wonderful all is well land
While you dwelt within it,
You were ignorant and happy then.
Revisionists’ joy-land.
Gay and faerie church land,
Once you pass it’s borders,
You will never return again.
