Last Tuesday Margaret and I met with Rev. Paul Abernathy at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. We have three pieces of good news.

• Upon entering church property my person was not engulfed in flames (it happened before, on two nonconsecutive occasions).
• We liked his approach and asked him to officiate at our wedding ceremony.
• Paul (he asked to be called by his first name) seemed to agree with our decision to get married (in his defense we did only meet for 90 minutes).

Now we are reading the “Celebration and Blessing of a Marriage” in The Book of Common Prayer and determining what passages appeal the most to us.

We have four meetings with Paul between now and Sept. 22. In contrast with many people who roll their eyes when talking about their premarital meetings with the minister (I’m looking at you Catholics), Margaret and I find ourselves looking forward to it. (Hey, it allows me to say niceties about Margaret without coming off as pathetic.)

If you want to learn more information about Paul, read his biography at St. Mark’s website.