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Lynn
Annen -
I was born and grew up in San Francisco, where I spent
my young days wandering around the city with my friends
by bus, streetcar, and on foot. Almost every Saturday
we headed out for Chinatown, the beach, Golden Gate
Park, the Japanese Tea Garden, the San Francisco Zoo
or one of the museums. Although I have lived in the
Northeast for many years now, I still have the flavor
of the city (San Francisco) in my soul.
Zipping
right by years of random living in California, my
husband, Kurt, and I arrived in Massachusetts in the
fall of 1981. He had obtained a job as senior engineer
at Aerodyne Research Co. in Billerica, where he finds
“elegant” solutions for engineering problems
and I was starting divinity school at Andover Newton.
I graduated in 1984 and was hired as a Pastoral Associate
at St. Mary’s Church in Rowley. I spent the
next thirteen years enjoying my work at St. Mary’s
but feeling very dissatisfied with the culture of
the Roman Catholic Church, particularly in the North
East.
Since
I am a devoted Anglophile, I have always been attracted
to the Episcopal Church because of it’s British
Anglican roots. At Andover Newton I attended the weekly
Episcopal service (and the sherry party after the
service.) One Sunday I attended a service at Ascension
Memorial Church in Ipswich, and I was hooked! I was
received into the Episcopal Church on May 19, 1996,
thanks be to God. .
After
that, I quit my job at St. Mary’s and for some
reason decided that it would be fun to sell houses
for a living. I obtained a real estate license and
was on the very edge of accepting a job at one of
the local real estate agencies when God intervened
by means of a newspaper add for a parish secretary
at (gasp!) an Episcopal Church!
Although
I had almost no secretarial experience (make that
none), I decided to apply for the job. I sometimes
typed and ran off the bulletin at St. Mary’s
when the real secretary was on vacation, and even
though half of the bulletin was frequently upside
down, I felt I could learn the job quickly. As it
turned out, I had to learn the job very quickly, as
I was hired three weeks before Easter! But I was thrilled!
Imagine me, a very enthusiastic brand new Episcopalian
getting an actual job at an actual Episcopal Church!
Sometimes I still can’t believe my luck!
My
job at Trinity has expanded somewhat since I arrived
almost 10 years ago. I prepare the weekly bulletins
and edit the monthly newsletters and send out a weekly
email update to the parish community. I also work
with the treasurers on the Quicken data base and maintain
and update a parish data base. (If your address, phone
number, or email address has changed recently, please
let me know). I try to make sure the church calendar
is up to date and I also help people who want to reserve
the hall or other rooms for special events.
I
live in the small town of Rowley with my husband,
Kurt and my mother, Marie. We live by a brook so our
yard is filled with birds of all kinds. We have gold
finches, nuthatches, Baltimore orioles, cardinals,
grosbeaks, titmice, chickadees, robins, and a whole
flock of wild turkeys. During the summer we have mosquitoes,
which abound in the town of Rowley, but we also have
lovely mosquito-eating swallows. Sometimes on a summer
evening the swallows and their friends the dragon
flies pursue the mosquitoes together in the air. It
looks exactly like a dance.
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