Last night we attended the 127th Annual Dinner of The Church Club of New York, a venerable lay organization in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. My partner Stanley is finishing up his third year as President. The dinner was held at The Yale Club, and the honored guest and speaker was the Very Reverend Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury Cathedral.

The cocktail hour afforded an opportunity to schmooze with many friends, acquaintances and Episcopal luminaries. Even in church circles, Manhattan real estate is an unavoidable topic, and everyone was bombarding me with questions. We were seated at the head table with Dean Willis, the Rt. Rev. Andrew Dietsche, Bishop of New York, and his wife Margaret, and the soon-to-be consecrated Suffragan Bishop of New York, the Rev. Allen Shinn. We also had our neighbor from the Country, Mary Kate Wold, who runs the Church Pension Fund, and Jean Savage, one of the Chairs of the dinner committee. I always enjoy the food at The Yale Club. Dinner choices were mustard-rubbed rack of lamb or branzino. I had the lamb, which was excellent, and the branzino looked very appealing. The appetizer was a “BLT salad,” basically a BLT without the bread, which was a clever and very tasty idea that worked. Desserts were an assortment of tartlets, which was also a smart idea, as you could have as much or as little as you wanted. After the talk and formalities concluded, post prandial glasses of port were passed around, and people gathered in little groups to share parting thoughts and glances. A jolly time was had by all.