Ah yes, ye olde friendly wager. The Diocese of New Westminster reports:
Will it be the Very Rev. Peter Elliott in Bruins black and gold at Vancouver’s Christ Church Cathedral on a Sunday soon? Or the Very Rev. John P. Streit Jr. of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston wearing Canucks blue and green?
With the Boston Bruins and the Vancouver Canucks headed into game two of the finals on Saturday and the Stanley Cup on the line, the deans of the Episcopal and Anglican cathedral churches in both cities have joined the fray with a friendly wager: The loser will contribute $250 to a good cause of the winner’s choosing and will wear the winning team’s jersey in church on the first Sunday after the finals’ end.
Word on the street is that Jep’s payment will go toward the Christ Church Cathedral Building Fund and the imminent Roof Replacement Project.
It turns out that hockey rivalry isn’t these deans’ only bond—the two attended seminary together at Episcopal Divinity School in the late 1970s and then renewed their acquaintance more recently at conferences for cathedral deans.
“We’re friends, and so when the finals came up, we proposed this as a way to make it more interesting and to involve our cathedrals in something kind of fun,” Streit said.
Uh, hey, guys – looked at the calendar? Between Bruins colors and Canucks colors, neither jersey goes well with Pentecost red.
For the moment, it looks like Dean Streit will be the one ponying up for the jersey. His Bruins are down 0-2 in the series and need to win four out of the remaining five games in the series to bring home Lord Stanley’s famed Cup.
Barring the statistically miraculous return of “the B’s,” it sounds like Dean Streit’s donation will go here:
The Cathedral building is important. Without a safe and accessible building, and a roof to shelter the Cathedral’s occupants, this community and this space could not continue to provide the city with all that it offers. The Heritage Building Fund acts much like a contingency fund would in a strata apartment building, funding the maintenance and upkeep of the Cathedral’s heritage building. Grants from this Fund will help pay for the urgent roof replacement and seismic upgrade.