At St. Mark’s in the Bowery
Today I happened to be walking past St. Mark’s in the Bowery, the famous old Episcopal church in the East Village, and saw the doors were open. Although I used to live a few blocks from there in my student days, I had never been inside, so I went in and found that I had crashed a wedding ceremony. A white groom in his 40’s was exchanging vows with a black groom of similar age, both dressed in morning coats, in the presence of a large and well-dressed company of family members and guests. The priest was a brown-skinned woman. These two dogs were the ring bearers and brought down the house with their entry at the appropriate time. How much has changed in society since I was a college student and how inconceivable every aspect of this wedding would have been then.
DeborahShapiroPhotos 