I had two things happen to me at church today that had never happned before.

I got left hanging when giving the sign of peace. At one point in the Mass, parishoners give each other a sign of peace, usually a handshake or a wave and/or nod if you're not in handshake range.

We had a woman sitting right in front of me, and after Sarah and I gave each other the sign, the woman and I exchanged little nods while I extended my hand. There was no hand in return. Suffice it to say I wasn't thinking the most peaceful thoughts after that.

I had a family cut in line for communion. This turned out to be less of an affront than I thought. The family was just trying to get back to their pew, and the side area of the church we were in has a very narrow aisle.

There was a third thing that I'd not seen (or, more accurately, heard) before, and this was a letter from Archbishop Sean O'Malley prepping us for the coming "reconfiguration" of the diocese, which will include the closing of several parishes. While the sex abuse scandal is a definite factor, I think this would have happened at some level anyways. Between the drop in church attendance and the rising costs of running parishes, some consolidation is inevitable. Part of the letter today noted that to get all the church property in Boston alone up to code would cost $140 million.

No announcements yet as to who's going to shut down, but my guess is that you'll see a bunch of closings in Boston, in part due to changing demographics and part due to the value of property in the city. We'll see.