St. Andrew's Day - Living Liturgically

Apparently the Episcopal Church in the United States has a special relationship with Scotland.  After the Revolutionary War was over the "Church of England" in the United States couldn't really carry on being the "Church of England."  I'm not trying to provide a valid history lesson or anything.  If you'd like more information I'm sure you could 'google it.'  But long story short - these Anglicans in the U.S. needed a Bishop and the recent war with England meant that an English Bishop probably wouldn't be consecrating an American Bishop any time soon.

The Anglicans (Episcopalians) in the United States elected Samuel Seabury to be their first Bishop.  Since he couldn't be consecrated in England he was consecrated by Scottish Bishops.  This started a special relationship or affinity for Scotland I am told.  Even the coat of arms and flag of the Episcopal Church reflects this.  The St. George Cross (St. George is the patron saint of England) makes up the main part of the shield but the St. Andrew Cross (St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland) is put in the upper left hand corner.

Anyway... on to the baking.  Since yesterday was St. Andrew's day I decided that a good Episcopalian might decide to make St. Andrew Day scones to mark the occasion.  Am I a good Episcopalian?  The jury is out on that but I can assure you that the scones were really tasty.

First I preheated the oven at 400 degrees.

 

Then I did some mixing. I cut 1/3 cup of butter with 1 3/4 cup flour, 3 tbsp. sugar, 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder, and 1/4 tsp. salt.  I then beat an egg and mixed that in too.

 

Once it was done mixing I gathered it up into a ball and kneaded it about 15 times.  Then I rolled it out and made and cut circles into the rolled out dough.  (I used a water glass.)

You can see that the recipe made about 9 scones.  I sliced X's on all of the scones.  The St. Andrew cross is an X because the old legend is that he was crucified on an X shaped cross.  I always heard growing up that this was because he didn't feel worthy to be crucified on a T shaped cross like Jesus.  Fact or fiction?  Who knows but the scones turned out great.

The scones tasted good but it was really my dad's homemade red raspberry jam that sealed the deal.  Delicious.  I don't necessarily feel more Episcopalian but it kept me thinking about my Christian experience and it was fun to share some scones with friends at work today.