Last Sunday's clown Eucharist at the Episcopal Church's powerhouse congregation of Trinity Wall Street has miraculously eluded any coverage in The New York Times, though it picked up a squib in the Daily News. That paper's headline made the inevitable reference to Judy Collins' hit song: "Rev. sends in clowns to teach a lesson" (to which I feel compelled to add, "Don't bother [maudlin pause] they're here." Trinity Wall Street's rector, the Rev. Dr. James Herbert Cooper, came prepared with theological reflections on living the clown life. "Clowns represent the underdog, the lowly, the remnant people. Their foolishness is a call to unpretentiousness," Cooper said in the Daily News article. "As St. Paul said, 'The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of the world.'"

The niche-market Downtown Express nabbed this remark by Cooper from Trinity Wall Street's website: "In the clown, God has shot from his cannon for us a vivid symbol of divine foolishness."

Hey, speak for yourself, brother.

If you've been eager to relive the days of Godspell, there's a streaming video (requires Windows Media Player) of the clown Eucharist -- every ostentatiously unpretentious minute of it -- on Trinity's website. (If you prefer the mime-only sermon, clown-walk here instead.)