Friday, September 29, 2006

Well hello my adoring readers. I realized it has been a few days since I have written, and I could tell that you all were all trying to keep a stiff upper lip about the whole thing, so I'm writing this afternoon. It seems as though fall has officially fallen upon New England, which is good and bad. Good because it's beautiful and not humid as hell all of the time. Bad because it means that allergies will start rearing their ugly head once more. Oh well, you take the good and the bad.

Not much really going on up here. Went to a Sox game on Wednesday and saw the worst pro baseball I've ever seen. We lost to Tampa Bay 11-0. Come on folks. TAMPA BAY. They're not even a real team!! But no matter; it was fun and the energy at Fenway is great. Going again tonight, actually. And then on the way back from the game Wed. I happened to see Mike at Great Scott, so I went in to hang out with him. The highlight of my week, actually.

This weekend is the ministry fair at Trinity, so I'll be sitting at a table with my JC t shirt on and getting folks hyp[ed about AND... too bad I can't make the night time service, because they're having beer afterwards. Sheesh. Umm...what else? Starting on applications, which will be all kinds of fun. I'm applying to Duke, Yale, and Emory. Luckily the basic info is all the same. The only downside is that Emory's is not an online application, so I have to either find a computer with Adobe Acrobat on it or handwrite the application (which I would prefer not to do).

I just found out last night how to hold a video conference on a macbook. So I'm going to call my mom and pass on the info. Now we can talk face to face and (even better) i can see Blaine! Won't be as good as seeing him in person (because nothing would be equal to that) but I'll take what I can get.

Anywho, I'm going to make an attempt at reading this book on the history of Missions in ECUSA. Have a good weekend.

Peace Y'all

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Musings

Ember Day was Wesdnesday, which meant that I had to write a letter to my Bishop. It was weird, though, because a. he told me he had to get it in hard copy form (which to him means I have to mail it...what???? i don't DO mail. I could just email it as an attachment and he could print it out, which would save me .39 and the trip to the post office. ) and b. that I had to figure out what the hell to say in this letter. Seriously, school just started Monday, so there wasn't much to say. So we'll see if I get a letter back telling me that I have to write another one because this last one sucked. Ha.

Classes look like they're going to be awesome. I'm taking classical Greek, Children's Lit. and Religious Education (which is going to be super super AWESOME), Jesus of Nazareth and the Gospels, and the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion. All very reading/study intensive courses, but they're going to be great.

Anywho, I have tons of homework to do and am not quite sure how I will get it done by Monday. So I'm going to start on it.

Peace y'all.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Stupid Bike Rules

This morning I rode my bike to the T. Now, I should begin this by saying that there are signs as you enter Harvard Yard saying "Please Walk Your Bike." A Stupid Rule, if you ask me. If it's exceptionally crowded, I will walk my bike. However, at 8:30 this morning there were 2--count them, one, two--people in the yard. Two. That's it. So I decided to ride on through. And then the security guard right as I am leaving the Yard says to me "you're supposed to walk your bike through the yard ma'am." Not in a nice way, mind you, but in a "you're obviously too dumb to read the sign" way. Now, who was I endangering by riding my bike? Seriously. Who? The TWO PEOPLE in the yard? I highly doubt it, especially considering that I never came within 100 feet of either of them. I know the guy was just doing his job, but couldn't he be walking around busting undergrads for partying too loud or something? Seriously folks. Part of the reason for this over-reaction is the fact that I am so painfully nonconfrontational that I take it really personally when someone tries to yell at me for riding my bike in the yard. Most of the time people don't say anything...they only point it out if they're a. old men (this is the first and foremost prerequisite for being a meddlesome jerk who likes to yell at people who aren't causing them any problems as they ride their bikes in the yard) b. incredibly bored or curmudgeonly c. it's early in the morning or late at night. Once these three conditions are met, you're likely to get called out for riding your bike through the yard.

Stupid Harvard signs.

Sheesh.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Mission and Respect

If you talk to a lot of liberal Christians about mission, you'll notice that they either a. try to change the subject, b. stumble over some words about building hospitals, or c. get really uncomfortable and turn an interesting shade of purplish-red. I must confess that I have gone through such a similar stage myself. The basic problem that many progressives I think have with mission is how do we a. profess the Gospel in very concrete ways that do actually mention Jesus while at the same time b. respecting other's religious traditions and not condemning them to some kind of eternal judgement. I've wrestled with this much, trying to figure out how to strike a balance between the two. Most Episcopalians I know will say, when asked about evangelism and mission, "well, I just try to live a good life and if someone asks me about it, then I'll tell them." Now, there's not necessarily anything wrong with this method. We should all be trying to live our lives as best as we can, and if we're making a decent showing of it people are bound to notice and ask questions. This method, however, doesn't do tons to spread the Gospel. At least it hasn't ever in my experience. But where's Jesus in this whole conversation?

Well, I read something the other day that made sense of the whole situation for me. It's from the book Anglicanism: A Global Communion edited by Andrew Wingate, Kevin Ward, Carrie Pemberton, and Wilson Sitshebo; Church Publishing Incorporated, New York NY, 1998. This particular quote is from Wingate's essay "Salvation and other faiths--and Anglican perspective." He writes:

"We deny the fullness of [God's] love if we deny the truth and goodness which Christ, as Logos, and God by the Spirit, can also inspire in those of other faiths and none. But we believe that God has chosen to provide the fullest revelation of his love for humanity in the cross and resurrection. Hence we naturally pray that God will bring all people, including those of other faiths, to explicit faith in Christ and membership of his church. This is not because we believe they cannot be saved without this--but because this is the truest and fullest expression of his love, and we long for them to share it--as St. John puts in, 'I come that you may have life, and have it abundantly'" (12). (emphasis my own)

Now this is what I think most of us are missing when we think about mission. That quote just made sense out of the whole issue for me...why we pray for people to come to love Jesus Christ, why we pray for the mission of the church, why we spread the Gospel. Not because people can't be saved in other religious traditions. No, not at all. To say so would I think a. deny God's power and b. deny God's grace. But we share the Gospel so that others can be a part of God's "truest and fullest expression of [God's] love."

Righteous.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Attempting to Be More Insightful

So I was reading through my previous few blogs, and I've realized that compared to the majority of blogs I read, mine is incredibly un-insightful. Unless of course you find that insightful in and of itself. So I'm thinking maybe I'll try to be more insightful (yeah...right...). Or maybe this will be along the lines of Peter Griffin's "You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?" Ha. We'll see.

I had a really great meeting with Mike yesterday. We started off by talking about the state of the Episcopal Church in today's world, which is pretty much how we start every conversation. We had an interesting talk about the Prayer Book and Rite One. He likes Rite One, and I'm not a big fan. I think my issues with it come from being a cradle Episcopalian, because he says most young converts he knows really like it. I just remember growing up and being interminably bored during Rite One. And I've really tried to get over that; I swear I have. But there's something inside of me that just clenches when I have to say "vouchsafe" in a service. I agree with Mike, though, that the movement of the Rite One service is beautiful. It's musical in a way, much more so than Rite Two I would think. And as he said, the prayer of humble access is something that we should perhaps incorporate more into our daily lives. And I totally agree on all of that. I think my hang up with Rite One has to do with the language. We're supposed to have services in the language of our times, and paternalistic toudated language is not my language, nor has it ever been. So why can't we rework Rite One, keeping the qualities of the service while changing the language? I think a lot more young people (especially cradles like myself, who admittedly are not very great in number) would respond to the service better if the language were more familiar. Just a thought.

I went to church with my roomate last night. We went to Hope Church in JP. I had told her beforehand that UCC/DOC is no where near liturgical enough for me, but I agreed to go with her anyway. And my opinion still stands (there was no reading from the Gospel at all during the service, and they had communion as well...maybe I'm just uber Episcopalian but you gotta have the Gospels...), but the community and the energy at the church was really really great. I was very thankful to have had that experience with her. Really great group of people, and the preaching was pretty good too. I'm glad Sarah has found a church community that she can feel a part of...I wish everyone could.

OK well, I have to run and meet Sarah and some others for lunch. I'll write more in the next couple of days about mission (I came to a realization yesterday that made sense out of many conundrums I'd been stuck in with regards to mission). But in the meantime, y'all keeo your noses clean.

Monday, September 11, 2006

I'm Just Hangin' Around

Hello all. Not really much to report, in the long run. I've just been taking some time for some much needed rest (although I'm more than ready for school to start now). It's beautiful up here, and cool. Feels like fall!!! Which I guess would make sense because it is fall. AND...last week was GREAT. We had 19 people show up, which was amazing! And then I met another Div student this week who is hopefully going to come on Thursday this week, so that's great. It was a really great group of people, and I think there's definitely some positive energy there. What else? I'm in the process of introducing my roomate Sarah to the joys of Indiana Jones. Last night we watched Raiders and tonight we're on to Temple of Doom. And then on to the best of them all...Last Crusade. Sweet.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Back in Beantown

Hello hello hello. As the title of this posting shows, I am indeed back in Boston now. I got in yesterday after a veeeeeerry long drive from West Virginia. I think Pennsylvania wins the award for most boring state through which to drive. Ugh. Anyway, I moved in yesterday and got all unpacked and everything, so my room is actually livable! For those of you who saw my room last year, you will be pleased to note that I do in fact have floor space this year, as my room is bigger. There are three windows, so I have really really great light in here, which is awesome. That's the whole reason I wanted the room, really.

Now that I'm back, I can start to digest the summer a little bit, I think. Overall, I want to give a big shout out to Charles Hawkins and the St. Mark's crew. I had such a great experience there this summer...that church welcomed me into their family without even knowing me too well, and they even put up with me preaching a coupl eof times and filling the church with the music of U2. I wasn't really sure what to expect when the internship started. I've been so involved in the Episcopal Church form the git go...but I did learn something about ministry. And that something is this: ministry is about empowerment. It's about empowering people to do the work God has given them to do. And the best thing about this definition of ministry is that it can be done ANYWHERE, which means that the church is EVERYWHERE. So that's pretty sweet.

I miss the fam tons already, most especially getting to see Blaine and look at his beautiful smile. I can still feel the little guy falling asleep in my arms...he'll probably be too big to do that in December. Oh well, kids grow up. And in a few years, he and I are going camping. And it's going to rock.

I met with Mike Dangelo today to talk about AND... I'm focusing on recruitment, which is going to be interesting. Neither of us really have any preconceived notions about our strategy (read: we have no idea what the hell we're going to do) but we'll do it anyway : ) At least now we have matching t-shirts. He asked me if I wanted to present the next container (programing sequence) and I said sure. I figure I'll ask the group what they want to hear about, but I think it would be cool to do a container on the other four of the world's major religions. Just so people know something about them...not to mention that's something I know about and can speak comfortably about. But then again it would be fun to learn something new as well. Or maybe do a container on Jesus? No clue. We'll see what the group wants.

What else? Ran a bunch of errands today. Joined the Cambridge YMCA, did laundry, found my keys (they were in Sarah's room...go figure), met with Mike. Oh and I got a really random phone call from an old priest who'd been at my church from when I was about 2 til I was 10. Said he had some books he wanted to give me. This was weird A. because he called my cell phone. No clue how he got the number. And B. because I haven't talked to him in 10 years. I don't think I'm going to call him back...it's too weird. Not to mention that I barely have room for the books I have.

That's all I can think of for now. The humidity is making my hair get huge and mushroom-like. Fun times.

Have a good night.

Peace ya'll.