Ordination

Whew. It was a big weekend for me, to put it mildly. For those who don't know, I was ordained to the priesthood on Saturday (officially in Christ's one holy catholic and apostolic Church, but specifically I'm Episcopalian). It was a big moment-I won't say that I felt ontologically transformed or anything-which is fodder for a whole discussion about women's ordination-but it really was a great service. Because travel is so expensive (for me, specifically), we had the ordination at my parish up here in MA. My bishop and family traveled from Kentucky for the service. The bishop even cried at one point-I wasn't sure he was going to make it through what he had to say when he was presenting the Bible. A few priests from the area came to support me, and my good friend came to preach. Several of my close friends from Yale came up, which really meant a lot to me. I think joy is probably the best way to describe that service. Everything was great-the musicians were wonderful, the preaching was top notch, and it was really nice to be surrounded by my parish at that moment. They did a great job with the resounding "IT IS" and "WE WILL" when asked if I should be ordained and would they support me. And it was wonderful having the rector's presence by my side-I think that was a calming influence, as I was (strangely perhaps) nervous before the service, but once it got going I was OK.

Sunday I celebrated the Eucharist for the first time. Honestly, I was more nervous about that than about the ordination. I had visions of that scene in the movie Luther where Luther spills wine at his first celebration. If I had it wouldn't have been the end of the world, but I wanted to do a good job. AND I was chanting the service, as is the custom at the church, and had practiced to make sure I knew the part well enough. I thought it went alright, and many people came up and told me that they thought the chanting was great and it looked as though I had been celebrating for years. I should note here, though, that I was never one of those kids who "play Mass" at home. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it honestly never occurred to me to do so. If someone had asked me to play that with them, I probably would have looked at them like they were crazy and gone outside to ride my bike. But I did spend many a Sunday acolyting, so the service itself is ingrained within me. Wednesday I've got a Rite One healing service, which will be interesting as well. Luckily I'm not completely unfamiliar with Rite One, so it should be OK. I need to memorize the healing prayer.

Other than that, it was great hanging out with my family. Unfortunately my brother wasn't able to make it up due to a quartet competition, but my mom, dad, sister, and nephew were able to make it. I swear my nephew gets more and more fun every time I see him. And it was a blast to see how he and R interacted! Sunday afternoon my sister and I played Mario Party on the Wii and my nephew wanted nothing more than to play with R. It was great! I'm looking forward to going home in February/March to spend more time with them.

They're still driving as I write-it's about 1000 miles so it's a long haul. We had a snow stormette last night, too, which made their morning travel a little messy. R and I had to shovel tons of heavy snow too, which was lame. After we were done I came in and looked at cruises. I've never been on one and would love to go; maybe for now I'll just cut up the pineapple someone at church gave me (as a gag gift when I told her I wanted pineapples for the flowers at the ordination) and make a pina colada or something. Or just eat it plain. I don't have the ingredients for a pina colada, although I guess they're not that hard to find. Whatever. Pineapple makes me think of warm places and summer. And I am so ready for summer.