Tay's Sermon for Baptism of the Lord 2008
Incidentally, the original story about the guys trying to pass their dead friend off as alive to cash his social security check can be found here.
After the service at COTM I went to Belmont House to do a ecumenical Christian service--this is different from the mid-week Anglican Communion service that is struggling so much. The Sunday service gets a decent crowd no matter who's leading it. I gave pretty much the same sermon as I had at COTM, and people really liked it, especially that one's that could hear me. One of the Nurse's Aides nearly lost it completely when I said that the two guys who wheeled their friend's corpse to the local check cashing place probably weren't married because spouses keep us from doing stupid things like that.
After Belmont House I went down to Redeemer for the priesting of two friends of mine, Greg Carpenter and Andrew Federle. The service was lovely, and it's always moving to watch someone go through it. I also enjoyed seeing a number of friends, including Stephanie Martin and Bruce Kirkpatrick Hill and some old friends of Betsy's that she first met in Brooklyn, NY, many years ago. Everyone was is good spirits.
Speaking of Ordinations, I have to say that I think it's a shame that this Diocese no longer allows ordinands to prostrate themselves. The last time it was done was an ordination at the Cathedral a few years ago. Some low-church folks were so upset as to petition the bishops, who agreed to disallow the practice (or so I've heard). Prostration has an ancient history as a posture of prayer--right up there with the Orans Position and the more common palms-together fingers pointed upward posture. It was an important part of my prayer practice long before I was ordained. It's an incredible experience to lie on your face in front of an altar and surrender yourself completely to "a naked intention unto God" (as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it). I remember particularly when I was living in Los Angeles and was having a very difficult time I lavished attention on my prayer life. I had the keys to an Episcopal Church in Inglewood, Holy Faith, and would say the Offices with the OHC Breviary in the side chapel. There was a copy of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the wall opposite the choir stall, and sometimes I would bring fresh roses to put there as an act of devotion.
When things got really, really bad, I spent hours doing various prayers and litanies and meditations. Sometimes I would just lie prostrate in the chancel yearning for the peace of the Holy Spirit. I suppose my prayers were answered because things did get better for me in LA, and by the time I left the city I was ready for seminary.
When one Ordinand asked me about prostration many months ago, I suggested that she could spend some of the vigil night before her ordination in prostration (I did). Ah yes, that was a night! I recited all 150 Psalms under St. John's approving stained-glass gaze. I prayed and I prayed and I worried. I fretted about whether I would be a good priest and whether I had enough faith and a million other things. How far that night seems to me now.
So when twenty-odd priests put their hands on dear Greg and Andrew, I hope they felt something of the connection they have with all of us who have felt God's calling. The whole church has struggled and prayed and fretted to incarnate God's love for thousands of years. If that doesn't make you want to prostrate yourself, I don't know what would!
-t
3 comments:
I didn't get to see Stephanie!
I'm still stuck on this story, though. When you explained it to me, you said that the Protestant contingent had stated that if prostration was allowed, then so must be the wearing of tippets. I still think it would have been much more congenial to permit both than to ban both (and thus enforce the middle of the road).
I had a blast at the ordination. It was wonderful to be there as Fr McSpiky and Fr McDreamy received the laying on of hands. I sat next to a woman from my own parish, who commented on how informal it all seemed (standing Communion!) This made me laugh, as poor Redeemer were obviously bending over backward to drag themselves up the candle.
I think it might have been preaching tabs, not tippets, that were at stake, but because I'm not positive which one, I didn't want to say in my blog. But, yes, I agree with you that they should have allowed both. I tend to be a big-tent kind of Anglican!
-t
Tabs are awesome! That would be even less of an issue for me! We had the pastor of the local Latvian Lutheran congregation as our homilist last year on the Sunday in the Octave of Christian Unity, and he wore bands and pectoral cross!
Of course, I would never be caught dead in a tippet, as for me "choir dress" means cassock, fascia, cotta, and biretta. ;)
ps Someday I want to be a canon so I can dress like the Rector of St Stephen's Downsview.
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