Thoughts from a Tuesday

A busy day that started with some e-mails and phone calls and then the Trad Com (BCP Communion) service at Messiah. I regretted not transferring the Feast of Holy Cross to a Sunday, but at least I was able to transfer it to today! Not surprisingly, I had plenty to preach about on the Patronal Feast of OHC! A pleasant lunch with some of my parishioners followed.

In the early afternoon I drove down to Diocesan HQ for a meeting related to the Back to Church Sunday initiative. Bishop Poole was leading the meeting, but Bishop Johnson did stop by briefly to share some thoughts about the project. I couldn't help noticing that he was wearing a really flattering suit. And I admit thinking, "I wonder how many suits he had to buy when he became bishop?" Lol. He also shared that a new grand child was to be born immanently. Good for him.

After the meeting it was back to Messiah for a staff meeting. It went longer than usual, which I should have anticipated given that Eric is new on staff and it's the beginning of the church's programme year. We prayed briefly, then we debriefed last Sunday and planned for the next. Much of our time ended up focusing on the Confirmation Service/Bishop's Visitation/Back-to-Church Sunday marathon that will be September 27th! Now we've added a bouncy castle. Because everybody loves the bouncy castle! We also beginning to talk about the Christmas Pageant (yeah, really!).

In November Eric is going to the "Music that Makes Community Conference" in Atlanta. I've talked about paperless singing on this blog from time-to-time, and these conferences put on by the All Saints Company (the people that gave the world St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Francisco) are the place to go to learn about that. I'm thrilled that Eric is going. In fact, he wanted to go long before he was called to COTM. It's a three day conference/workshop teaching the techniques of so-called "paperless singing." It's a method of congregational worship that recovers much older methods of making music in community. It uses techniques like call-and-response, lining, rounds, etc. to get a congregation singing together. Inevitably it feels much more organic, free, and intimate than head-in-hymnal, everybody-follow-the-organ, style singing.

Needless to say, I'd love to go to this conference. The only problem is that the same week I'm going to this year's Preaching College at St. Clement's. This is an invitation-only intensive four-day workshop for preachers. I'm wondering whether I can miss the last half-day and take the red-eye to Atlanta? The other option is to attend the same conference a few months later in January in San Francisco. I love San Francisco--but at that point I'll have a new baby at home and (probably) no desire to travel! Besides, there is a nice synergy that will happen if Eric and I are BOTH at the same conference. I had such a blast the last time I went to an All Saints Company conference, I'd love to share that with one (or more) of my worship staff.

One of the things I love about Eric that we have a shared language for talking about liturgy. I have yet to come up with anything (a term, a hymn, a resource, anything) that he doesn't know about. I suspect he may have a better liturgical library than I do! Going to a conference like this will only take that shared language to the next level: shared experience!

So I'm trying to figure out how to make that trip work!

Lots of other challenges at work. Many of which I just can't talk about for obvious reasons. Suffice it to say, my plate is full.

Meanwhile, Betsy's belly is getting bigger. She's feeling great except for a little bit of joint soreness in her hips. She's been getting good advice via Facebook about that. We are both reading and studying pregnancy stuff like the nerds we are!

The weather in Ontario is starting to turn cool. It makes me think about the need to schedule a firewood delivery and do more canning. Maybe we'll get the farmer's market again this weekend...

-t

Trad Com Delight

Monday night, before Tuesday's Traditional Communion service, I had a dream that I was back at St. Mary Magdalene's teaching people how to celebrate Mass at the East-Facing Lady Altar. I miss doing that, I admit, and these days Tradcom (A BCP Holy Eucharist we do once a month here at COTM) is as close as I come to the precision and orderliness of SMM.

The dream foreshadowed one of the best COTM Tradcom Tuesdays since I've come. For some reason, the Spirit was really moving through the place that day. As a result, we had visitors (!) to the service including one lady who came right off the street on a whim. My sermon was better than usual for a Trad Com, as well.

For lunch we skipped the usual frozen lasagna and instead and enjoyed homemade Egyptian food provided by one of our parishioners. Discussion around the table was lively and fun. It was a very, very good day.

In reflection, I've noticed the last several weeks that the mood around COTM is very positive right now. People are leaving on Sunday feeling really good about church. One marker of this, besides my subjective feeling, is that coffee hour is lasting longer and several people who used to leave as soon as worship ended are now sticking around to enjoy conversation and coffee! It's an incredibly rewarding thing to notice. I remember a year ago when people were very anxious about the future and we had few newcomers. Now things are really taking a positive turn. Yipee!

-t

Eucharist

I have to say that the opportunity to celebrate the Holy Eucharist is one of the great joys in my life. This morning we had our "Traditional Communion" (Trad-Com, as we sometimes call it) from the BCP. One of the advantages of the traditional liturgies, IMHO, is that they allow the celebrant the luxury of introspection. Because there is so much less interaction with the congregation, I find that I can really focus on what's going on internally. This is even more true with Eastward Celebration (back to the people).

One of the things I really miss about St. Mary Magdalene's was the 7:15 AM Holy Eucharist on Tuesdays and Thursday. It seemed possible, for once, to do a perfect liturgy: every step, every gesture, every little bit done in a precise, intentional, and planned way. When I was in "the zone" celebrating Mass that way I found that the formalism enhanced my ability to be present to the Holy Spirit. I'll never forget standing on the blue carpet in the lady chapel and elevating the chalice to the height where I could just see, in the reflection, the congregation behind me.

The sensibility of Sunday worship at COTM privileges an entirely different experience: we are willing to do church without even trying to attain any kind of perfectibility. We are all about the messy and fun encounter of God with a community of imperfect, sometimes crazy, always energetic people.

-t

Confrontation

Most priests suck at confrontation--it's simply not a part of our nature to argue with people unless we are really backed into a corner. But lately I've been told of a situation that requires pastoral intervention, and thus I have to act. It's very unpleasant, but then I recall the time in which I have been confronted for bad behavior and the ways in which that sometimes led to very good growth. Confrontation is one of those things that you do a lot of in the CPE training I did. Our group would sit around a few times a week for months and every once in a while someone would have a beef with someone else and we'd fight in the healthiest way possible! Sometimes it felt a little artificial, sometimes it was incredibly authentic and many tears were shed. The thing about confrontation is that when it's handled well it really can be graceful. Far beyond merely correcting behavior, confrontation done in a spirit of love can call a person into a richer life. So I'm gearing up for this encounter, though in truth there isn't much to prepare. It's all about the encounter and the moment. Prayer helps, though.

Sunday was weird. I made a couple of mistakes that made me feel stupid. It's good to make those kind, though, because it keeps you liturgically humble. In my case I didn't break anything of hurt anyone, so it's all just worship after that. I'll post the children's sermon when I get a chance, but today has been busy.

Tradcom went very well--we had a dozen people. My homily came to me easily and the liturgy was smooth. The BCP Communion service still grates me sometimes, but I'm happy that others are fed by it.

I'm on to say a second Mass today--Dana Fisher invited me to be one of her regulars at the Trinity Chapel. I consider it quite an honor, actually, to celebrate the Holy Eucharist in a seminary chapel. I remember when I got to celebrate Eucharist at the Berkeley Divinity School chapel with great affection. It's also luxurious to lead worship in someone else's church! It's like being a grandparent, all the love and none of the responsibility.

Here's one of Dave Walker's cartoons to amuse you. The man has deep wisdom...


-t

Response...

Today was incredibly busy. It started off with the "Tradcom" (BCP) service in the morning. It went extremely well--certainly my preaching was better at this Tradcom than at the previous ones. I'm definitely finding my preaching groove again. Now that I'm preaching pretty much every Sunday I expect to things to heat up nicely. I'm already thinking some good thoughts about Baptism of the Lord this Sunday.

After the Mass we had lunch. After lunch I was inundated with important yet tedious administrative stuff--much of it involving property maintenance issues and coordinating various tradespeople. It's easy to get overwhelmed.

So that's it; I've had enough. Today is the day I go to the Convent to pray Evening Prayer with the Sisters. I've been putting it off long enough. I'll blame Bishop Johnson's note!

-t

Advent I recap...

Since Betsy's laptop was stolen it's been a little harder for me to keep my blog updated daily, but she bought a laptop yesterday so we should be back to normal before long. She also bought a external hard drive to back everything up. Of course, the really hard part will be recovering what data she can reconstruct. No word from the police.

Sunday went very, very well. I think I would even say that it was possibly my favorite liturgy since I've been at COTM. The Gathering Rite with the asperges and the great litany went fine, and George Sumner gave an excellent sermon. The Advent Layout of the chairs was received favorably. I've only had one person so far say they don't like it, but others had encouraging and helpful feedback. Positives that people mentioned: warmer, cozier, easier to hear. Negatives: ambo position needs to be rethought, and it makes it feel less "formal." Certainly there were one or two bugs I plan to correct for next Sunday, but all-in-all a real success.

Unfortunately, my grand experiment coincided with a massive snowstorm--that kept attendance lower than normal. Alas, not much I can do about the weather.

Monday was quiet. Took out the trash and helped Betsy buy a computer. The Monday Night Football Game was a nail-biter to the end.

This morning the monthly Traditional (BCP) Communion service went extremely well. In the past I've hard on myself about my preaching at this service, but this morning I was on a roll talking about prayer and Advent. It's the feast day for Nicholas Ferrar, and that is part of what set the whole sermon in motion. I ended up talking about prayer as something deeply desired by God. It was nice to finally hit the preaching sweet spot at a Traditional Communion service here.

-t