According to a study by the American Association of Wine Economists, most people cannot tell the difference between dog food and pâté. Just goes to show how much of "taste" is really context.
Once I did eat cat food. We give our cats the healthiest stuff we can find, and it says "human grade" right on the label, so I thought, "why not?" Actually, it tastes kind of bland, but not bad...
-t
Monday, May 11, 2009
The Most Awesome Thing You Will See Today...
The most awesome thing you will see today: a car crash at 650 MPH. Mythbusters wanted to see if they could fuse two cars together by colliding them. When a combined speed of 100MPH and the mass of two semi-trucks didn't do the trick, they tried a two-stage rocket sled designed to test missile warheads. The steel sled hit the car at about 650 MPH (nearly 948 ft/sec). This is faster than many bullets. As you can see in the high-speed, the metal seems to become virtually liquid in the grips of so many energy. (Incidentally, it would be nice to know how much the sled weighed so as to be be able to calculate the Kinetic Energy.) Enjoy...
-t
-t
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Cyber Warfare Games, West Point Style
Recently West Point Cadets participated in a War Game unlike the ones in the past. The cadets were required to establish a secure computer network and execute various tasks with that network. Meanwhile, hackers from the NSA attempted to infiltrate or disrupt the network using the most advanced methods available to them. And I imagine that the NSA has some pretty wicked tricks available to them! Just goes to show how information management is the new battlefield...
-t
The Drake Equation
The Drake Equation:
where:
N is the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible;
and
R* is the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
fp is the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fℓ is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc is the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L is the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.
(source)
The Drake Equation, named after Astrophysicist Dr. Frank Drake, is an argument for the existence of life on other planets with whom we could communicate. The argument is based on probability, essentially arguing that if conscious, communicative life could develop on earth, than the probability is greater than zero that it could have developed elsewhere in our galaxy. While the parameters for the equation are somewhat speculative, we do have plausible value that yield a current estimate of....
In other words, the best guess is that there are 2.31 civilizations in our neighbourhood of the universe capable of communication with us. Of course, if you give different values to the parameters you can make this number go up or down, but it can never be reduced to zero because, in fact, there are people to ask the question!
How cool is that?
-t
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Star Trek
I saw the latest Star Trek movie last night with a group of friends. It was good. A worthy addition to the venerable franchise. It had enough edge, but was still respectful of the "rules" of the Star Trek universe.
While we were out in Nathan Philip's Square we noticed that one of the huge Jumbo-Tron screens had an error. Instead of the usual flashy videos advertising stylish clothes or cars, there was a bland Windows XP desktop with a pop-up notification window reading "Windows Genuine Advantage Notification..." In other words, the computer that runs the jumbotron thinks it's copy of Windows is hacked! This was showing when we went into the movie and it was still showing hours later when we got out.
If you think about how many thousands of dollars Microsoft would have paid to have positive message about their product in Canada's version of Times Square, now to think about that being thousands and thousands of dollars worth of negative advertising. Hilarious. Here's the video to prove it:
-t
While we were out in Nathan Philip's Square we noticed that one of the huge Jumbo-Tron screens had an error. Instead of the usual flashy videos advertising stylish clothes or cars, there was a bland Windows XP desktop with a pop-up notification window reading "Windows Genuine Advantage Notification..." In other words, the computer that runs the jumbotron thinks it's copy of Windows is hacked! This was showing when we went into the movie and it was still showing hours later when we got out.
If you think about how many thousands of dollars Microsoft would have paid to have positive message about their product in Canada's version of Times Square, now to think about that being thousands and thousands of dollars worth of negative advertising. Hilarious. Here's the video to prove it:
-t
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Adam Vaughan
Today I had a meeting with Adam Vaughan, the city Councilman who represents the church's Ward. The meeting took place at the City Hall, which is a rather grand building built in the sweeping 70's style that reminded me of either 2001: Space Odyssey or perhaps one of the sets from a James Bond super-villain. I thought it was quite attractive, actually!
One of his assistants met me at a reception desk and we chatted briefly about the building. I noted that all his staff (that I could see), were young women, and I wouldn't be surprised if this position is functionally a kind of internship. His offices were compact, but not overly cluttered. He was finishing up his breakfast as I came in, and he joked about how sometimes he ends up having lunch and dinner together and at home. "Half of politics is explaining why you are ten minutes late to a meeting when the last one was only supposed to be five minutes long," he said throwing away his wrapper. One of his "Constituency Assistants" sat next to me with a steno pad taking notes. The councilman kept his own notes in a small notebook with graph-ruling with a mechanical pencil. He tends to use key phrases organized linearly, sometimes underlining or circling for emphasis.
At first we talked a bit about the church. What kind of people come to Messiah and what ways we serve the community around us. Then I asked him about his perception of the needs of our community. He immediately zoomed in on 250 Davenport, a 25-storey community housing high-rise just Southwest of the Church by a hundred metres. Originally it was to be senior housing, but eventually evolved into general-purpose community housing. They have had problems in the past with drugs, and Adam didn't hesitate to use the language of pathology to describe the effects of that on the health of the building as a whole. He also talked about the loneliness and isolation of many of the people living there, and suggested that it was a place infected by the social disease of poverty.
I told him about how the church once had ministry to the children living there, and he liked the idea of a "movie night" that we have been kicking around here at COTM. Now Adam Vaughan was wearing a button on his lapel that had a one-way sign made into a "two-way" sign, a clear invitation to negotiation? So I told him one concrete way the city could help us make such a thing possible. He said that he might be able to find a little money for what I had in mind in one of the city budgets. Nice to see that give-and-take works well. No guarantees, of course, but he would like to see a proposal from us in writing. After that our short (20 minute) meeting was over.
Once in the outer office I told his Constituency Assistant about some of the problems the church has been having with parking tickets (they are not supposed to ticket outside churches on Sundays) and The Epic Garbage Battle of 2008-09. Many moons ago the city garbage inspectors gave the church daycare a citation for illegally dumping garbage in the park across the street. When we investigated we found video footage of a street person taking our garbage from the back alley and dragging it off (presumably to the park where it ended up). The city prosecutor still wants to take us to court, but next time we are bringing a trial lawyer who is a member of the congregation. He plans to kick ass. "If I lose in garbage court to a city prosecutor I'll never hear the end of it at my firm!"
Incidentally, the garbage thief has been back, and took more than trash. He stole some stuff from the church playground this time. The police have been called.
Anyway, I'm not sure the Councillor's office can make this nuisance go away, but it doesn't hurt to try. Another reason why having this kind of meeting every once in a while with your civic leaders is a good thing! I'm all about the partnerships....
-t
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Dan Graves on Healing Prayer and Flame Wars
Here is a short video made as part of the National Church's Vision 2019 project. The Rev'd Dan Graves talks briefly about his new book with healing prayers and the work of the Anglican Book Centre is doing that sort of mission. I'm posting it here mostly because I know Dan, but I'll also use it to say that our Diocese needs to be making little videos like this! It also helps set the stage for Dan's latest post.
After the Vision 2019 project was put on the web, Dan noticed that the responses to project were mixed. Many people had constructive comments, but some were downright nasty. In particular, some of the responders resorted to name-calling ("so-called bishops" "apostates" "work of Satan" etc.) He decided to respond in order to defend the Archbishop's gracious effort at working on vision, which naturally started a flame war!
Oh man, flame wars! Who hasn't gotten sucked into one of those? But as Dan points out, the people arguing with him in the back-and-forth comments weren't discussing the underlying issue at all, but rather simply shutting down discussion with inflammatory name-calling that does no one any good. Naturally, his foes considered his call to civility to be an abandonment of the righteous zeal of the truth-tellers.
The irony is that this is Dan Graves we are talking about, who is about the most polite priest I know. I wonder whether it is his very politeness, his very interest in real reconciliation, that bothers the zealots who went to go to the mattresses online. Hmmm....
-t
After the Vision 2019 project was put on the web, Dan noticed that the responses to project were mixed. Many people had constructive comments, but some were downright nasty. In particular, some of the responders resorted to name-calling ("so-called bishops" "apostates" "work of Satan" etc.) He decided to respond in order to defend the Archbishop's gracious effort at working on vision, which naturally started a flame war!
Oh man, flame wars! Who hasn't gotten sucked into one of those? But as Dan points out, the people arguing with him in the back-and-forth comments weren't discussing the underlying issue at all, but rather simply shutting down discussion with inflammatory name-calling that does no one any good. Naturally, his foes considered his call to civility to be an abandonment of the righteous zeal of the truth-tellers.
For the record, at no point did I engage Mr. Wirrell on whether or not I "stand on the Word." My blog posts and sermons are a matter of the public record. Should they choose to judge me they can do so from my published writing, but not from this red herring of a debate. No, Mr. Muirhead, this was not a "classic conversation between two parties of Anglicanism in Canada... one concerned with manners and the other with the Word." There was really no debate here, simply an unwillingness on the part of Mr. Wirrell to use the kind of temperate language that makes debate even possible. I stand by my original point that constructive dialogue is characterized by a graciousness of language. If there are those that count me as condemned or apostate for the use of good manner, then so be it. At least my mother will be proud. (source)
The irony is that this is Dan Graves we are talking about, who is about the most polite priest I know. I wonder whether it is his very politeness, his very interest in real reconciliation, that bothers the zealots who went to go to the mattresses online. Hmmm....
-t
Of Scotch and Video Games
An article I wrote for the Episcopal Café blog just got posted: Facebook, Scotch and Video Games: Balm for the pastor's soul. In it I explore a more modern take on the concept of "leisure" as it applies to ministry-related stress. I'm also arguing for a certain amount of self-forgiveness when it comes to the kind of harmless vices that get you through the day!
-t
-t
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is one of the greatest Television series ever made. For a while it was also one of the most popular until the increasingly stylized storytelling and network-management meddling alienated the masses. I think the series is best understood as a dream about communities and the way individuals struggle within them to deal with darkness encroaching from without and within. Like a dream (itself a common trope within the story), the characters and places are drawn with such vibrancy that they come close to charactiture. In fact, I had to actually turn the saturation levels on my TV down when watching the series on DVD recently!
The basic plot revolves around the murder of a high school prom-queen-type in a rural Washington town near the Canadian border. Due to the connection between this murder and others as well as the limited resources of local law enforcement, FBI agent Dale Cooper is sent to investigate. Almost immediately we begin to discover that underneath a nostalgically sweet and wholesome American town are dark, dark secrets. As the series goes on paranormal aspects of this struggle between light and dark are revealed. The storytelling becomes increasingly poetic and cosmic in scale. The allegorical character of the story becomes somewhat murkier and obscured in the last episodes, but I'm still quite moved by the poignant moments Frost and Lynch were able to create in the midst of all the abstraction.
These are similar themes as those developed in some of David Lynch's movies, especially the earlier Blue Velvet and later Molholland Drive. Dreams inside dreams that often drift from meditating on one poignant moment to another. Yet the total effect in a film like Blue Velvet is stunning. Molholland Drive was a bit harder to achieve satisfaction from, but rewards investigation with a later "a-ha" moment. I only "got" that movie after reading an article online that translated Lynch-into-English, but I'm glad I did.
One of the reasons Twin Peaks had such a cultish following was the compelling quirkiness of the world and characters they created. Dale Cooper is a loveable odd-ball--unquestionably competent yet also weird. I think he foreshadows some other geek-heroes of pop-culture by several years. Watching the series again for the first time in many years, I recall that I've actually modeled some of Cooper's mannerisms--like the way he gives an over-earnest thumbs-up sign.
Incidentally, shows like Lost have Twin Peaks DNA. The creators of Lost often refer to Twin Peaks. I remember reading one article about their conviction that Twin Peaks really ran into trouble because it revealed the answer to the central mystery ("Who killed Laura Palmer") too soon. That turned out to be a ratings ploy by the network that backfired. The creative team behind Lost has apparently used this as argument to win greater freedom from network control!But besides the fact that they are both intricate, serialized mysteries, with cultish-following, there are important similarities, too. Note the large, ensemble casts, exotic setting, and the encroachment supernatural elements. But whereas the spiritual temperature of Twin Peaks was set by the cool, dark and foreboding woods, the temperature of Lost is set by the alternating feelings of orientation/disorientation felt by character and audience alike. Lost is about being, well, "Lost." Twin Peaks was about confronting darkness and how that encounter changes us. It's telling that the certainty felt by the John Locke character from Lost (often referred to as "faith" within the show's dialog) is rare in that series. But in Twin Peaks almost all the characters are oriented to place and themselves at all times--indeed, many give touching soliloquies about their highest aspirations and beliefs. Perhaps this difference says something about our changing spiritual climate, the grand and extraverted aspirations and vision of the early 90's replaced with the fear and isolation of the end of this decade.
One feels that every character in Lost, even the coupled ones, are profoundly lonely. In Twin Peaks many characters are brokenhearted, but there are also many examples of deep love and friendship (between Agent Cooper and Sheriff Truman, for example). Another compelling love is between Cooper and Annie Blackburn (played remarkably well by Heather Graham). In the Twin Peaks universe, real connections between people are indeed possible, and may offer the only possible response to the existential darkness that creeps into each episode as the sun goes down and the shadows lengthen (each episode takes place over one day). I think it was this vision of the moral universe that I found most compelling when I saw the show for the first time in junior-high and high-school. I enjoy Lost, but it doesn't resonate for me like the coffee-and-pine world of Twin Peaks. At the end of the day Lost leaves me feeling selfish and isolated, whereas Twin Peaks made we want to hug a tree or talk to a log or compliment someone for their coffee and pie.
-t
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Deep Dale
My great-grandfather built a house in Berkshire Valley, New Jersey, using recycled timber from a barn that once stood on that property. He raised chickens and goats and also worked as switchman at the nearby railroad branch. He was something of a gentleman farmer and went to extravagant lengths to have enough ice in the summer (buried in saw dust in the barn) to have ice cream! He was curious by temperament, and would have students from an agricultural science school come to the farm to experiment with various breeds of chickens. Unfortunately, he died when my grandmother was a girl, but she remembered enough of him to tell me once that I reminded her of him. It was a fine compliment that I've always treasured.
"Deep Dale," the house he built, is now my mother's. Betsy and I gave her this sign for Christmas. Every time I go home one of my first rituals is to open up the fridge, as though to make sure we have enough food! I think this dates back to my high school days when I was doing several sports and ate thousands and thousands of calories a day!
-t
"Deep Dale," the house he built, is now my mother's. Betsy and I gave her this sign for Christmas. Every time I go home one of my first rituals is to open up the fridge, as though to make sure we have enough food! I think this dates back to my high school days when I was doing several sports and ate thousands and thousands of calories a day!
-t
Monday, May 4, 2009
Sermon - Easter 4 2009
Another short homily. Mainly I was speaking to the sense in which ministry (of all the baptized) is as much about the mundane and ordinary as it is about the extraordinary and interesting. It seemed like a useful point to make in response to the "Good Shepherd" texts of the morning.
Some tech notes of the video. Audio is not as good as normal because I forgot to start the little digital audio recorder! So rather than having a very nice little stereo microphone two feet from my mouth (and "off-axis"), the only thing I had to work with was on the camera 45 feet away. The HV20 has only an average microphone built-in, and I haven't yet invested in an external solution besides my little M-Audio recorder (which does a fine job when I remember to turn it on). So I did mess around with the audio in Soundbooth, but there is only so much you can do with bad mic/placement combo!
Notice that versus some of the other videos I have taken from this angle, this one is a bit sharper and less "over-zoomed." That's because I added a "tele-converter" lens (Canon TL-H43) to the camera. It simply screws into the front and adds a 1.7X magnification to the zoom. I added a UV/Haze filter as well, which might make a slightly better image, also.
I've been thinking a lot about lighting. You can learn a lot by studing the so-called Three-Point Lighting that forms the basic paradigm. Even better than the Wikipedia article is the tutorial on the Lowell website--it includes a "simulator" to demonstrate how placement of the three classic lights (Key, Fill, and Back) changes the composition. They also have much more advanced lessons in lighting for interviews, etc.
In my setup, the light coming in from the video is effectively the key light. The ambient light (maybe 50% reflected sun and 50% Tungsten bulbs in the ceiling) acts as the fill. The colour temperature difference between the two sources does tend to throw off the white balance a little. On "Auto White Balance" the camera picks a middle between the "cold" tungsten and "warm" sun light, and the result is that some of white highlights (being lit by the sun) come out with a bluish tint. Adjusting the whole image to shift warmer would mean making the areas getting more fill light (from the lights above) too orange. Luckily, in Premiere Pro you can adjust colour balance on mid tones and highlights separately, which solves this problem rather neatly.
Another issue with this natural lighting, however, is exposure. Basically, the ratio of relative brightness between what is striking the window-side of my face versus the other side is greater than would be desirable in this shot. I could fix that with a light shining from the other side, but I don't have such a light! The other possibility would be to use a reflector, but that would be obnoxious. So what ends up happening is that white on my vestments gets overexposed. But, hey, I can live with that!
Is this sort of thing important for a priest to know? Yes, if that priest wants to use multimedia to grow the church!
Here's the audio...
Here's a direct link to the MP3 file...
-t
Some tech notes of the video. Audio is not as good as normal because I forgot to start the little digital audio recorder! So rather than having a very nice little stereo microphone two feet from my mouth (and "off-axis"), the only thing I had to work with was on the camera 45 feet away. The HV20 has only an average microphone built-in, and I haven't yet invested in an external solution besides my little M-Audio recorder (which does a fine job when I remember to turn it on). So I did mess around with the audio in Soundbooth, but there is only so much you can do with bad mic/placement combo!
Notice that versus some of the other videos I have taken from this angle, this one is a bit sharper and less "over-zoomed." That's because I added a "tele-converter" lens (Canon TL-H43) to the camera. It simply screws into the front and adds a 1.7X magnification to the zoom. I added a UV/Haze filter as well, which might make a slightly better image, also.
I've been thinking a lot about lighting. You can learn a lot by studing the so-called Three-Point Lighting that forms the basic paradigm. Even better than the Wikipedia article is the tutorial on the Lowell website--it includes a "simulator" to demonstrate how placement of the three classic lights (Key, Fill, and Back) changes the composition. They also have much more advanced lessons in lighting for interviews, etc.
In my setup, the light coming in from the video is effectively the key light. The ambient light (maybe 50% reflected sun and 50% Tungsten bulbs in the ceiling) acts as the fill. The colour temperature difference between the two sources does tend to throw off the white balance a little. On "Auto White Balance" the camera picks a middle between the "cold" tungsten and "warm" sun light, and the result is that some of white highlights (being lit by the sun) come out with a bluish tint. Adjusting the whole image to shift warmer would mean making the areas getting more fill light (from the lights above) too orange. Luckily, in Premiere Pro you can adjust colour balance on mid tones and highlights separately, which solves this problem rather neatly.
Another issue with this natural lighting, however, is exposure. Basically, the ratio of relative brightness between what is striking the window-side of my face versus the other side is greater than would be desirable in this shot. I could fix that with a light shining from the other side, but I don't have such a light! The other possibility would be to use a reflector, but that would be obnoxious. So what ends up happening is that white on my vestments gets overexposed. But, hey, I can live with that!
Is this sort of thing important for a priest to know? Yes, if that priest wants to use multimedia to grow the church!
Here's the audio...
Here's a direct link to the MP3 file...
-t
Sunday, May 3, 2009
A Tired Tay
When I miss a few days blogging it's a good bet I've been not only busy, but busy with things I can't really blog about because their are either too boring or too confidential. That has been the case for the past several days. Little of which I can talk about openly.
But I can say that today went very well. Solid attendance and a good spirit. One of our parishioners told me after the service that more and more it seems like the church and I are falling into synch. I would agree--there is a definite coming together that happens. I notice that people feel more comfortable with me and vice-a-versa! We definitely have some momentum going and that has everyone feeling good.
Which is not to say that I'm not challenging them. Today, for instance, we had to hold a special Vestry to authorize the Wardens to open a Line of Credit with the bank to make up for an expected shortfall in operating capital. In other words, we are about to spend more than we are taking in. This is not unanticipated, and we expect to make up the difference with the Stewardship campaign this spring and summer. But in the meantime we don't want to spend down the endowment, so the alternative is to take a loan against the Rectory (which the church holds free and clear).
Establishing such a line-of-credit turns out to be a real hassle. Obviously, the Diocese wants to discourage this sort of thing, so we have to pass a Vestry motion, get the Bishop's permission, and apply for approval with several Diocesan Boards! It's a pain--but it's the right move from a ministry point of view, as most of this deficit is the result of missional spending (especially the Director of Children's and Youth Ministry). They say money follows vision, and certainly everyone who talks about revitalizing parishes speak of the need to make this kind of move. As one person wrote recently, "Stingy parishes don't grow."
So having a special vestry meeting (during announcements, no less) today probably raised the level of anxiety a bit for people, but that's okay. It's a challenge for people to fund the vision that they endorsed at Vestry a few months ago!
Also, remember how I was leaving it to the Holy Spirit to give me another Warden? Someone has stepped up and expressed interest. I'm gathering with the other Wardens and this person next Sunday to pray about it together. Assuming that lightening doesn't fall from the sky, we'll have our third Warden. Whew!
The ARC group met on Friday to look at the physical space at St. John's York Mills we will be using. It's perfect! Big and well suited. It's on the second floor but there is elevator access. We'll need some money for paint and shelves, but that's what grants are for! we are all really psyched about how this project is developing.
I can now reveal that one of my parishioners, who comes to the Saturday afternoon service, has expressed a desire to be baptized. We've set Pentecost as the date. It's going to be a rocking service with extra (rock) musicians and, now, an adult baptism. She is excited by the prospect of full-immersion baptism, which I have never done with an adult. I think it is going to be an incredibly powerful and meaningful way to celebrate the sacrament. Lots of practical issues to solve, but I embrace the challenge.
I've also done a lot of writing in the past few days. My Column for the June Anglican is off to the editor. I was extremely pleased with how it turned out and curious to hear the feedback. I also wrote a piece for The Episcopal Cafe which should be published sometime this week.
After church today I did confirmation prep with the youth group and now I'm just taking a little break. In a few minutes I'll walk down to Trinity to say Mass and then back up to COTM for this evening's big concert. As I write this the choir from Church of the Redeemer and our choir are workshopping. This evening (7pm) they will perform along with the Niagara Vocal Ensemble.
Besides putting on a killer concert, part of the point of this event is to experiment with partnering with Redeemer to host joint events. If it is successful we probably will do similar projects in the future. Indeed, we are going to get a small group of Messiah and Redeemer people together soon to discern possible directions for future shared ministry. These kinds of partnerships are absolutely essential for urban evangelism, IMHO!
So I'm a tired Tay!
-t
But I can say that today went very well. Solid attendance and a good spirit. One of our parishioners told me after the service that more and more it seems like the church and I are falling into synch. I would agree--there is a definite coming together that happens. I notice that people feel more comfortable with me and vice-a-versa! We definitely have some momentum going and that has everyone feeling good.
Which is not to say that I'm not challenging them. Today, for instance, we had to hold a special Vestry to authorize the Wardens to open a Line of Credit with the bank to make up for an expected shortfall in operating capital. In other words, we are about to spend more than we are taking in. This is not unanticipated, and we expect to make up the difference with the Stewardship campaign this spring and summer. But in the meantime we don't want to spend down the endowment, so the alternative is to take a loan against the Rectory (which the church holds free and clear).
Establishing such a line-of-credit turns out to be a real hassle. Obviously, the Diocese wants to discourage this sort of thing, so we have to pass a Vestry motion, get the Bishop's permission, and apply for approval with several Diocesan Boards! It's a pain--but it's the right move from a ministry point of view, as most of this deficit is the result of missional spending (especially the Director of Children's and Youth Ministry). They say money follows vision, and certainly everyone who talks about revitalizing parishes speak of the need to make this kind of move. As one person wrote recently, "Stingy parishes don't grow."
So having a special vestry meeting (during announcements, no less) today probably raised the level of anxiety a bit for people, but that's okay. It's a challenge for people to fund the vision that they endorsed at Vestry a few months ago!
Also, remember how I was leaving it to the Holy Spirit to give me another Warden? Someone has stepped up and expressed interest. I'm gathering with the other Wardens and this person next Sunday to pray about it together. Assuming that lightening doesn't fall from the sky, we'll have our third Warden. Whew!
The ARC group met on Friday to look at the physical space at St. John's York Mills we will be using. It's perfect! Big and well suited. It's on the second floor but there is elevator access. We'll need some money for paint and shelves, but that's what grants are for! we are all really psyched about how this project is developing.
I can now reveal that one of my parishioners, who comes to the Saturday afternoon service, has expressed a desire to be baptized. We've set Pentecost as the date. It's going to be a rocking service with extra (rock) musicians and, now, an adult baptism. She is excited by the prospect of full-immersion baptism, which I have never done with an adult. I think it is going to be an incredibly powerful and meaningful way to celebrate the sacrament. Lots of practical issues to solve, but I embrace the challenge.
I've also done a lot of writing in the past few days. My Column for the June Anglican is off to the editor. I was extremely pleased with how it turned out and curious to hear the feedback. I also wrote a piece for The Episcopal Cafe which should be published sometime this week.
After church today I did confirmation prep with the youth group and now I'm just taking a little break. In a few minutes I'll walk down to Trinity to say Mass and then back up to COTM for this evening's big concert. As I write this the choir from Church of the Redeemer and our choir are workshopping. This evening (7pm) they will perform along with the Niagara Vocal Ensemble.
Besides putting on a killer concert, part of the point of this event is to experiment with partnering with Redeemer to host joint events. If it is successful we probably will do similar projects in the future. Indeed, we are going to get a small group of Messiah and Redeemer people together soon to discern possible directions for future shared ministry. These kinds of partnerships are absolutely essential for urban evangelism, IMHO!
So I'm a tired Tay!
-t
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