grace in the 'cuse

A New Presiding Bishop!

I'm not above admitting to having that oft experienced but little spoken about condition called Episco-fatigue.  Yes, after nearly two weeks of General Convention in Columbus I might say that I'm a bit worn out from church--and yes, priests get worn out too.  But then I remember what an incredible thing we did in Columbus in the House of Bishops electing, and the House of Deputies affirming, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefforts Schori as the next Presiding Bishop.

Wisdom is indeed alive and well in the Episcopal Church.

Jefferts Schori graduated from my alma mater, The Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 1994, just a few months before I began my studies there.  We serve on several committees together around the national church and when I was on staff at CDSP, I had the pleasure of seeing her incredible, revitalizing ministry first hand during one of my visits to the Diocese of Nevada.

While we are in a difficult place vis a vis our relationship with other members of the Anglican Communion and our ability to speak with one voice on the place of LBGT people in the church--we are working on it.  At Grace, we are resolute about Jesus' ministry as being one of faithfulness and inclusion of EVERYBODY.  I hope and trust that our new Presiding Bishop will be able to help us navigate through some turbulent waters and bring us ALL to a place at the table.

Holy Week begins in Silence

And so we begin.  In silence.  Prayerful chants rising to the rafters.  Candles lit to remember loved ones.  Youth leading prayers.  Elders assisted in lighting candles.  The movement of the Spirit is felt.  Wow.

Racism? Yeah, We're Goin' There

It is easy not to talk about race at Grace Church--or the Episcopal Campus Ministry at Syracuse University for that matter.  It is easy not to talk about it because both communities are amazingly diverse in race and class and we take the ease with which we get along for granted.  At the same time, we readily acknowledge that we live in a bubble of harmony--the rest of the world is not like this--and it should be.

So we're going to talk about it.  And we're going to help others to talk about it.  The "it" is the prejudice and bias that we all carry while living into God's call to us to be agents of reconciliation.  As the old saying goes, we all have issues.  And we all have issues with bias, prejudice and racism.  But if we talk about it, peel back the layers and go deeper with it, then we might be transformed and in turn transform the world.

The bishops of the Episcopal Church have been talking about this too.  They wrote a pretty radical pastoral letter to the church about it.  Check it out here.  Read, post a comment, and let the conversation begin.

The Answer is Moot

Last week I spend two and a half days with some of the most inspirational and dynamics in the church.  How wonderful it is to share ideas and worship with folks who are really jazzed about church--not just in the future--but now. 

I returned with all sorts of wonderful ideas about how we might make our worship--both at Grace and on campus--more authentic and more soul-stirring.  One church community that is doing new things in England (where there are many wonderful things afoot).  The community is called Moot and you can find their website here.  Check it out and feel free to post and share your dreams, ideas, and reflections about our worship.

Hunger and Poverty Resource

I can't tell you how excited I am about our recent newsletter--the Spirit of Grace.  The focus is on hunger and poverty issues in our community.  We included a very cool color map of our surrounding area denoting the areas of greatest food insecurity--it isn't what I expected.  Hunger exists in surprising places.

I was at a lecture on Friday on the Radical Politics of Hunger--a great presentation on the Blank Panther Party's Free Breakfast for Children program in Milwaukee back in the 1960s.  This program ended up being co-opted by the U.S. government and turned into the free breakfast school programs many know today.  But the surprise was the high the percentage of food insecure homes in our country--some 12%!  These are homes that cannot necessarily count on eating three meals a day.  It is a stunning statistic in our oh so wealthy country.

I've just found this link that has a lot of info on food insecurity and poverty in America.  Check it out.  The World Hunger Year website even has programs for middle and high school students to learn about these issues.   Hmmm...not a bad complement to all those youth cooking classes.  What does it say about our country that so many are hungry and malnourished?  How whack is it that we admire those who can eat whatever they want and choose not to in the name of thinness and some beauty ideal, while others die of obesity related illness and still others go to bed hungry?  Good grief.

What I'm reading these days

A colleague recently asked me what I'm reading these days and I was horrorfied at how long the list was.  I don't usually take breaks for lunch in my day unless the meal occurs over a meeting.  Actually, that too, is a bit horrifying.  Hmm.  So what I think I should do is take "reading lunches".  This would ensure that I actually slow down enough to eat a proper lunch and also finish the many books on my nightstand that are eagerly awaiting their turn.  Here's what I'm into now--don't ask about the books I have yet to crack open...

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins (recommeded by the aformentioned colleague and the Bishop)

In Praise of Slowness:  Challenging the Cult of Speed by Carl Honore

The Shame of the Nation:  The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonothan Kozol

The Runner's Diet:  The Ultimate Eating Plan that will make Every Runner (and Walker) Leaner, Faster, and Fitter by Madelyn Fernstrom, PhD, CNS

Simply in Season:  A World Community Cookbook edited by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert (one of a few cookbooks that I'm reading before they go down to the kitchen bookshelf)

Making memories at the table

When I was a kid, growing up in a small apartment in New York City, the dining table was the center of the home.  It wasn't the center the way kitchens are now designed and understood to be the functional center of a home.  It was the center because there was no where else to go.  Our living room had a television going all the time, our bedrooms were full but we didn't have desks.  And our apartment was not a Classic Six  where one could retire to a study or family room.

In our apartment, the kitchen table was study space, family room, and, of course, eating space.  The kitchen table was in a small space adjacent to our tiny kitchen (there were two tiny counters, a sink, a small stove, and small fridge).  Actually, the dining area was nearly too small to contain our round table and four chairs.  Somehow, though, it all seemed adequate--this is where I learned to cook great meals.  But it was on this small table that we ate those meals, and did our homework, and played Backgammon on long, lazy, Sunday afternoons.  This was the table where I would pour out my heart to my mother about my latest "boy troubles" after school each day (well, maybe not all of my heart...I was a teen too, once upon a time.) 

Anyway, as I sat around another dining table on Monday, in the home of my friend Susan--who is one of the writers on the Greenblade Justice Journal --I couldn't help but think of how important these tables have been in my life.  Over a simple, yet extravagant, lunch of tomato soup (a nice chunky one with bits of carrots and topped with shredded purple basil), a baguette and cheeses, and ravioli coated lightly in butter and parmesan, and a mix of figs, Dagoba chocolate, and these wonderful slim cookies that were a cross between shortbread and biscotti (but with cocao nibs!!!), over this meal the four of us laughed, dreamed, wrestled with food justice issues, and listened deeply to each other.

This is what I want church to be like.  I want our altar to be the place that holds those memories and echoes to us the memories we make around the "dining tables" in our parish hall, in our homes, in restaurants, in the park.  Fast food church will not cut it.  Thankfully, that is not mode that Grace reverts to, but it can be tempting...  We are called to something so much deeper and whole.  Can the altar where we celebrate Eucharist really be the center of the action for us?  Can it teach us to offer radical hospitality at our own dining tables?  Just how do we meet the spiritual and physical hungers of our community?  Want to talk about it?

Epiphany--Phew!

So how many seasons can we go through without a post from me?  Hmmm, its been Advent, Christmas and now it is Epiphany.  I don't make new year's resolutions, I do want to resolve to post more regularly.

So what is going on?  Lots--too much, perhaps.  We've just taken down the Christmas greens and are now getting ready for the Bishop's visit, baptism, confirmations, lots of activity.  Next week--January 22 is our annual meeting.  We're already thinking about Lent--all the artists, writers, and poets in the community are invited to create something for our Stations of the Cross in Holy Week.  Yes, I'm already contemplating Holy Week!

I wrote in this month's Spirit of Grace, our newsletter, that I really want to practice stillness, quiet, and living a slower pace.  It is a near wrestling match with the calendar to do so.  We all do it, though.  This living in the moment and living in the month of April (or you fill in the blank) at the same time.  It is hard.  It is just as hard as living as earthly people and Reign of God people at the same time.  And yet, we must practice these dual ways of living all the time. 

How about instead we do this:  For our calendars--live fully in the now and contemplate tomorrow.  And for our lives--live fully in the now and live fully in the kingdom, the reign of God that is coming and also here.  I don't know if that will work or how, but it sure beats living in the now and contemplating the kingdom or Reign of God--we do that too much already.

Why I love Wednesdays

Wednesdays are big at Grace Church.  I mean BIG.  Some Wednesdays there are more than 45 people coming to Grace for dinner, adult education, youth group and prayer.  It's a wonderful burst of energy in the middle of the week when it looks like the weekend is a long way off.  We get our weekend boost early--lots of great people, fabulous food, and a bit of quiet time to pray and give thanks.

These quiet times are treasures because with Christmas coming, these are busy days indeed.  In fact, I think the issues of clutter, noise and silence will all find their ways into my Christmas preaching.  But for today, now that I've had a quiet morning, I'm ready for the youth and the elders in our community to bring it on!

The harvest is plentiful but the laborers...

One of the joys of our parish life right now is the month-old Wednesday Youth Program.  Each Wednesday kids gather at the church for homework helpers and then stay for dinner and youth group ending with Compline by candlelight.

When I arrived home late last night after traveling back from the Transformation and Renewal conference at Kanuga (in western North Carolina) and the first day of Central NY's diocesan convention I was met with an email alert that probably every priest craves.  Essentially it said, "Help!  We've got too many kids for the number of adults--what are we going to do?" 

What a great problem!  Especially after spending a week at a conference with other churches who can't figure out how to engage their youth.  We have a small number--about a dozen--but it is growing every week.  What a blessed thing--but oh boy do we need more adults to help out. 

The kids are really hungry for community and support and the kind of love that Grace Church gives so easily--we just need to figure out how to keep up.  It really does take a village doesn't it?