Fall Triduum

Every year, our “Fall Triduum” of All Hallow’s, All Saints, and All Souls

becomes more precious to me as each one focuses my attention on how connected we are

to not only those who are alive, but to all those who have gone before us –

relatives, friends, enemies, muses,(i.e. the communion of saints.)

Yesterday we celebrated All Saints Sunday

with one of the most “thin place” services of the year –

the one in which we commemorate all the saints

by posting their names on the walls of the sanctuary.

+++

Whether they are from long ago....

(Saint Leontia)

Or more recently...

(Jill Cooper, a friend)



Or a close relative like my father,

(Kenneth)

Or even the name of a woman

who has the same name of my

own mother who is still alive!

(Ok, I have to admit,

it was pretty weird to see

my mother on the wall)...



What wasn’t weird or strange was the feeling of their presence in the room with us.

What the Celts call a “thin place”

All of us together. In one place.

One very “thin” place.

These 3 days are as intertwined as a Celtic Knot.

With themes of death and resurrection,

we are reminded that there is no beginning or ending to our souls.

We move and have our being in a continuous flow of God’s love,

knowing that we are always in the presence of God.

 

“Beannacht De le hanama na marbh

(The blessing of God on the souls of the dead.)

Ta siad imithe ar shli na firinne

(They are gone on the way of truth.”)

Irish Blessing



So until it is our time to join all those saints who have gone before us on the way of truth,

may we continue to enjoy their presence, and

walk in love, seeking and serving Christ in all we meet today.



(last photo is of Fall colors outside the Columbarium at St. Paul’s)

Ministry Day

Today is the 20th day of April and I'm sitting in my office looking outside at SNOW....what the? Yesterday I attended the Diocese of Olympia's Ministry Day Workshops held at Highline Community College with Ginny, our Sr. Warden. The weather was iffy but it wasn't until the late afternoon when she dropped me at my car and I headed up the hill towards Sequim that I realized I was in trouble. I am not a good driver to begin with due to vertigo issues and eventually had to pull over, call home and have the boys come to rescue me. You see I panicked big time when I passed a pick-up truck sitting on it's roof....If that could happen to that driver, what was going to happen to me? (I know this would have been the perfect opportunity to ask the 4 questions and do the turnarounds on this but I opted to just stop driving)...I was never so glad to see that enormous, deisel guzzling Dodge pull up and hear my son say "Need a lift lady?"

So here are the highlights of yesterday!
I finally met Karen Ward - Abbess of the Fremont Abby - I've read her blog and visited the one she recently started - www.aglimergent.org. She spoke on the Anglimergent movement & showed a clip of their Easter Vigil service, plus clips of other Anglican Emergent churches in England...I particularly enjoyed the clip on Messy Church in which kids and adults create their own artistic (and yes quite messy) liturgies.

The Bishop spoke to me! I passed him (Bishop Greg Rickel) on my way to my small group and he turned and asked me where I found the book I was carrying. "Living from the Center - Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism" by Jay McDaniel. I told me I had just picked it up at the Resource Center Booth and he said that Jay was a friend of his and that it was a good read! So, yes, the Bishop approves of my reading!!!!

The workshop on "Preaching, teaching & singing the many meanings of the Eucharist" was led by Samuel Torvend and it was so good that when it ended I did not pass go but went straight to the bookseller's table & purchased his book, "Daily Bread Holy Meal - Opening the Gifts of Holy Communion". In the front of the room he had placed a print of one of the earliest representations of a Eucharistic meal found in the ancient catacombs. Various people were seated around a small table on which sat a fish,wine,and bread and our presenter interpreted the words that rested above them -"Peace brings the food" and "Love for others brings the cup". Isn't that profound?

All in all a good day!

Luke and Harry

It’s been over a week since I last posted. Harry Potter is finally out, I’m on page 46 and reading very slowly because it’s the last book and the last time I’ll be able to spend such quality time with his story. Sigh............today KP preached on Martha and Mary and she was very good but before I go there I have to say a word or two about last week’s sermon on the Good Samaritan.....how many sermons have I heard on Luke 10 over the years? Countless.....and almost always the same....don’t be like the Priest or the Levite but be like the Good Samaritan who it turns out was never even referred to as “good” by Jesus.....that was added!

So E+ turned this parable upside down for me..........I learned that “in most of Jesus’s parables, the way they’re constructed, the really central character is the one everyone else comes in contact with.” And she focused on the wounded and powerless victim who was lying in the ditch. Looking at this story from the victim’s point of view made everything new. We can all identify with that point of view as we’ve all been wounded at some point in our lives....His/Her dilemma centered on being able to accept help from someone that would have been considered to be an outcast, or someone who might be unclean or a social reject. E+ stated that “the mercy and healing of God came not only from an unexpected source, it came from a despised source.”..........what if God comes toward me as someone or something I fear? Will I be able to accept such help? Such grace? Such love? Lots to ponder there.

And then today KP preached from Luke 10 & Genesis 18 on hospitality - which is showing love to strangers. My experience of this passage has been the age old question of “are you a Martha or a Mary?”..........as if all women can be categorized into only one of these categories (not to mention where men fit in here.)...Just as Abraham had invited the 3 men in for calf and cakes, Martha followed suit by inviting Jesus and his followers in for a meal. Jesus of course told her that her sister Mary had chosen the better part by sitting at his feet which must have been confusing to say the least. But KP said that “Jesus is telling her to stop and be hospitable to herself, to love the stranger in herself.”.....thus exhibiting a new form of hospitality......one in which we start with our own hearts, making way for a new creation - in order to love our neighbors as our selves.........I like that. But I also like to stick with what I know and God never seems to allow that.....which is why we are hopefully, with God’s help, always becoming a new creation..........

in the beginning...

good afternoon! it's sunday and i've just returned from st. paul's episcopal church in port townsend, where i spent the better part of this day. if you ever visit port townsend i'd recommend visiting this quaint and beautiful church which has been in the community since the 1860's. on many sundays i think about "the communion of saints" who sat in these same pews that i now find myself in - wondering about their stories, their sorrows and their joys. i feel connected to them as i kneel at the communion rail, waiting to receive the the precious body and blood of christ.

so the purpose of this blog is to give me a place to write about something new in my life - the discernment process. what am i called to? ordained ministry? lay leadership? or something else? just what is the next step that God is asking me to take? well this morning i met with KP who is on her own journey towards the diaconate. we had a very spendy latte in uptown and she listened to my fears. she told me that if this is truly a calling it will not let me go. for the last couple of months i've been secretly hoping that it would. i've been scattered in many directions but at every turn i bump into it again. damn.....and yet while singing in church today these words from hymn 474 pierced me, "love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all."

today's gospel reading, Luke 10:1-12, 16-20 was the sending out of the apostles in pairs. this has always been a difficult text for me for instead of focusing on what jesus called them to do i have focused on what i considered the more distasteful aspects of the passage - jesus telling them to wipe even the dust off their feet if they weren't welcomed. how could the apostles take back their blessing? but i heard a different approach in Rev. Elizabeth Bloch's (hereafter known as E+) homily this morning. she spoke of God's desire that all of us bless one another. it's not just the apostles who were given the power and ability to minister - it is for all of us! the apostles freed themselves from bags, sandals & purses. so what am i to free myself from? hmmmm