Preaching Camp

After driving half-way across the nation, I am now at preaching camp (more officiously known as "The National Preaching Conference sponsored by The Episcopal Preaching Foundation (or Preaching Excellence Program '08)". It has been an interesting time so far, with lots of really good preaching from some excellent guest speakers. We have also broken into preaching groups and given our own sermons (the first of two, so far). In these preaching groups I have heard some incredible sermons. I heard four radically different sermons on the parable of the Sower, all of which were nothing like what I would have preached. I have heard a range of styles and comfort levels. I really have learned a great deal so far and am looking forward to the last two day, though I have to admit to being very tired.
We were given the task of coming here with a sermon on a parable ready to be preached (which we did yesterday). Now, we have to create a sermon for tomorrow, incorporation what we learned thus far. AAAHHHH! The pressure!
My backside is tired of sitting. I am tired of stuffy airless rooms. I am tired of sleeping on a dorm mattress (as thick as two matzos!)But I really love the people that I have met and the lessons I have learned. This experience will definately go down as a postive one!
Though I have to admit a really strong desire to lace into my next sermon the phrase, "This one day at preaching camp...." :-)

Graduation

Well, graduation has come and gone and I am now officially a holder of a Masters Degree. That all sounds quite pretentious, but feels very anti-climactic. The end of the semester, finishing school work, fulfilling diocesan requirements, and finding a job, all combined to make time just fly by. Graduation really came much sooner than I was ready to deal with. I feel like I am still trying to process all the emotions that I had before, during, and after the event. I am still grieving the seemingly sudden loss of close friends. I am trying to fully comprehend what it is that I went through over the last three years. I am doing all that while trying to learn a new job, with new people and new problems. I'm sure that someday very soon I will have processed all this and really feel like I have graduated, but right now it all feel very surreal, like a dream.

I have a job!!

That's right! I have a job! I have accepted a call to be Associate Rector of St. James the Less in Northfield, IL. I actually start on May 18th (yes, that is two days after graduation!)I am really excited. This is a wonderful parish and will present a great opportunity for learning and growth. The rector is fantastic and we get along quite well. Yeah! Amen! Hallelujah!!

Good Friday Sermon - Part Two

Because I was carrying in the cross for the veneration of the cross part of the Good Friday liturgy, I was supposed to leave the pulpit after my sermon and go out to the sacristy, get the cross, and go to the back of the nave and wait for the end of the solemn collects. At Holy Comforter they use a lavelier mic instead of the mic that is on the pulpit. Normally, I turn the mic off after I sit down because the pockets on my cassock are further back than normal pants pockets and are hard to reach. As I entered the sacristy I reached back to turn off the mic, but I couldn't reach it. As I attempted to reach it I began to turn in a slow circle, much like a dog chasing its tail. During this frustrating reach for the off switch on the mic, I was desperately needing to cough, but didn't want to because the solemn collects were going on. I was beginning to panic about needing to cough and being unable to reach the mic when things got worse. I finally, out of frustration, just grabbed my cassock and pulled it all to the front in an attempt to reach the mic. In doing so I managed to cramp all the muscles in my right side (probably a side affect of having the flu). Now, not only did I have to cough, but I also felt like screaming in pain! At this point, the mic unit fell out of my pocket and down inside my cassock. This resulted in the actual mic, which was clipped to the front of my surplice, to pull the front of my surplice down. The more I leaned down to try to grab the mic unit, the further it fell out of reach. I finally unclipped the mic from my surplice, let the whole affair fall down the inside of my cassock, and stepped out of it. I just managed to turn it off and shut the sacristy door before falling on my knees in a coughing fit interspersed with painful groanings at the knots in the muscles of my side. At that moment one of the ushers walked into the sacristy and wanted to know just what I was doing.
I finally managed to get myself together, but I couldn't pick of the cross. Everytime I tried to lift it, my side would cramp up again. I finally just dragged the thing to the back of the nave and asked the usher to let me know when the end of the solemn collect occurred while I tried to stretch out my side enough to carry in the cross. As I stood there stretching and massaging my side (and practicing the line I was supposed to remember to say as I carried in the cross) I looked up to see the ushers and the back half of the congregation watching me with great curiosity.
At the appropriate time, the cross was brought in and appropriately venerated. I went home, took some more flu medications, and went back to bed for 12 hours.
Well, God was praised and Good Friday occurred. And it will be a liturgy that I will ALWAYS remember.

Good Friday Sermon

Well, as I sit here typing it is a lovely spring day in Northern Illinois - it is snowing. We are supposed to get 1-3 inches today and tonight. Lovely, just lovely. Where is Spring??
My Good Friday sermon went well, all things considered. I had a high fever and was high on lots of OTC cold and flu medications, but other than that I was fine. As I stood up in the pulpit and began to preach my brain disconnected from what I was doing and began looking around the nave. Since I had been too sick to attend Maundy Thursday service, I had not seen the altar stripped. I began to have this monologue in my head.
"Wow, the place looks really different all bare like this. Look at all the people here for Good Friday. Nice turnout. Wow! That one lady has on quite a wild hat. Doesn't she know it's not Easter yet! Hmmmm, it sure is quiet in here. Shouldn't someone be talking? And why is everyone staring at me?"
When I watched the DVD of the service, the pause in my sermon isn't really very long and just seems like a "dramatic pause" for effect. Whew! Overall, my sermon went very well. I'm just sad that I was so sick that I barely remember the service. I am really disappointed that I didn't get to attend the whole triduum.

Holy Week

Of course, Holy Week has started (the busiest time of the years), I am scheduled to preach on Good Friday, and I have come down with the flu. I have absolutely no time to waste being sick and this is the week that it hits. It couldn't wait until Easter week when I am on Spring Break and have time to just lie around feeling like death on a cracker. Oh no! It had to jump on me this week. My Good Friday sermon ought to be interesting, being delivered by someone so high on over the counter flu medications that he can hardly stand up. Pray for me!

It's been months

Well, it has been months since I last posted. Life has been incredibly busy with GOEs, J-Term, and Spring Semester. All this, and trying to find a job also. I find it hard to believe that my seminary days are almost over. I have less than two months until graduation! I often spent some of my first two years wishing that the days would fly by a little faster, but now I wish everything would slow down a little so that I can catch my breath. I will be losing all my friends here at Seabury to places around the nation. If I didn't have so much to do I would spend these last few weeks really enjoying our remaining time together.