Hellooo from Taall-Hassee! (Yes, here, it only has two syllables)...
I've been sweating for about 364 hours straight now. Other than that, things here are going well. I've been thrown into the Anglican deep-end, but I'm really thankful for that. I've pretty immediately been thrown into roles that I've never been in before, and I'm really learning a lot in the process. I'm involved in the liturgy (which here is quite an extravagant production) in one way, shape, or form every Sunday. I'm either reading one of the Lessons, processing with a huge, heavy crucifix, bearing a chalice, or assisting at the altar. I'm fully vested every Sunday. Like I said - quite a production.
They do this weird thing at Communion. A lot of our parishioners will leave the wafter on their hands, and as the chalice bearer you have to take the wafer out of their hands, dip it in the wine for them, and then PUT IT IN THEIR MOUTHS FOR THEM! It's a tricky business - you know, to confer the grace of God without putting your fingers in someone's mouth.
Other than that, I've been sitting in on all kinds of meetings - staff, clergy, liturgy planning, etc. All of which are interesting to me now, but it's also pretty obvious that a lifetime of such activities in hardly something to look forward to. I'm also teaching an adult education class on the Gospel of John on wednesday nights. That's probably been the funnest thing I've done so far. I was really nervous about it, and as a result I waaaaay over-prepared for my first lesson, and I ended up straight lecturing for an hour and fifteen minutes straight. haha. It was a total blast. I had two different marker boards going with greek words on one and "Themes from the Gospel of John" on the other. I knew I would enjoy teaching, but I really, really enjoyed it. I felt remarkably comfortable.
Last Saturday, I went with 4 or 5 other guys from the church to a Medium to High Security Prison, to help run this program that's basically the result of the 12 steps from AA and the beattitudes thrown into a blender. We each were assigned a small group of inmates. Mingo, Feneque, James, Ron and Don were in mine. Mingo and Don have been in prison for 30 years. Really interesting. And a little bit scary. Upon entering the prison, we were each issued a "danger pager." They said, If you feel like you're in danger, press the pager and we'll be there within two minutes. At which point I thought to myself, "TWO MINUTES?! IF I'M IN DANGER, I COULD BE DEAD IN TWO MINUTES!" but alas, I survived.
So that's a little preview. It's a really great church. A really healthy church. I'm definitely back amongst the conservatives though. Which has been an adjustment. But it's been good to be forced to articulate myself in this kind of environment, which has an intellectual climate very different than Duke. At the end of the day though - As long as I continue to love Jesus, I'm glad I'm with the blue devils.
Lastly, I'm preaching from the pulpit for the first time this wednesday (in two days), and I'm pretty nervous about it. It's just a five minute homily, but I'm just pretty intimidated. So pray it up :) thanks. I'll post my sermon in a separate post, for the sake of blog-organization.
see you in another life...
brother :) (in the Greek, inclusive sense of the term, of course)
