Labor Interruptus

I've been away for a few days at the diocesan camp/conference center way far away in the woods. It was beautiful there, the trees a Jackson Pollack splatter-fest of color, with drips of Thomas Kinkade gold. From Sunday evening to Monday afternoon, there was work to be done with one of the diocesan working groups. After a very tough week, I found it hard to muster the energy to contribute much except some word-smithing here and there - my inner editor never rests, it seems - and was glad at 3 pm on Monday when I had an appointment for a massage.

Have I told you how much I love my Bishop? He subsidizes these massages when the clergy come up for the clergy retreat, so we can afford them. Now, if only he could subsidize some liposuction, then I'd really be in business.

The rest of the time was a mix of conversations and meditation and writing and reading. Some of these were rich, some were mundane, but they all were blessing because we actually had the time to sit and talk with each other. The meditations for the retreat were sort of meh, but at least time had been carved out to attend to them. Sometimes just being quiet is enough...

Food was solidly in the Southern comfort-food category, although they have gotten better about offering things that are not deep fried. A pity, that. Part of the joy of the place is having a few days of eating really, really, really badly, so that when we come home, we are poised to re-enter the land of good nutrition with something akin to joy.

I had the option driving home the fast way (all highway, with lots of trucks) or the back road. Despite the longer trip, I took the back roads. You see things on back roads that you don't see on the highway.

Here is what I saw:

• a hay bale with a smiley face painted on it
• three dead deer by the side of the road
• several Tea Party signs, some with truly frightening misspellings ("govamint?" really?)
• a young father with a shaved head and ZZTop beard as well as an amazing collection of facial piercings and tattoos, waiting as his young daughter was dropped off by the school bus, then tenderly taking her hand and chatting with her as they walked up his drive
• barns that are falling over
• people selling pumpkins out in front of their homes, with honor jars if no one is there to take payment
• a house with probably twenty cords of wood stacked nearby - they must be expecting a really cold winter. Time to get out the long johns.

It took me about a half hour longer to get home, but it was worth it. I got to carry a little of the serenity of a few good days in my head and heart a bit longer. I hope that glow sticks with me for a while. it's good to interrupt the work every now and again.

File this under "things I need to do more often."

Meeting with the Standing Committee

In our seemingly endless process towards ordination, I met with the Standing Committee today. 'Twas a good interview. I knew only one of the committee members, but it was good to have one familiar face in the room. It was clear they had read all 34 pages of my material, because the questions were deeper than I had expected. It appears it went well, but I won't know for sure until the bishops come back from Lambeth and tell me if I've been approved for candidacy for ordination.

The only downside to it was driving 35 miles down the NASCAR track that is Rt 95 in the midst of road construction. This was not an environmentally friendly meeting, since a dozen people traveled from some distances (mostly in separate cars) to get there.

Their final comments were that they liked my shoes - Icon brand clogs, which replicate the Gustav Klimt painting "Adele H.". Not the lace-ups at left, but I couldn't find a photo of the clog version. I figure if a girl can't have a sense of humor in her shoes, she shouldn't be a priest. I guess they concurred. Glad all the truly important stuff was assessed.

Happy Saturday

It's been a good day - a trip to the Farmer's Market for luscious fruits and vegetables, a successful Fare Ministry family event at Saint Diverse, where a group of nine of us prepared six large casseroles and six smaller ones to be frozen and available for those who need a meal delivered, then icon-writing class, where I finished up my Saint Gabriel icon and will start Saint Paul next week, and now I'm resting a bit before getting ready to go to an evening wedding celebration for two dear friends.

Oh, and the sermon is done for tomorrow, so I really will be able to enjoy the party.

PS: I'll post a picture of the Saint Gabriel when it gets back from being varnished next week.

Music Stuff

Here's some new music to feed your soul:

Beth Neilsen Chapman's two-disc set entitled Prism. It's songs from a wide variety of religious traditions spanning the world.

Fleet Foxes. A Seattle alt-group that has some amazing vocals and very unusual lyrics. Harmonies like you wouldn't believe. Good - no, great - driving music. Now I only need the gas money to take a road trip...

I got arm-twisted into singing something for my last Sunday (July 20) at Saint Diverse, my summer internship parish. I briefly toyed with singing "Hear Ye, Israel" from Elijah, since that would sort of go with the readings, but the space is not singer-friendly, and the piece starts out on a high F sharp, for heaven's sake. If I'm not getting paid, I'm not going to risk a note that sits right on the break in a room that's dead as a doornail. I think it's going to be "Amazing Grace." Always a crowd fave, and everytime I've sung it, someone has come up and said "I want you to sing that at my funeral." That's either a compliment, or they'd rather be dead than hear it again out of my mouth.

This coming Sunday, when I'll be preaching on the Parable of the Sower and the Seed, there will be a teenaged tenor singing "I Believe."

Oh, dear.

Learning

I had a difficult and lengthy conversation with a parishioner. We started off with his anger and frustration about a difficult situation and ended up somewhere a bit more peaceful, I think.

Sometimes folks expect the church to wave a magic wand and solve their problems...even deeply faithful people struggle with this, I think.

Some wonder why the church doesn't do more, and why people of faith have to work through government structures and systems. Shouldn't the church be the place to address conflict?

Well, yes and no. Render unto Caesar, and all that.

So it was an interesting 45 minutes working with this parishioner, because some of the questions raised were good ones, and I had to fight my own defensiveness about the church not doing enough in the world. But it was a reminder to me that I am not expected to fix (particularly in an eight-week summer internship), I am simply expected to be present and loving.

I'm hoping that was what I offered this day, and I'm praying that I helped, or at least did no harm. I leave this one (as I should leave them all) in God's great big hands.

Sunday Afternoons

So what is it about naps on Sunday afternoon when you work in the God business?

I came home today after church. It had been a light day with no preaching responsibilities, just our two services lightly attended due to the holiday, no visits to the homebound afterwards...and after a bite of lunch, I utterly conked out on the couch for two hours. And I mean comatose. Afternoon of the living dead.

PH is taking me out for supper tonight - yay - and that's about the extent of my energy level.

Interestingly, just about every clergyperson I know also takes a Sunday nap.Who knew that this was part of the gig?

They should ask during the Commission on Ministry interviews: "Ms. Mibi, are you capable of afternoon siestas on the Lord's Day? It is a job requirement, you know."

Lambeth Awaits

After listening to an ordination sermon where the bishop opined that those entering the priesthood were not really shepherds, but in fact sheepdogs (and after I had myself used the border collie metaphor to describe us seminarians in a sermon earlier this year), I was delighted to see this picture of the Archbishop of Canterbury getting in a training ride preparatory to the upcoming highjinks at Lambeth. At least most of the GAFCON crowd won't be around to require heel-nipping by the dog.

No disrespect intended, but the cat-herding picture has already been over-used. Tip of the hat to MadPriest for the picture of Whiplash the Rodeo Monkey.

Random Dots of Monday

• I've made an initial stab (or poke) at the next sermon in my queue: Matt 10:1-7. Go do good stuff and preach and share the good news, but go the the Jews, not those heathen Gentiles. Should be fun. Only two more sermons for my time here at Saint Diverse. Only three more weeks here...the time has gone so quickly.

• Lunch plans today with my rector from my home parish - that should be fascinating, as he is just back from a trip to Africa as part of our diocesan work on the complicity of the church in the slave trade. All that and Indian food...it will be a feeding of body and soul.

• Blue Saabie is in the shop with a flukey ABS controller. The instrument lights on the dashboard panel - all those little warning lights that usually come on when I turn the car on in the morning and they do the self-test - stay on all the time. The car runs fine, but my mechanic says the braking system may punk out if I don't get it fixed. If I took it to the dealership, they'd make me get the whole board replaced, to the tune of $3K. My trusty Swedish Motors guys send the board to someone who rebuilds it...only $700. Of course, it's $700 I don't really have, but we will figure it out. I'm just hoping Saabie will last until I'm through with seminary. Then I can get something tiny and green, with all-wheel drive for when I get middle-of-the-night pastoral calls. I always wondered why clergy all seemed to have Subaru Outbacks. Now I understand.

• StrongOpinions is having a blast at the writer's conference where she's spending the summer months. She's been invited to read some of her work publicly, and she'll be interviewed on local radio about the nexus of poetry and political activism. Can you tell this is happening in a radically liberal college in a radically liberal mountain community in the Rockies?

• StoneMason is coming down here for a visit. in a few weeks. We're trying to figure out the cheapest way to get him down from the Green Mountain State without spending megabucks. It may be possible to coordinate his visit with StrongOpinions'...it would be great to have them both here at the same time.

• PH is having that test on Wednesday that all of us have to have when we turn fifty. For a surgeon's son, he has little stomach for things medical. He will start the prep meds tonight. We may move the television and his laptop into our tiny WC for the duration. Poor baby! Say a prayer it all goes well. We expect no problems, since there is no family history of such stuff.

• Summer months are quiet at little churches, and I have moments of feeling guilty that I'm not more busy here at Saint Diverse. The convener of my peer colloquy group says that this is one of the things we as soon-to-be-priests need to learn - to be at peace with the lull times as well as to be ready to dig in during the busy times. Frankly, I'm happier when I've got my hands full.

Vestry Meetings

How is it we can spend thirty minutes tussling over the meaning of the words "Outreach" and Mission" and we can't get people to actually do them?

And why isn't there wine at Vestry meetings?

Work

I've been busy setting up a lay pastoral care ministry here at St Diverse. I've got the Lay Eucharistic Ministers trained and licensed to bring communion to shut-ins, I've got the meal ministry semi-organized, and we've been in touch with a number of folks who would like to receive help. My hope is to get it chugging far enough along that it will survive when I am done with my internship in four and a half weeks. Remarkable to think I'm approaching the halfway point at this place. It's a brief enough time that I can look upon it as a case study in congregational issues, but long enough that I can develop relationships with some of the people of the parish, as well as with the rector and the parish administrator. A good experience, all in all.

We had a good meeting (despite a monster storm that knocked out the power) earlier this week on the research project for 2nd semester. My prof, our dean of academic affairs, me, and another prof who is a nationally recognized expert in congregational analysis through the lens of sociology of religion, all working through methodology of the project. It's going to be a great learning experience. My prof will get a good book out of this work, and I may be able to use elements of our research in my thesis (which I'd like to publish either as a monograph or expand into a book). We shall see.

PH and his team are pedaling across Ohio at this time. One of the riders was injured and is out of the race, so there are three left on the team. This translates from each rider doing 100 miles per day to doing between 120 and 150 a day. I can't even imagine.

They have less than 600 miles to go and should reach Annapolis in the wee hours of Friday morning. Can't wait to see them!

Random Dots of Thursday

• Alone in the church office, since rector and wife (the church admin) are away today. An odd sensation!

• PH and the team are into Arizona, having finished the California leg of the race. They aren't going very quickly, but that was strategic on their part - slow and steady gets you to the end of the race. Going too fast at the beginning burns you out. Three Time Stations down, only 51 to go!

• Sermon and powerpoint slides are done for this Sunday. Time to start on Wednesday's homily and the sermon for next Sunday. I am telling myself what good experience this is for me.

• Spent yesterday lunchtime with the other priests of the region and our Bishop Coadjutor, who is a very cool guy. I think he will enliven this diocese, which (although the largest in the US and the oldest) has gotten rather worn down by the legal battles over who stays and who leaves TEC, and whether they relinquish their property as church canons state or keep it. Oh, I will be happy when the lawsuits are decided!

• Still no paperwork back from last semester's schoolwork. I actually got a call from one of my profs yesterday who couldn't find the grade for my final paper (delivered in early March) and wanted to know if I had a copy of it. Sigh...I shouldn't be surprised. There is - believe it or not - one class that ended in March 2007 for which I have not received a final grade.

• I'm fantasizing about a week of vacation with PH after this internship ends, and my three day interim ministry class which immediately follows it. It will have to be close, given the gasoline prices, but even a long weekend somewhere in the Shenandoah would revive me.

• I will be going to meet with the Standing Committee of the Diocese on July 17th for the interview for candidacy for ordination. The Commission on Ministry recommended enthusiastically in favor, but in moments of paranoia, I fear the Standing Committee will start all over again with the questions from ground zero. Maybe not. My friend L will be meeting with them in June, so we shall see what her experience is. Since she and I are alike in many ways (with the exception of my kids being more or less grown and her still being pretty young), our interviews have been quite similar.

• And as my Commission on Ministry Liaison was on sabbatical, and thus not there to support me, for the COM interview, my Standing Committee Liaison will also be gone for my meeting with them. Ah well, what doesn't kill makes me me strong.

• Temperatures right now are a balmy 79 degrees. Humidity is low. Thanks be to God! Another few days of heat indexes of 110 and high humidity, and I wouldn have melted into a puddle on the floor.

• Carpet cleaners come to our little townhouse tomorrow. A good thing, since between the cats puking and PH running his bike into the house, that neutral beige carpet is looking pretty grungy. It should stay clean for, oh, about three days.

• PH (along with his father and brother) will be on the ride for Father's Day. So do you think I should get him a massage for when he comes home as his FD present?

Sum, Sum, Summertime

Yes, it's hot here in Your Nation's Capitol. Once again, we should have heat indexes over 110. I've got on my coolest flax linen outfit, since I've got a meeting several miles away with my peer group - we all are doing summer parish internships. It will be nice to see my friends and be somewhere different for a change. Tomorrow is a Clericus meeting for our region, so I'll go with my supervisor - we're meeting with our Bishop Coadjutor, so it should be interesting.

PH is out in CA. His race across America will start tomorrow. I cannot imagine cycling across the desert. Then again, I can't imagine cycling any sort of long distance. Just sayin'.

Stay cool and peaceful.

New Things

Today is my first day at my summer field internship at Saint Diverse. An apt name, since it is diverse in all ways. Single priest on staff, so I'll get to do lots of stuff. I'll even get to preach five Sundays and three Wednesdays.

Unlike Saint Middle School, where I do Field Ed during the school year, Saint Diverse is just a few miles from home, about 15 minutes in rush hour traffic. Given that gas is now $4 a gallon, that's a good thing. Saint Middle School is 40 miles away.

It's such an interesting thing seeing how different priests approach the work and the liturgy each in their own way. I spent a couple hours this morning with my supervisor, learning how he does things and why he's made the choices he has. I'm fortunate to have such thoughtful supervisors.

It is still odd to be away from school. I just ordered some books for the honors thesis - preliminary summer reading. I've started laying out the beginnings of my summer pastoral care project. I feel like I should be doing more, but with the sermon prep, the summer project, and beginning the reading for the thesis, I probably shouldn't worry about it.

Luther was, in his early life, afflicted with an overly developed sense of scrupulosity. I fear I've got tendencies in that direction, too.

PH is riding the two-day MS150 in Capital of the Confederacy this weekend, a training ride for his participation starting June 11th in the Race Across America, a 3000 mile event going form San Diego to Annapolis. He's part of a four-person team and they expect it will take them 7 1/2 (!) days. I am riding neither 150 miles, nor 3000, just trying to get in a 45 minute walk every day in hopes of continuing to lose weight - I've gotten stuck on a weight-loss plateau and I know that only exercise will get me past it.

So that's the news around here. I've got Vestry Meeting at Saint Diverse tonight - always an interesting way to know what the dynamics are in a parish.

Hallelujah!

All exams are done. All papers are in. To wrap everything up with a bow, I had my candidacy interview with the Commission on Ministry today and they said they will enthusiastically recommend me for candidacy.

A surprising moment: I went to the chapel to pray and calm myself for a few minutes before going to the candidacy interview (some of the interviewers have the reputation of being snarky, so I was a tad worried), and my advisor happened to be there. I really appreciate her great gifts as a teacher and a scholar, but she isn't the warmest, fuzziest person in the world. She came over and said, "You've got the candidacy interview at 1?" "Yes" And she put her arms around me and gave me a big hug, and said "It will go very well. Don't be afraid." It was twice as sweet in its unexpectedness.

I guess this makes me a senior, and a candidate. Remarkable - it seems to have gone so quickly, although in the midst of it, it sometimes seemed interminable.

Thanks be to God.