Where is God in this all?

Last night after sending off yet another round of answers to a parish discernment committee, I had an strong sense of sadness. I needed to go back and look at like answers from 10-15 years ago when I was in other searches with congregations to pin down exactly what caused my malaise. What I saw confirmed what I felt: the preponderance of questions nowadays concern the institution, the administration and running of a congregation and no longer ask things such as: what authors do I read, who inspires me, what my core values are, what is my theological understanding of the sacraments, who is Jesus for me, and questions of that nature. Fair enough, a congregational discernment committee wants to know what sort of administrator I will be, how I will manage their finances, and how I will help the church grow (I cannot stand the current trendy phrase, 'to grow the church;' it sets my teeth on edge). I am OK with this; it is just that I miss discussion of the other things. That discussion eventually comes out in an interview if one is lucky, but as the initial introduction, the practical shows up first.

Several of the questions from the Office of Transitional Ministry focus on the doing rather than the being of a priest in community, though one certainly can weave in one's theology and core values:

Describe a moment in your recent ministry that you recognise as one of success and fulfillment.
Describe your liturgical style and practice.
How do you practice incorporating others in ministry?
How do you care for your spiritual and emotional well-being?
Describe your involvement in either the wider church or geographical community.
How do you engage in pastoral care for others?
Tell about a ministry project that exists because of your leadership. What was your role in its creation? Who are its contacts?
How are you preparing yourself for the Church of the future?
What is your personal practice of stewardship and how do you utilize it to influence your ministry in your worshipping community?
What is your experience of conflict involving the church? And what is your experience in addressing it?
What is your experience of leading/addressing change in the church? When has it gone well? When has it gone poorly? And what did you learn?

Congregations submitting their form answer this set of questions:

Describe a moment in your worshipping community's recent ministry that you recognise as one of success and fulfillment.
How are you preparing yourselves for the Church of the future?
Please provide words describing the gifts and skills essential to the future leaders of your worshipping community.
Describe your liturgical style and practice for all types of worship in your community.
How do you practice incorporating others in ministry?
As a worshipping community, how do you care for your spiritual, emotional and physical well-being?
How do you engage in pastoral care for those beyond your worshipping community?
Describe your worshipping community's involvement in either the wider church or geographical community.
Tell about a ministry that your worshipping community has initiated in the past 5 years. Who can be contacted about this project?
What is your practice of stewardship and how does it shape the life of your worshipping community?
What is your worshipping community's experience of conflict? And how have you addressed it?
What is your experience of leading/addressing change in the church? When has it gone well? When has it gone poorly? And what did you learn?

As you can see, most of the questions overlap. They are fine questions; they invite reflection and conversation since priest and congregation basically answer the same things.

But when do we get to talk about God? Jesus? The Holy Spirit working in our lives? Oh, they can and should be woven into an answer, but the focus of the question does not always permit a full exploration of these aspects of our faith.

Then parish questions follow the same line of thinking (the questions below are a composite of some of the questions I have answered in the past seventeen months):

Of the work you have done during the past year, what single thing has been the most satisfying to you, and why?
What intrigues you and what challenges you about St. Swithin’s profile, and why?
What beyond your current resume and OTM portfolio do you think is important that we know about you, and what isn’t in our profile that you would especially like to know about us when we talk?
Describe your experience in developing a multi-year plan for a church where you have been the Rector.
What is in our Profile that is of particular interest to you? Why?
Describe a recent accomplishment and a recent challenge in your ministry, and how your leadership affected the outcome?
What potential benefits and drawbacks would you anticipate in a ministry at Saint Swithin's?


What intrigues me is a focus on 'success' and 'satisfaction' with whatever ministry one has done. Should we be emphasising a notion of success in ministry? Does success overshadow service? And are success and satisfaction one and the same? If I encourage some sort of ministry, am I doing so to guarantee success or is it because I am trying to live the words of Jesus? Do we do what we do because we are trying to be faithful to the Gospel message of hope and reconciliation?

Perhaps my angst comes from knowing what life in a small congregation is compared to life in a large congregation, where ministry is more hands-on with fewer layers of committees and hierarchy. Part of it might also come from knowing that more and more congregations can no longer support a 'professionally' trained priest; that a full-time position in this part of the country is going the way of the dinosaurs. More and more of us will have to become bivocational priests, finding alternative sources of income while engaging in ministry. That, in turn, can invite more people into ministry. Perhaps some of my reaction comes from the total sense of uncertainty the institutional church faces across the denominational board. The institutional church occupies a very different place in society than it used to; we can no longer count on civic religion to carry us; we need to get back to basics, the gospel.

This post is a bit rambling because I am still trying to figure out just exactly what is triggering these thoughts. Maybe others can kibbitz and help nail it down. Am I off-base for wondering where have gone the conversations about theology, God and our love of Jesus? I ask myself what I always ask of others: 'What else is going on here?'

That answer is for another post, another time.

What sort of an Advent message is this?

From the Archbishop of Canterbury's Advent message (snipped from ENS):

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has used his Advent letter to the Primates of the Anglican Communion and moderators of the United Churches to reiterate that the "Communion matters" to its members across the world and to the mission of God.

"The communion is a gift, not a problem to all such people and many more. Only in such a mutually supportive family, glorifying and praising God in Christ together, can we truly make known the one Christ."

So far, so good.

The Archbishop's letter acknowledged the "numerous tensions" in the communion, but cautioned communion members never to say "I have no need of you" to anyone seeking to serve Jesus Christ. He also used the letter to appeal for "more careful and dispassionate discussion" on such issues as the powers of Primates' meetings as well as calling for "a sustained willingness on the part of all provinces to understand the different ways in which each local part of the Anglican family organizes its life."

Williams also commended the Anglican Communion Covenant "as strongly as I can," stressing that it would neither change the structure of the Communion nor give "some sort of absolute power of 'excommunication' to some undemocratic or unrepresentative body."

"It outlines a procedure, such as we urgently need, for attempting reconciliation and for indicating the sorts of consequences that might result from a failure to be fully reconciled," he said. "It alters no Province's constitution, as it has no canonical force independent of the life of the Provinces. It does not create some unaccountable and remote new authority but seeks to identify a representative group that might exercise a crucial advisory function." (1, see below)

He said the fact that the moratoria were being "increasingly ignored" was deepening mistrust "which is bad for our mission together as Anglicans, and alongside other Christians as well. The question remains: if the moratoria are ignored and the Covenant suspected, what are the means by which we maintain some theological coherence as a communion and some personal respect and understanding as a fellowship of people seeking to serve Christ?"

Out of 13 paragraphs, only paragraph 9 comes close to speaking to the mystery of Advent, the child in the crib whose gaze looks to the heavens.

I can't say that this letter is one I would hold up as particularly inspiring in regards to Advent.

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The letter states (direct quote):

(1) 7. This of course relates also to the continuing discussion of the Anglican Covenant. How it is discussed, the timescale of discussion and the means by which decisions are reached will vary a lot from Province to Province. We hope to see a full report of progress at next year's Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meeting. In spite of many assurances, some Anglicans evidently still think that the Covenant changes the structure of our Communion or that it gives some sort of absolute power of 'excommunication' to some undemocratic or unrepresentative body. With all respect to those who have raised these concerns, I must repeat that I do not see the Covenant in this light at all. It sets out an understanding of our common life and common faith and in the light of that proposes making a mutual promise to consult and attend to each other, freely undertaken. It recognizes that not doing this damages our relations profoundly. It outlines a procedure, such as we urgently need, for attempting reconciliation and for indicating the sorts of consequences that might result from a failure to be fully reconciled. It alters no Province's constitution, as it has no canonical force independent of the life of the Provinces. It does not create some unaccountable and remote new authority but seeks to identify a representative group that might exercise a crucial advisory function. I continue to ask what alternatives there are if we want to agree on ways of limiting damage, managing conflict and facing with honesty the actual effects of greater disunity. In the absence of such alternatives, I must continue to commend the Covenant as strongly as I can to all who are considering its future.

[end quote]

Obviously our Constitution and Canons does not seem to apply here. I don't know where he gets the idea that a province's constitution will not be altered. And I don't know why one should be speaking of 'damage.' All depends in the eyes of the beholder, methinks.

Damage at the National Cathedral

RNS
Quake-damaged National Cathedral faces millions in repairs
By LAUREN MARKOE
c. 2011 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) The iconic Washington National Cathedral, already struggling with financial problems, faces millions of dollars in repair costs from the damage inflicted by Tuesday's (Sept. 23) East Coast earthquake.

And nothing is covered by insurance, according to a church official.

Clergy and a team of architects and engineers spent the day after the magnitude 5.8 quake assessing the cathedral, and found significant damage, including fallen carved angels on the church's roof, cracks in flying buttresses, and missing finials from the pinnacles of the central tower.

"We run a very tight budget here at the cathedral and we have had our financial challenges that we've worked through very well," the Very Rev. Samuel Lloyd, dean of the cathedral, said Wednesday.

"But there is nothing in our budget that would allow us to step up and do this," he said.

Joe Alonso, the cathedral's head stone mason, said it will take years to complete the repairs.

"It's going to be millions, no doubt about it. Millions," he said. "As large as this structure is, it's all hand made."

Hit hard by the recession, the Episcopal cathedral in recent years has weathered several rounds of staff layoffs and been forced to cut programming.

The charge now, Lloyd said, is to go back to those who contributed to the construction of the cathedral, which began in 1907 and was completed in 1990.

"It was built by people from across the country who believe having this space for the nation in the heart of the nation's capital is a hugely important enterprise," said Lloyd. A new feature on the cathedral's website encourages donations.

The cathedral, the second largest in the nation, will be closed through Saturday as engineers continue to assess the damage. Church officials say they hope it will be open for Sunday services.

Officially, the cathedral is the mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, but bills itself as a "house of prayer for all people."

The earthquake and the subsequent damage "has not been a jarring thing for our faith," Lloyd said. "What it has done it challenge us to claim our faith, to go to work to make this place be as grand as beautiful and powerful as its always been."

+++

Wondering, a bit heretical, if it would not be better not to leave the damage as a testimony to the history of the cathedral... after all, the cathedrals in Europe show their wear and tear.

Stabilise what needs support such as the buttresses, of course, but wait to repair the others.

Anyone else agree?

Add your caption

Meanwhile, in the House follies, H677 passed with a whopping eight-vote margin, hardly a whopping mandate. Here is what we look like today... there is a lot of red between the coasts. How much does this mirror the church today?

Another rhetorical question

Why is it that, after so much banging the drum and getting on the case of the Executive Council Task Force D020 that is tracking the progress of the Anglican Covenant to release the Standing Commission on Constitution and Canon's report on said document and impugning the motives of members of the task force for not having done so immediately, there has been almost virtual silence about the contents of the SCCC report?

For the amount of sturm und drang and angst about this report not being made public, I would have expected some chatter about the implications contained in said report — which are considerable. Instead... the blogosphere has moved onto the next investigation.

Just musing.

Herein lies a problem

From the NYT report on the Church of England's vote on the 'Anglican Covenant':

'Bishop Michael Perham of Gloucester also had reservations, but said he was voting in favor partly out of loyalty to Williams.'

So in being loyal to Archbishop Williams, these bishops (I figure white and, of course, male because the CoE won't allow women to be bishops yet) are going to chuck aside all notion of Anglican compromise, the Via Media, which has worked well for five centuries. As we know, the GAFCON (just typed GAGCON which is not too far off the mark) crowd has already rejected the 'covenant.'

Frankly, if The Episcopal Church is shunted off to a second-tier status, we may be more free — free to proclaim the gospel of radical hospitality that Jesus proclaimed, not a narrow, literalistic and legalistic reading of the biblical narrative. The relationships around the globe that many of us have established with other provinces of the Anglican Communion will continue. And, at this point, if the ACNA-ites become the Anglican presence in the United States, TEC might still be able to thrive as it continues to be honest about who it is.

Not too clear but this whole covenant process has been a frustration because the cards were stacked against us from the get-go. Why should we be at all surprised that the CoE has voted as it did?

Post millennial blues

We all thought the world was going to collapse with the Y2K change. But here we still are ten years later. What is changing is that the world is becoming more and more conservative. I dread to think of where it will be in another ten years.

In today's paper: Catholic Bishops Elect Dolan

'The election consolidates the gradual shift in leadership and priorities for the bishops conference. From the 1970’s through the 1990’s, the conference was a center for progressive Catholicism in a distinctly American guise, releasing ambitious teaching documents on issues such as economic inequality, workers rights, the environment, peace and war. While the bishops still do take up issues such as immigration and poverty, they are far more focused on shaping public policy to stop abortion and prevent the legalization of marriage between same-sex couples.'

Yup, it is way, way more important to regulate the expressions of human sexuality (i.e., one would not have to deal with abortion if contraception were permitted in this value system).

In this day and age, The Episcopal Church can no longer count on disaffected Catholics crossing the street. They walk out the door to become part of the great de-churched alumni/ae association because institutional religion is seen to be too bigoted. We've got an archbishop across the pond in England who is trying to emulate the Roman hierarchy while making Anglicans into confessing people. And he is trying, through the dint of repetition, to create ex nihilo the Anglican 'Church,' as though this communion is a monolithic church rather than the collection of provincial expressions throughout the world. Then there is this proposed covenant which should never have gained traction but it still seems to have a life of its own.

We have so much work to do.

But will there still be a church?

Or is the millennium a decade or two behind in arriving for the millennialists?

Not terribly popular methinks

At midnight, here is how responses were running to the question, 'Should the Church of England reject the Anglican Covenant?'

Ha.

Wow, I am honoured

From Walking with Integrity

An example of obfuscation

The Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon, canon theologian for the South Carolina diocese, told ENS that the convention's action is "significant … in that it enables us to pursue the bishop's vision of making biblical Anglicans for a global age while resisting the national leadership's attempts to change our polity in violation of own constitution and the basic principles of justice and due process."

There's another term for this: nonsense (and worse, falsehood).

Our standing committee spent hours on the consent process for this diocese and ultimately voted not to consent because these actions are precisely what we felt would happen. We were not assured by their bishop-elect's statements that he would make efforts to remain fully in The Episcopal Church. It is said and wrong to say, 'We told you so,' but unfortunately, we were not off the mark.

May those Episcopalians who want to be part of the broad church and not some dressed-up Calvinist break-away sect find safe places to worship and be assured that they are not crazy nor consorting with the evil.

As the Anglican Digest of which Mr Harmon is its editor would say: Makes the heart sad.

A different take on this morning

from the Living Church...

Of course the first item is the sexuality one whereas that does not really show up in the ENS article.

Questions asked of Kenneth Kearon

Here are the questions that the World Mission Standing Committee of Executive Council prepared and asked this morning of Kenneth Kearon.

There is a covenant being considered that has in it certain processes, some of which have caused great concern for some of the provinces on how fairly they would be applied. For example, the Province of New Zealand gave only partial approval to the covenant, with members of its General Synod noting that Section 4 could “get into a situation where we sanctify a process of exclusion or marginalization” and that it might be implemented in ways that are “punitive, controlling and completely unAnglican.” Do the recent actions of the Archbishop of Canterburygive credence to theseconcerns? [Canon Rosalie Balletine, Esq., Chair of the World Mission Legislative Committee, Diocese of the Virgin Islands]

There are always consequences to living authentically as Christians. Within relationships among Christians, however, we ought to have opportunity to question those consequences, lest all end up walking on eggshells. Is there such a process now? And, do you foresee a season of such sanctions or is the removal of ecumenical committee appointees from The Episcopal Church an isolated event?[President of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson, Diocese of Michigan]

You have stated that The Episcopal Church does not “share the faith and order of the vast majority of the Anglican Communion.” Given the place of the Chicago Lambeth Quadrilateral in our common life as The Episcopal Church, how was it determined that The Episcopal Church does not share this faith and order? [Blanca Echeverry, Esq., Diocese of Colombia]

I am Jim Simons, a priest resident in the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh which, as I’m sure you are aware, went through a recent and painful schism. Currently, there are over 100 priests, deacons and one bishop canonically resident in the Province of The Southern Cone as well as another Bishop canonically resident in the Province of Rwanda functioning in our diocese without licenses and laying claim to some of our parishes. This is in clear violation of the canons and it is also not unique to our diocese. What if any disciplinary action do you anticipate toward provinces who engage in such jurisdictional incursions? [the Rev’d James Simons, Diocese of Pittsburgh]

As a lesbian priest, in a 20-year relationship, legally recognized civil union in my state for ten years , and serving in a congregation, I ask this question because inclusion is very important to me. In his Pentecost letter, the Archbishop of Canterbury said, “We are praying for a new Pentecost for our Communion. That means above all a vast deepening of our capacity to receive the gift of being adopted sons and daughters of the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It means a deepened capacity to speak of Jesus Christ in the language of our context so that we are heard and the Gospel is made compelling and credible.” Removing people by executive action seems counter-intuitive to furthering inclusion. How is the exclusion of Episcopal Church members reconciled with the language of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Pentecost letter? [the Rev’d Canon Lee Alison Crawford, Diocese of Vermont]

The Church of England remains in full communion and ecumenical dialogue with the Old Catholic Church, which blesses same-sex unions, and the Church of Sweden, which has a partnered lesbian bishop and blesses same-sex marriages. Given this fact, how are we to reconcile the removal of Episcopal Church members from ecumenical bodies? [the Rt Rev’d Wendell Gibbs, Bishop of Michigan]

+

He visibly blinked and drew back as I identified myself. I thought that body language was telling... when faced with the 'issue' at hand, it is a bit harder to deny its existence, though the answer was clear that blessings of same-sex relationships has risen to the level of faith and order and seems to be the deal-breaker in ecumenical discussions, that because TEC has engaged in same-sex blessings and consecrating a partnered lesbian to the episcopacy, we no longer can participate in these conversations because we do not ascribe to the faith and order. My follow-up question should have been: Since when and how has blessings become so important?

I will say that EC was gracious and restrained in its comportment. I am also very glad that EC voted against going into private conversation as requested. (The press gasped when he asked this of us.)

More later.

Go to it

all you Cafe Press folks...

In response to my question about inclusion, and why were TEC people now excluded from conversations on the ecumenical level, the answer was totally directed toward 'faith and order,' that is, for most practical purposes, same-sex blessings is now a communion-breaking 'issue' of faith and order.

Had I had my wits about me, I would have asked, Since when has blessings become so important that it is the deal-breaking question of faith and order?

So, my proposed t-shirt is:

My relationship is a Communion-breaking issue of 'faith and order.'

Go to it.

Ça commence

Go to the Lead for the full story.

Let's count how many days have passed since the great feast of Pentecost... two weeks.

It took the powers-that-be 14 days instead of 24 hours to kick those members of The Episcopal Church off the relevant Anglican Communion committees — the Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order and the Inter Anglican ecumenical dialogue committee. I guess things have slowed down some? After all, the election of a certain fabulous candidate for bishop suffragan made comment within 24 hours. (As a reminder, it took a week for the ABC's office to acknowledge the near-assassination of one of the Anglican Communion's primates, the Archbishop of IARCA.)

The Church of Canada and Southern Cone are respectively being asked to 'clarify' their positions on not 'obeying the moratoria.' Guess border-crossing is less a threat to the uniformity of the communion than teh gays.

So once again, TEC is the ABC's favourite kicking post. The gut says let's pack up and go but that just means that in the vacuum, the more shrill and exclusionary voices will be heard.

Operating from the head, I say show up anyway and hold our heads high for there is nothing of which we are to be ashamed.

I can't really write too much because I am peeved enough with this basura to be coherent. All I can say is: More and more my plumbline is proving true:

Is a decision/teaching/attitude of Christ or of the Church? If those of the Church contradict those of Christ, then I eschew them.

Right now those decisions of this particular branch of the Church, in this particular office of a certain archbishop, are not anything remotely connected to those of Christ.

Leave it to the Dead Sect

to come up with a headline like this:

PB Alleges Colonialism, Spiritual Violence

The Living Church (aka the Dead Sect) can be counted on for focusing on the most negative thing the editors can find and writing from that stance.

Meanwhile, the soul here is refreshed to see such a firm but gracious letter stating where TEC stands and who TEC is... and makes clear (I trust) that we are not going back.

More later but the workload on my desk is stacked up like planes at LaGuardia at 5.00 PM on a weekday evening.

Twenty-four hours later

I wrote the kernel of this in a response over at Mark's blog, but figure it is worth (?) expanding... so here goes.

The blogosphere has erupted in analysis of the latest missive of the Archbishop of Canterbury with comments ranging from, 'It is a slap on the wrist,' to the predictable, 'It does not go far enough.' Most of the comments land in the realm of, 'Here we go again, it is another attempt to kick out The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.' Mark, over at Preludium, has posted those names of people who would, by the criteria of the letter, no longer be able to function on the 'Anglican curia' or in ecumenical dialogue but most of the blogosphere seems to think who are we kidding when we suggest that the southern churches would be blocked from participating.

Having attempted earlier this week to mediate an unhappy situation that risked becoming an unholy fire, and realising that we were never going to get the two parties to agree, I worked instead on finding a way of apologising, letting go and moving on. And so I ask in this situation what I did earlier this week:

How come the ABC can't do as a mediator would by saying: 'I realise that all parties hold their perspective on the point in dispute, they have their own truths. Rather than try to find a common narrative because I realise we are never going to agree on this particular point, let us instead let go and move on forward.'

Of course it is naive to think that those who are so anti-gay would let go — we have seen too many times that it is a fight to the death cause — and therein lies the wrench in the works. And because of that intractability, the other side (me) says, 'Fine, we're going on ahead regardless because we do not want to be dragged back.' Still, some leadership that would acknowledge the variables, recognise the cultural readings on this, and respect the traditional Anglican approach toward scripture which is not a literalistic reading, instead of creating some sort of punitive document (aka the Anglican Covenant), could help immensely.

For the ABC's saying that the Anglican Covenant is not punitive I dare to disagree given his explanation to the press that follows his Pentecost letter. Kicking people off committees is just the start.

I do think that formulating a response to the Anglican Covenant on the part of TEC is spitting in the wind. A quoi bon? The ABC has already decided what he wants to do with us. I do not want to see TEC backtrack in the name of appeasement.

And what has been done — ordaining people of whom the ABC does not approve — cannot be undone. For the Bishop of Durham to reference the Long Beach ordinations as everything wrong with the church simply shows everything wrong with the straw arguments emanating from the other side of the aisle. Why are people complaining about the smudging? How does that differ from censing a priest before s/he begins the eucharistic canon? And why is it offensive to have dancers from the different peoples within the Diocese of Los Angeles? To those who disagree, I suggest not so gently to get a grip. As for the consecration liturgy, it is beyond me what was wrong or missing except the fact that for some it involved two women and for others, it involved a woman whose life-partner is a woman.

When I think of the time and money that has been spent on this covenant business, I get quite cross. When I think of the energy that has been misdirected into this realm of discussion in lieu of God's mission in the world, I get even crankier.

Yet this is the deck of cards we have been dealt so we might as well play this hand out to the end, regardless where we end up, in or out. Regardless, not all of the individual relationships that people from TEC have established with communion partners will dissolve even if the communion does.

Just some morning cup of coffee musings as it sprinkles out (thereby making it impossible to mow the lawn).

[image: Los Angeles hands on a cross one arm of which is shorter than the rest, symbolising our incompleteness and brokenness, that we are not all yet one... if I remember correctly what Bishop Bruno said of the cross at the consecrations]

Round and round and round we go...

So finally tomorrow I will get to go home, just in time for vestry. Meanwhile, I will have been out to California, back to New York City, zipped off to Indianapolis and finally by way of Philly will get back to Vermont.

This little missive is being posted from the hotel lobby... a place where, should I be re-elected as deputy, I may be occupying in 2012 during General Convention!

My brain has been challenged by the past three days of intense meetings on disparate matters — the final Anglican Covenant and what TEC's response might be to it and today, working with a stellar and impressive team of five preparing for a CREDO-Church Pension Group-sponsored program, Strength for the Journey, being offered for the clergy and lay leaders of the Eglise Episcopale d'Haiti. We will meet in Santo Domingo for the simple reason that there is no place in Haiti that can handle the group and because we want them to go to a place where they won't fear the buildings will come down on them and there is running water, electricity and less chaos.

Meanwhile, assorted photos of the past several days...


Remember Trans World Airlines, aka, Toughest Way Across? Their terminal at JFK, NYC was award-winning but hopelessly antiquated as the security measures kicked in -- the pods were never designed to be blocked off; hence, there were no places to sit or eat because they were in the open main part (that you see). The original building was lovely in its own right — we took my sister there in the 1960s for her to fly off to Spain. But by the late 1980s, 1988 to be exact when I flew to Spain, the place was cramped and dingy. When Jet Blue put up their new terminal, rather than tear the TWA building down, they simply surrounded it. One sees the old building as one walks from the main Jet Blue terminal to the Air Train (finally!!!! Yes, there is public transportation from downtown Manhattan to JFK).

'
The old stomping grounds in NYC, the General Theological Seminary, have also changed greatly. The old front building, which was falling apart, was torn down in 2008, and a new condo building built in its place. If you have $2.5M you can buy a two-BR condo that looks over the Close. I think the penthouse apartment is $4M. Seminarians can no longer enter from Ninth Avenue; they must walk halfway down 21st Street to get in a side gate. This is a huge change to the 'hood (and the seminary took a lot of flack from the Chelsea Preservation folks).


The back end of the Close, on Tenth Avenue, is a lot spiffier than in my days. It used to be that the faculty parking garage was off Tenth — a dismal affair. The dorm, Eigenbrodt on the left and faculty apartments on the right, looked over a somewhat decayed neighbourhood. Chelsea has gentrified and Eigenbrodt is now a fancy hotel, called the Tutu Center. (It also serves as a meeting place.)


The old rail tracks on an elevated line have been converted into the Highline and it is a very pleasant walk. From it, one sees the seminary and the Empire State Building. This past Sunday was a gorgeous night and walking up there was a polyglot experience.


From above ground tracks, one descends down into the subway, a noisy but eminently practical means of transportation. This photo is from my old station, 23rd on Eighth.


Times Square is a lot better than it used to be though it is just as crowded. To get to Grand Central Station from Eighth, one has to wander up and down long corridors until one arrives at the Shuttle that runs between 42nd Street and Grand Central.


And then one arrives at Grand Central (GCT), spared by the 1960s wrecking ball that took down Penn Station. When GCT was restored a decade or so ago, they uncovered the constellations on the ceiling of the main room. I love this station for its size (it also is the main headquarters in Planet of the Apes). It is hard to believe that my father went in and out of this place twice a day for nearly thirty years.


The white onyx clock is the largest onyx clock in the world (that is, the faces are the largest), if I remember correctly. It is worth a pretty penny.


Little did we realise that four out of the six people on the D020 Task Force are Mac users. It was a mini Mac-convention on the third floor of 815.

Here endeth your mini-tour of NYC.

Wonders never cease

Who would believe that I can sit in a cramped airplane but at least have the luxury of free wifi and satellite radio to entertain me? Such small luxuries make up for the flight leaving 1h40 late which makes arrival in my next port (Indianapolis — I am going in the wrong direction from home) a bit more arduous for the hour.

The D020 Task Force finished up its work today. Y'all will see the questions and study guide we produced sometime this summer.

Meanwhile, there was enough time to go to the noontime Eucharist at the Episcopal Church Center. Only seven of us showed up but it was good to put all my travelling around and work into perspective.


There are some wonderful icons and a copy (?) of a 14th-century Madonna and Son in the chapel. As always, I left a candle burning.







It is hard going to 815 nowadays because there are so few people there. The building is designed for a large workforce and no longer does our church have that staffing. I can hear certain deputies saying we should ditch 815 in NYC (I could quote their words because the argument never changes) and while the corporate model is of a bygone era, the emptiness signifies people who lost their jobs, people who were faithful in their duties.

My first trip to 815 was in 1991 with a class on church polity with Dr Pamela Darling. It was a great course, learning about General Convention and all the ins-and-outs from someone who was the President of the House of Deputies, Pamela Chinnis' right hand. The big treat at the end of the semester was trekking across town from General to 815, touring the whole building, meeting the various officers at the different desks and spending some time with the then-Presiding Bishop, Ed Browning.

Memory lane... later, some photos of NYC scenes, the subway, Grand Central Station and the newly opened Highline, a pedestrian walk up on an elevated set of railroad tracks that run down the west side.

Right now I feel the plane dropping altitude in arrival to IND so I will post this before I have to shut down the computer.

A quiet day at 815 Second Avenue

So, while the D020 Task Force of Executive Council tries to work upstairs there is a loud protest going on outside.

Go to Jim Simon's blog to see a video of this protest — it is a large group of Hassadim protesting the destruction of a cemetery in Jerusalem.

Back on the east coast

to a backlog but I will put down some of my impressions about the consecrations yesterday in Long Beach but let me post two photographs that mean a lot to me.


Archbishop Barahona came up from El Salvador to participate in the consecration, his last act of Primate of the Anglican Church of the Region of Central America. Post consecration he spoke of how powerful it is at the moment of laying on of hands because the Holy Spirit is so present. In the evening, he talked about how support of the LGBTI community is a question of human rights because our sexuality is a part of human nature and a gift from God. His ministry, support and witness have been gifts from God to the rest of us. May God continue to protect him.


There is no going back! Each bishop needed two pages for all the signatures and seals. Incredible!

I could not keep from singing, 'Hail thee festival day, blest day that art hallowed forever...'