Matriculation!

Hello all - Well, it's official... I've been matriculated. On Thursday evening we had a huge matriculation ceremony for all the new students during the evensong service. Each one of the new students signed their names in the matriculation book that has been used since 1822. It's pretty awesome to look through that book and see all the names of GTS alumni. It was an honor to put my name in that book. It was also an honor to listen to David Hurd improvise on St. Patrick's Breastplate for 20 minutes while all us new students, one at a time, signed the book. Following the service we had a large dinner banquet followed by a party on top of Sherril Hall. It was great (of course, Friday AM was a bit difficult for most of us).

I continue to enjoy all my classes. (I'm sure that theme will remain the same for some time.) I was thinking today about how different this is from work for so many reasons. As an example, at work, it was easy to leave work in the office and not think about it until 8:00 AM the next day. Here, there is no office to leave it in. All the work comes with me and I'm thinking about it all the time. The good news is I enjoy this material much more than the work I used to do. I continue to work out an appropriate balance between school work and personal time. Hopefully I'll find it soon. (I'm not sure though, with the baseball post season at hand... I'm a bit distracted - even more so if those Padres can make it to the playoffs.)

Now, for the church update. I visited St. Bart's on 51st and Park today.  St Bart's is a huge church with its current building completed in 1918. They have a substantial music program and the congregation was quite large. It seems like a pretty dynamic place but I understand they continue to work through financial difficulties and restoration issues. I especially like what they put at the bottom of the Sunday Bulletin:

"The worship is over. The service begins."

 

I'm expecting my mother on Tuesday, 2 October. She'll be here for a week and I hope we can get out and see some of the city (hopefully I'll have some time away from my studies). We have the Paddock lectures next week, an organ concert, and fall break starts Friday, October 5 through Tuesday, October 9. Next weekend a group of us will travel to Virginia to play football against VTS. I suspect we'll get pummeled but we'll have fun! I'll be sure to update you on those events.

Peace.

Catching Up

It's been awhile since I've written and much has happened. First and foremost, I finally had a complete week of classes. Along with that comes a full week of homework and reading. I'm doing my best to keep ahead of the assignments but it gets pretty tough. My Old Testament class is great. It is three hours long on Thursday nights but I thoroughly enjoy the lectures by Prof. Owens. It's been great. I've also been enjoying my Greek class. It's nice to use "the other" side of my brain (much more in line with my engineering background). And, much to my surprise, I tried out for the choir and made it! I'm hoping that it will allow me to become a better singer as I believe music and singing are very important parts of the liturgy. So, I'm ready for another week.

I've had some pretty interesting worship experiences the last two Sundays. As part of the Tutorial Seminar class I have been encouraged to worship at an Episcopal church with a worship style I have not had much experience with and to visit a church of another denomination. Last week I attended a 6:00PM contemporary liturgy at Epiphany Episcopal Church. It was a very interesting service using modern live music (piano, guitar, drums) throughout the service. Even during the Great Thanksgiving there was music in the background and images displayed beside the altar. I believe they refer to this as emerging liturgy. While I expected to find this distracting, it was actually quite nice and peaceful. The music performance was excellent and soothing. However, I did discover that for me personally some of the images were a bit unsettling. Overall, the worship was spirit filled and I think I'd like to go back and visit again.

Today I and several others went to a Baptist Church in the Bronx that is the home parish of one of my class mates. I have never been to a Baptist Church before today and this was certainly an eye opening experience. The service was 2.5 hours of spirit filled singing, preaching, praying and packed with "Amen"s. It was a pleasure to worship there. The congregation was very welcoming, and, although it was obvious I was an outsider, they made me feel at home. The service is significantly different than how I prefer to worship yet the presence of Christ can not be denied. I find it fascinating that although there are many different styles of worship (each of us with a style that works for us) and different interpretation of the scriptures, we remain brothers and sisters in Christ. Thanks be to God. 

To my Parish Family is Coronado, thanks so much for the prayers and support. I'm loving the postcards and I think they will come in handy when I'm looking at the snow covered close and dreaming of the warm San Diego days. And remember, if any of you make it to NYC, give me a call!

Until next time (and I'll try not to be so long between posts!)

Back to School

Well, I feel like I've finally come up for air. The first week of school ended well with a three hour Old Testament class on Thursday evening. I am looking forward to that class... in fact, I'm looking forward to all my classes. I attended the Church of the Holy Apostles on Sunday (that's right up the street from General on 28th and Ninth). The service was great and the music phenomenal (no doubt due to the gifts of Dr. Hurd, Holy Apostles' music director). Holy Apostles has a great ministry in the city of New York. They operate a soup kitchen at which they server more than 1000 meals each weekday! October 22 will be their 25th anniversary of this ministry... ahh the results of Gospel in action!

Following church on Sunday I volunteered at the opening of the Desmond Tutu Education Center (here at General). Volunteering was great: I was able to see the renovated building at the west end of the Close, observe the ribbon cutting (at which Bishop Tutu, Bishop Katherine, and Dean Ewing participated), and share in the Ubuntu banquet dinner which followed. Although the volunteers were not in the main hall, the speakers were displayed on video screens in the other rooms which afforded the privilege of hearing Archbishop Tutu speak about reconciliation and the spirit of Ubuntu. (In a nutshell, Ubuntu is the philosophy that: all of our lives are interdependent; our salvation is dependent upon the salvation of all others; individual welfare in the world depends upon welfare of everyone in the world. Again... that's a very high level view. Nobody can explain it like Bishop Tutu himself.) The conference then continued on Monday, Tuesday, and into this morning. 

During the conference there were many sessions on reconciliation efforts around the world and in different contexts. I attended a session on racial and social justice presented by Dr. Ed Rodman of EDS. I also attended a session on reconciliation in the Anglican Communion presented by Bishop Gene Robinson. I attended plenary sessions by Christopher Marshall, Archbishop Tutu and Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori, and a session on scriptural reasoning for inter-religious understanding. Attending the conference helped me to understand that while preaching the Gospel is important, the Gospel in action is necessary. I feel the desire to act but I believe that right now my job is to continue my formation, better preparing me to serve Christ in the world. In the meantime, I'm sure I will have opportunities to serve. One last note, I had the privilege of serving as one of the acolytes (a responsibility that falls upon he Junior class) during the eucharist at which Bishop Katherine presided. I had a blast! It was such a joy to serve at the altar with her.

I encourage all interested in the Tutu Center and the conference on reconciliation to follow this link . There are also some photos of the opening gala here. 

So, in summary, the last three weeks have been hectic; not much rest, not much normalcy, extraordinary events. I'm looking forward to classes becoming more regular. 

Thank you for all your prayers. Until next time - peace.

Pictures of the Chapel and the Close

Here are a couple of pictures, one of the sculpture behind the altar in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd and the other a picture I took on the close while waiting for chapel. (The foot in the bottom right belongs to my floormate.)

Classes Start Tuesday!

OK, I'm not sure orientation was supposed to leave me feeling disoriented but.... Orientation was like drinking from a fire hose, much information was shared including worship traditions, which books to use when during the sung services, meeting with faculty advisors, discussing insurance options, financial aid, business office, staff introductions and, of course, registration. As an incoming Junior my class selection was pretty much decided for me, save for a single elective. For all who are interested, here are my classes:
Old Testament 1 - Prof. Robert Owens
New Testament 1 - Prof. Dierdre Good
Church Music 1 - Prof. David Hurd
Tutorial Seminar - Dean Ward Ewing
Greek 10 - Prof. John Koenig (this is my elective)
I've also signed up for a writing class (hopefully this will help me transition for technical writing to theological writing).

I'm looking forward to the start of classes. Our first week will be a bit short (starting on Tuesday) and then we have an immediate break as classes are suspended for the opening of the Tutu Center and the Reconciliation at the Roundtable Conference. All students are registered for the conference and I am looking forward to attending. It will be incredible to hear Archbishop Tutu and PB Katherine speak.

Finally, I worshipped at St. Thomas at 53rd and 5th this Sunday. St. Thomas was very high church (no smoke though). It's been a long time since I've looked at the priests back during Eucharist. And know it's been two weeks in a row (last week at St. Mary's and this week). Also, I'd say that St. Thomas follows a Rite 1 service but, as they continue to use

the 1928 prayer book, that would be redundant as there is only one service for the Eucharist. St. Thomas has an enormous sculpture behind the altar. It fills the entire back wall of the church. I'd encourage anybody visiting NY to simply walk in and take a look.

OK then... next time I write there will be class work under my belt. Thank you all for your prayers!

Peace,
Joe