High Church and Friends in Low Places.

St. Paul's K. St
It was an absolutely beautiful service in an absolutely beautiful place.

On Friday night we celebrated the birthday of one of my classmates.  He has been living away from his home for the last few years and so this was the first time he'd had a large crowd to celebrate his birthday with in a while.  It was decided early on we'd head to a little Mexican place for margaritas and karaoke.

It was everything you'd expect and more.  As with most karaoke nights, things started off fairly quietly, leading into rather rousing renditions of songs folks knew.  Highlights included classmates singing, Three Little Birds by Marley, My Way, Friday I'm in love, American Pie, and, of course, friends in low places.  Though yours truly did no singing, I will happily admit I was thoroughly entertained.  Karaoke isn't usually my thing, but it was a really delightful evening, in spite of the horrific weather.

Saturday, most of us took a sabbath and did basically nothing.  After two weeks of packed days with tons of information, both educational and practical, it was a wonderfully lazy day of rest and recovery. One of my classmates brought her XBox 360 and we set it up in my dorm's common room and spent a sizable chunk of the afternoon playing video games.  It's surprising how nice a little time playing Halo can be after trying to cram Greek declensions into one's brain.

On Sunday, a small group of us went to St. Paul's Parish on K St. in Washington, DC.  The beautiful historic parish was high church at its highest.  Though a little higher than I'd like to participate in every Sunday, the service was beautiful, engaging all the senses and including a liberal use of incense, which I love.

The building itself was also beautiful.  For those who are unaware, the Chapel at VTS suffered a catastrophic fire last october and was completely gutted and rendered structurally unsafe.  As a result, we meet for chapel in a room that has been temporarily modified to serve as our chapel, and while it is a well lit, practical and perfectly nice space, I also LOVE going to church in a beautifully built worship space with exquisite stained glass and great music, all of which St. Paul's had.

Spending time every morning in out chapel for Morning Prayer, Eucharist, Noonday prayer or any other service has underlined just how true the adage is that the church is not the walls or the art, but it also calls to attention that while beautiful liturgy can be done anywhere, beautiful buildings, beautiful space, and beautiful art can all contribute additional depth and meaning to the experience.


On wednesday of this week I have my second Greek quiz, and this one is a bit more serious than "write out the alphabet."  My sister is coming to town thursday for a visit and then on Saturday I'm going to my first ever MLS game to watch my beloved Portland Timbers take on DC United at RFK stadium.  Heck of a week coming up, but it should be a blast.

Peace.

Daniel

A little something in the window at St. Paul's for you fans of UNC!

Patios, Passing Cars, and Postulants

Yeah, that's Lara Shine shutting me down like I'm a
rust belt factory.

As I'm writing this I'm sitting on our dormitory patio, chatting with some friends, having a drink, and listening to a fellow North Carolinian with a fantastic voice playing her guitar.  It's about 75 degrees outside and is just about perfect. It's worth pointing out that the girl singing is the same one who's totally stuffing me in the photo.

In any case, today was a challenging day.  We spent eight hours today in Safe Church training, learning how to protect ourselves and others from dangerous and abusive situations.  It was both an extremely useful and an extremely taxing day.  It did impress upon me the seriousness of the role I and my fellow seminarians are preparing to take on.  The responsibilities we have to those who will be in our care are immense, and it takes an exceptional level of vigilance to ensure that we never take advantage, intentionally or not of the position we will one day find ourselves in.

On a lighter note the highlight of my week is generally the two or three soccer games we play.  Our friendly matches involve a pretty wide variety of ages, abilities, and skill levels (there's a 6 year old who's probably got more raw talent than anyone else on the field) but we all play together and everyone manages to have a pretty good time.  (Shame the whole church isn't like that...) One pretty awesome thing that happened at our game yesterday.

We play down in what's called the Trotter Bowl. It's a flat bit of field at the bottom of the hill and is adjacent to Quaker St (Yes, the Seminary is actually abutted by Seminary Rd and Quaker St Ln.) In any case, we'd been playing for about an hour when an enthusiastic clearance was kicked out toward the road.  We watched as the ball rolled.  And it rolled.   And it didn't stop.  And it kept rolling.  Then we saw it disappear over the curb just as a car was coming.  Then we heard the thud of the ball getting run over by a little two door coupe.  One of my Sewanee schoolmates who is also here was chasing it down and had to run a solid 100 yards down the street from where it had gone into the road.  We were getting ready to play with the spare ball we had when he yelled up that the ball was not only in one piece, it was still inflated and playable.

Heck of a ball, eh?

Turns out you can survive a whole lot more than you'd expect from time to time.

VTS Soccer.  We're going to join a city league.  For real.
We're making jerseys and everything.

Thanks to the Rev. Adam Thomas for the catch on Quaker Lane, not Quaker Street.  Yea, Sewanee's Right!