On Tuesday, two days ago, we had to evacuate our building. This was not a drill, however, but the real thing. As we made our way to the common meeting spot, we found out way we had to leave. There was an unattended suitcase left on the sidewalk in front of the building. The police evacuated about a three block radius around the suspect suitcase.
We spent about an hour or a bit less and it all ended up to be much ado about nothing. As one of the cops said when asked what was going on, “New York post 911.” I guess they do have to be vigilant. When, however, we honestly come to the point when all of “normal” life is disrupted and our responses and reactions are borne of paranoia, free, and distrust they have won.
I recently heard a guy, an expert in something or another, talking about our reaction to terror threats. He said that our best response would be to get back to normal as quickly as possible after an attack. “Terror” as a weapon of choice would soon stop being an effective way to force opponents to bend to terrorists’ demands.
We will not win this thing through force, no matter what the neo-hawks on Capital Hill or the White House seem to insist upon. Diplomacy will not stop this sort of thing, either, although in the long run it is the best path to pursue. The “true believers in the cause” will stop at nothing. If, however, they realize that terrorism will not force a society, a people, a system into submission, they will turn to other means (perhaps more terrible, perhaps for civilized).
In the City, we played our little part this week. To what end?
Once
Go see the movie, Once. It is great!
New, old, nothing new – all things new
Quote attributed to Thomas Merton (I say, attributed, because it wasn’t referenced and I haven’t found it yet):
“That which is oldest is most young and most new. There is nothing so ancient and so dead as human novelty. The ‘latest’ is always stillborn. What is really NEW is what was there all the time. I say, not what has repeated itself all the time; the really “new” is that which, at every moment, springs freshly into new existence. This newness never repeats itself. Yet it is so old it goes back to the earliest beginning. It is the very beginning itself, which speaks to us.”
Fashion – more than outwared appearances
When one is celebrating the Mass, one should be aware of wearing the right underwear.
Yeah, it makes a difference.
The old-new thing
Watch the video of Church of the Apostles and see the priest in the video, a friend/acquaintance of mine from seminary.
I like what they are doing.
What does a “youth” program look like in an urban, Anglo-Catholic parish?
I’ve been leading (stumbling through) the first stages of the discernment process for “Journey 2 Adulthood” with our “Discernment” and “Prayer” committees. Right now, we really don’t have much of a “youth group.”
I was reading an article not too long ago (I don’t have the reference?) by an Evangelical on this phenomena of American youth-groups. Basically, the author stressed that it has only been since around the 1950’s that this method of youth ministry sprung up. Before that, faith formation of young people happened primarily in the home, and the Church was there to help the parents. He also said that with today’s young people, perhaps we need to examine our current methods (he is writing primarily about Evangelical youth ministry, remember) and re-examine that was it was done for most of the history of the Christian Church. Consider a recent “study” that was done that suggested that only 4% of current Evangelical teenagers will pro-actively continue on in their faith after leaving home.
Our J2A discernment committee is taking a break over the summer, as does most everything during the summer months in New York City. As I continue to pray and think about our young people, the young people of this City, and what our physical plant suggests about how St. Paul’s viewed ministry to young people in its past.
St. Paul’s Church, as an Anglo-Catholic institution of The Episcopal Church, was not built for a modern-day “Sunday School” program or a current-day American youth group. There originally was no space provided for “Sunday School” classes whether for children or adults. Much of Christian formation was done through working in the Guilds of the Church and simply being together.
Within the Anglican-Catholic expression of the faith, it is expected that the people are engaged in their own spiritual growth at home, on the job, and in the parish. They give to God what is God’s, they love God with their entire being, and they love their neighbor as themselves – to varying degrees of success and failure of course. Sunday mornings are for the Mass – the celebration and receiving of the Eucharist, the hearing of the Word, and the prayers. The parish is also responsible for providing Daily Offices for integrative interaction of Scripture and prayer. The parish conducts instruction for a variety of things, but in ways different than what we may expect or envision today.
So, what does youth ministry for an urban, Anglo-Catholic parish look like? Young people are terribly busy and scheduled with all manner of other activities, as are their parent(s). So far, the traditional American understanding of youth ministry has fallen flat, and there are various other reasons for this other than busyness. But, what do we do now? What is the need, now? How do we best engage young people and be about their formation as pro-active, life-long, and faithful believers?
I am beginning to think it is not through “traditional” notions of “youth ministry.” J2A is a great program and perhaps the best I’ve seen. It is not really designed for urban youth ministry, however. We can adapt it, but is there something different we should be doing? I have no desire to remake the wheel, but I just don’t think that the “normal” means will work around this place at this time.
Has there be a fundamental shift in how we need to deal with our young people – with this generation? I don’t know, but I sense we are in the midst of such a shift.
iPhone
Okay, I saw my first iPhone yesterday. Yes, it is incredible! We are about to the point of Science Fiction communication devises!
I can get out of my current cell contract without penalty after August, but I don’t know whether to buy an iPhone then or wait until the next rendition in 2008, which will include a couple very nice additions – like a larger screen. Now, the current screen is really amazing – real Web, video, TV, etc. all look great, but an extra inch can make a world of difference.
Each One of Us
From “A Thomas Merton Reader,” edited by Thomas P. McDonnell.
Background – Thomas Merton had just arrived at Gethsemane, the Trappist monetary in Kentucky, as a postulant.
“In any case, the Father Abbott turned to us with just as much ease and facility as if he had nothing else whatever to do but to give the first words of advise to two postulants leaving the world to become Trappists.
“‘Each one of you,’ he said, ‘will make the community either better or worse. Everything you do will have an influence upon others. It can be a good influence or a bad one. It all depends on you. Our Lord will never refuse you grace…'” (p. 143)
In all of our communities, we must make a decision of whether we will be a good influence or a bad one, whether we will make the place we find ourselves better or worse. Our dispositions, our attitude, our words along with our actions will all contribute to whether we are a “smell of life” or a “smell of death.”
Which will it be? In all of our politicking, moralizing, and pontificating, what will it be? Are we an element that uplifts and encourages or an element that speeds the decent into banality, superficiality, hypocrisy, and idiocy?
Despite our person foibles and problems, we still have the ability to decide! Which will it be? How will we be known?
Communion without Baptism
A continuing discussion over at Daily Episcopalian/Episcopal Cafe covering Sacramental Theology and the surrounding issues, particularly addressed in this essay is Communion without Baptism (or Open Communion, as some refer to it).
The following is a portion of an essay written by Derek Olsen:
You see, Anglican—Christian—sacramental theology is the logic and theology of intimacy. Even the metaphors Scripture uses for the relationship between God and believers bespeak this intimacy: to abide, to dwell with, to remain within. The prophets and poets of sacred page have used time and again the figure of bride and groom in scandalous and sometimes shocking ways to communicate both the depths of intimacy (Revelation and the incomparable Song of Songs) and intimacy’s betrayal (Ezekiel and Hosea). Remembering the logic of intimacy, remaining faithful to its vision of life in relationship grounds our ritual ways, our liturgical practice, in a theology that honors the God who has chosen to be in relationship with us.
At the heart of intimacy is commitment. Nothing more—and nothing less. Intimacy is not instant; it grows over time. Intimacy is a process of growing into knowledge, love, and trust gradually—and its gradual nature demands that those growing remain committed to the process and to each other. It grows through hearing promises, then seeing those promises come true; through sharing truths, then recognizing and confirming those truths embodied in the patterns and rhythms of everyday life.
In our sacramental life, the moment of commitment is baptism. Like promises exchanged between lovers, like the promises made before the altar in marriage, baptism is a covenant relationship. God is constantly inviting us into relationship, simultaneously presenting and fulfilling the promise to be in relationship with the whole creation and with each individual member of it. In Baptism, individuals—or those presenting them—both recognize the call of God and return the commitment, recognizing the identity of God as it has been revealed to us in the baptismal creed and promising to be faithful to the relationship with God. This, we believe, is an everlasting covenant….
Coming from this perspective, Communion without Baptism misreads the logic of the liturgy. It demands intimacy without commitment, relationship without responsibility. To apply this same logic to another sphere of human relationship, this is the logic of the one night stand—the logic of the “meaningless†fling. Is this the relationship that we wish to have with the God who knows us each by name and who calls that name in the night, yearning for our return to the Triune embrace?…
The seekers, the strangers, the wanderers in our midst—they are the ones in view here. And here is my question; this is what we must answer to the satisfaction of our own consciences: Do we have the right to choose for the stranger and the seeker a relationship contradicting the logic of intimacy without offering them a yet more excellent way?
Kwik-E-Marts
It seems that 7-11 Convenience stores, at least some of them, are in the process of transformation into the Simpson’s Kwik-E-Marts. As the Simpson’s movie premier is fast approaching, some of the 7-11’s are becoming Kwik-E-Marts, complete with “Frosted Krusty-O’s” cereal and “Squishees.”
The 7-11 on 42nd St. between 8th and 9th Ave’s. has undergone the transformation. I know what I am doing at lunch, today!