Terrapin Station

Today in Church...

Today in church...

• Heard an awfully fine sermon from My Favorite Seminarian, one which has convicted me that I need to seriously consider and pray about going on our annual mission trip to Navajoland next summer.  Oh, my, there are so many reasons why I haven't gone along on this trip.  In the meantime, as she preached I remembered an uncomfortable conversation I had with God as a teenager, "I want to be a Christian, and all, but I don't want to be a MISSIONARY."  (Trust me, I know that one week in Bluff, Utah does not a missionary make!)
• We had a visiting priest - a woman!  I think she was there because our rector had planned to be out of town.  I had the delight of seeing a woman deacon and a woman Gospeller, two separate people serving AT THE SAME TIME.  Such visions are few and far between around here. 
• My friend S. was there!  She is scheduled to deliver her third child by Caesarean tomorrow.  This is a sweet baby girl who we initially feared would come very early...like, at 32 weeks.  But she has gone to full term and that is a great blessing!  She had baby Emma with her (9 months) and looked great. 
• My friend C. and her family were there, too...my first time to meet her newly adopted daughter from China.  A darling baby! 
• The announcements took for-freaking-ever
• Fr. David carried on the conversational tone from the announcements to the Eucharistic table by going off on a long riff about when or whether we should kneel or stand during Eucharistic Prayer C, and why.  Mercy!
• As I left the loft for communion, our wonderful organist signalled to me to pass her the hymnal she needed for the Eucharistic hymn.  Since she was improvising with one hand, I offered to open the book for her.  "What page?" I hissed.  "861," she said.  I took about forever to get it open and place on the rack in front of her.  (She was improvising all this time.)  She looked puzzledly at the music, which was an arrangment of "In Paradisum," the part of the funeral service that is chanted at the committal.  Then she started flipping back to get to the CORRECT piece, numbered 816.  Much more appropriate for a communion hymn. 
• I had to stop on the stairs and laugh hysterically at the idea of folks wondering why they were hearing "In Paradisum" at the Eucharist. 
• Sally (organist) didn't need my help, clearly.  She could improvise for hours while finding her own page number plus cooking a full Italian meal and diapering a baby.
• After church we went into the chapel and tied knots in a flannel prayer blanket for my friend Janet.  You have probably seen this done...each knot contains a prayer.  Here's a photo of some folks knotting one...ours will have to be washed and sterilized before it can be given to her, because the chemo is going to wreck her immune system.  But the prayers will certainly not wash out. 
• 
• On the way to church I cross the Lake Lewisville bridge.  That lake - is 9 feet above its "full" level.  That lake - was very, very close to that bridge. 
• It's starting to rain again.

Solemn Evensong

Our rector, Fr. David Holland, celebrated the 35th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood on Sunday night.  We had a Solemn Evensong followed by a gala reception (champagne, cheesecake of every description, a chocolate fountain...!) and speeches.

The music was beautiful (if I do say so).  We did two special anthems: a Magnificat and an Ave Maria.  We chanted Canticle 5: the Nunc Dimittis, as well as the Psalm, Creed, Suffrages, Lord's Prayer...

We closed with the traditional version of the Prayer of St. Chrysostom, one of my favorites:

Almighty God, who hast given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication unto thee, and hast promised through thy well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name, thou wilt be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of thy servants as may be best for us; granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come life everlasting.  Amen. 

The Spirit of the Lord was moving so powerfully that night, and our emotions were very close to the surface.   

Fr. David's wife Gina, a breast cancer survivor, has very recently been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  She has entered an experimental treatment program at Medical City Dallas, starting yesterday.  The Hollands have served our parish for the last 16 years, along with their three children, now all young adults.  This family picture is from Easter 2004. 

Won't you please keep the Holland family...which includes all of us at the Church of the Annunciation...in your prayers?  That God will fulfill his perfect will in Gina and in every one of us, and that we will be Christ's body to the Hollands as they have been to us over the years.

Thanks be to God. 

Pastoral Visits to Hospitals

Over at RevGals, Ask the Matriarch this week is about hospital visits by pastoral care types.  I do a little bit of this type of work with Lay Eucharistic ministry, but obviously that is NOT part of my professional responsibility.

Reading the wonderful responses, though (especially St. Casserole on pootage!) reminded me of a time when the hospital pastor's presence was terribly intrusive and greatly resented. 

My grandmother died on Oct. 10, 1991.  My grandfather was admitted to the hospital a few days later (we had not known he was sick) and died (which we didn't expect!) on October 26th.  I wrote about this, and my stay in the hospital with him, here.  When he was admitted to the hospital I dropped everything and dashed back to Florida from Texas...so I had the gift of being able to stay with him in the hospital most of the time for about 3 weeks. 

Now, my Bigdaddy grew up Episcopalian and was a churchman for many years, but fell away from the church at some point.  I've been told that when his brother Addison committed suicide, he lost his faith.  I don't know.  But I never knew him to go to church. 

Well, there was this greasy-haired, rotund little hospital chaplain (Baptist) who came by to visit with Bigdaddy one day.  He left a little tiny white booklet (Bible-ette) with the 10 Commandments in it (how comforting!) and asked Bigdaddy all these dumb questions about was he saved.  Now, that's just not lingo that Episcopalians tend to use, and when we are asked that, we tend to sort of bristle up or else melt away. 

Bigdaddy told the man he had been baptized and confirmed, and that he didn't need any God either; God let my Memamma die after 64 years of marriage, and what kind of God was that!?

Clearly the man didn't know how to handle this kind of honesty.  He hrumphed and hrosseled and said, "well, well, we have to trust God!  We have to turn our grief over to God!"  and then he ran away. 

After the man left, I said, "Bigdaddy, you didn't like him, did you?"  He said, "No, and I don't want to see him anymore."

Thereafter, when the little man would come peeking in at the door, I'd say loudly, "Oh, I'm sorry, he's asleep!" and Bigdaddy would miraculously be sleeping!

I was an agnostic at this point in my life.  But I did tell Bigdaddy that if there were a God, I felt sure His friends weren't like that. 

And in my humble opinion, they aren't. 

Daughters of the King

Lorna wondered in a recent comment here about the cross I wear and the vows I've taken as a member of the Order of the Daughters of the King.  Thanks for asking, Lorna! 

The Daughters of the King is an Order for women who are communicants of the Episcopal Church, or churches in communion with it, or churches who are in the Historic Episcopate. Members undertake a Rule of Life, incorporating the Rule of Prayer and the Rule of Service. By reaffirmation of the promises made at Confirmation, a Daughter pledges herself to a life-long program of prayer, service and evangelism, dedicated to the spread of Christ's Kingdom and the strengthening of the spiritual life of her parish.

The cross that Daughters wear is to be worn every day; it is like a nun's habit.  If for some reason it can't be worn (with a uniform, for example) it should be worn pinned to an undergarment or other hidden place. 

About The Cross 

          The emblem of the Order is in the form of a modified Greek fleury cross inscribed in Latin, Magnanimiter Crucem Sustine, the watchword of the Order, meaning "With heart, mind and spirit uphold and bear the cross."  At the base of the cross are the letters "FHS," initials that stand for the Motto of the Order:  "For His Sake..."

             The emblem, never wavering from the original design, has been trademarked for the exclusive use of the Order.  The cross is worn at all times.  It is customarily worn on the left side over the heart or it may be worn on a silver chain around the neck, but it is never to be worn simply as an ornament.  Only a member in good standing may wear the cross of the Order, which remains the property of the Order.  When a Daughter dies, her cross may be buried with her or incorporated into her memorial; otherwise, it must be returned to the National Office.

Many older members of my family are members of the Order.  It is something I have known about all my life, and this is the first time I've been a member of a church (as an adult) that had a chapter.  I take my vows very, very seriously.  My chapter serves as the prayer chain for our church; we are also to be of service to our congregation, community and clergy when requested.  I view my service to the RGBP's as somewhat of an extension of the latter item. 

My DOK chapter includes wonderful women who are involved in many, many other ministries in the church.  We meet monthly and are presently doing a study of a book called Practicing our Faith:  A Way of Life for a Searching People.

Fishers of People

So I hang around on the Web with all these RevGals, and sometimes I poke at the little wondering-about-seminary-and-or-ordination thing inside myself some more, and say, "Is that me?"  and always there is a lack of a positive answer, which I take to mean, NO, or perhaps NOT YET. 

And sometimes this worries me.

But the Epistle today (1 Cor 7) said this: 

¹⁷However that may be, let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you. This is my rule in all the churches. ¹⁸Was anyone at the time of his call already circumcised? Let him not seek to remove the marks of circumcision. Was anyone at the time of his call uncircumcised? Let him not seek circumcision. ¹⁹Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but obeying the commandments of God is everything. ²⁰Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called.

So maybe we're supposed to stick with what we are doing (if we are doing it well) and serve God there?  I truly, truly believe that I am called to do the work I am doing, and that I am providing opportunities for students to change their lives and their futures, one at a time.  International educational exchange is the path toward a peaceful future. 

In other news in today's lectionary, in the first chapter of Mark's Gospel, Jesus came along and here was what happened:

¹⁶As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. ¹⁷And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” ¹⁸And immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Don't you like how Jesus put it in terms they could understand?  He didn't say, "go be priests," or desert fathers, or whatever.  He changed their lives entirely, granted; but they were still going to be fishing. 

Working at a state university, and with an international population, I am fairly understated about my faith.  The friends who work closely with me on a day to day basis know, of course, because I talk with them about what I do at church and my involvements there.  Most of them are not religious, and I don't believe it's my job to try to make them so.  I invite them to events, especially musical ones, and live my life and let them live theirs. 

I also wear a cross every day, as part of my vow as a member of the Order of the Daughters of the King.  It's my hope that my beliefs will be revealed in my actions (and now that is scary!) and anyone who wants to know more, will ask.