Advent 3: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Third Sunday of Advent, December 12, 2010
Year A: Canticle 15
Grace Episcopal Church, Norwalk, CT

Loving God, you call us to be your stories in the world. We come before you seeking to be touched by your story. Open our lips to share our stories with one another and to bring comfort, inspiration, joy and laughter to each other. Amen.

The first time I went to Ireland I had to take the bus from Shannon in the center of Western Ireland to Sligo, which is in the Northwest part of the country, to meet my tour group. The trip included a bus change in Galway. As we boarded the bus, a group of nuns got on and sat in front. I didn’t think anything of it until we pulled out of one of the small towns on the route, and the driver announced that our next stop was Knock. I almost fell out of my seat laughing.

Knock is the site of a shrine to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and you’re probably wondering why I found the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock funny. Some years ago the local parish priest managed to push through the approvals and raise the money to build an airport just outside of this small Irish village. Build it in time for a Papal visit. The priest became the laughingstock. Why did this tiny town, shrine or no shrine, need an airport? And Irish folk singer Christie Moore wrote a song about the building of the airport. A bitingly satiric and funny song. I don’t know if the priest lived long enough to see it, but he had the last laugh. The airport at Knock is one of the busiest regional airports in Ireland even without the pilgrims coming to visit the shrine.

The shrine in Knock is a walled complex. As we pulled into town, the bus was just high enough for me to look over the wall and see the church built where several people saw a vision of St. Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, and Christ as the Eucharistic Lamb. The street that runs along the wall, the village’s main street, is lined with souvenir shops. You wouldn’t believe the number of plastic holy water bottles, plastic statues of Mary, plastic rosaries—or maybe you would. Between the tchotchkes and the song, how seriously can you take this kind of thing?

Before my visit to Ireland, the only direct experience I’d had with people who visited a Marian shrine and made devotions to Mary were members of, well, a cult, for lack of a better term. This cult is centered on the so-called Our Lady of the Roses, Mary help of Mothers in Bayside, Queens. These women—and they are mostly women— in their blue berets would show up in Hartford and other places across Connecticut for any legislative hearing or vote and any activity surrounding civil rights legislation for lesbians, gays, and bisexuals. This group was virulently homophobic and cited messages from their Mary to justify it. On the other hand, even the local Archdiocese has found the supposed visions to completely lack authenticity and condemned the group for proclaiming things contrary to Roman Catholic teaching. For the better part of a decade, if I was attending or participating in something to do with the fight for the protection of my civil rights, they were there, too.

Not very positive or favorable experiences when it comes to Mary’s presence in the world.

Of course, most of us of European descent have heard of the more famous shrines of Mary: Lourdes, Fatima, and Medjugorje, to name a few. There’s even one held dear by Anglicans—Our Lady of Walsingham, with a secondary shrine in Ohio, of all places. But I would hazard a guess that most of you hadn’t heard of Our Lady of Guadalupe until Lois arrived here at Grace, and we began our conversations with Iglesia Betania. I hadn’t either, until several years ago when I took a job at the Episcopal Church Center where I worked regularly with individuals, congregations, and dioceses in Province IX, which includes parts of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Why not until then? Because, quite frankly, my involvement with Latin American, specifically Mexican, communities had been fairly limited until then. My first serious boyfriend may have been Mexican and Apache, but given that period in time and his community’s culture, we didn’t have much to do with his family. So we never went to any family celebrations.

So let me tell you another story; this time not one of mine. This is Juan Diego’s story.

Almost 500 years ago, in the Mexican portion of the Spanish empire lived a mestizo, a young man of mixed native and Spanish blood, named Juan Diego. On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 9th, he was on his way to mass in Mexico City and passed Tepeyac Hill—and I’m going to mispronounce the name of the hill throughout because it predates the coming of Spanish to Mexico—he passed the hill where he heard music that sounded a bit like birds singing. He stopped to see where the music was coming from and heard a young woman’s voice calling his name. He climbed the hill and saw at the top a young mestizo woman surrounded by radiant light, the Virgin Mary. She called Juan mi hijo, my son, and told him that she wanted him to be her messenger to the bishop of Mexico City. Her message was that she wanted a church built for her children.

It’s important for you to know a couple of things at this point in the story. Remember, the Spaniards had conquered Mexico not too long before. Unlike the English up here, they were more interested in accumulating wealth. They moved in just enough colonists to govern the area while forcing the native population into a state of near, if not actual, slavery. As with any kind of clash of cultures, children are born of mixed parentage. So it was in Mexico. And those children, the mestizos, were looked down upon and excluded not only by the Spanish but by the Mexicans as well.

So when Juan arrived at the bishop’s residence, before he could even tell his unbelievable story, he had to deal with the fact that he was coming to see a Spanish bishop served by both Spaniards and Mexicans who wanted nothing to do with the likes of Juan Diego. The servants tried to turn him away, but he was persistent and was finally granted an audience with the bishop. At first, the bishop didn’t believe Juan and asked him to come back another day. A discouraged Juan retuned to Tepeyac and asked the Virgin to use someone else more worthy than himself. Sound like anyone else we know? Moses, perhaps? Mary assured him that she had chosen him personally as her ambassador. The next day he returned to the bishop to try again. Still disbelieving, the bishop sent Juan to tell the lady he needed a sign in order to know if she truly was the Virgin Mary. Doubting Thomas, anyone?

When Juan relayed the bishop’s message, Mary told him to return the next day, and she would give him the sign he needed. But when Juan got home, he found his uncle very ill. So instead of returning to see the Virgin, Juan stayed home to care for his uncle. On the morning of December 12th Juan rushed to Mexico City to find a priest to administer the last rites to his uncle. He went around the back of Tepeyac hill in order to avoid Mary, though he thought she would understand. But she met him on the path took and told him that his uncle had already been healed. Later Juan would find out that at that same moment the Virgin had appeared to his uncle, who was immediately restored to health. Mary urged Juan to go to the top of the hill where he would find flowers growing. He did as she asked and was astonished to find so many flowers where there should have been frost. He cut and gathered them in his cloak. Mary arranged them, rolled up his cloak, and told him not to unroll it until he saw the bishop.

Once again, the bishop’s servants gave Juan Diego a hard time, but again, he persisted. When he finally reached the bishop, he told him about his conversation with the Virgin. Then he unrolled his cloak, and the flowers tumbled to the ground. The bishop, Juan, and everyone else in the room were startled by what else was there. On Juan’s cloak appeared an image of Mary as Juan had seen her. The bishop then believed and promised to build the shrine requested by the Virgin.

Juan Diego’s story does not end there. In 2002 Pope John Paul II canonized Juan Diego, making him the first Mexican saint. And his cloak is preserved to this day in la Basílica de Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Mexico City. If you get a chance, you can see a copy of this image in the chapel, where the young people of Betania have decorated the altar for the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. And when you look, I want you to notice something different about the image of the Virgin. Unlike every other apparition of Mary, even throughout Latin America, she isn’t a young white woman. Mary appeared to Juan Diego as a young mestizo woman. She looked like him. And by calling Juan “mi hijo”—my son—she was telling not only Juan, but the whole world, that he and all those like him, the despised mestizos, were her children and children of God. She arrived with a changed appearance to bring a message to a changing world.

So why have I told you these stories, mine and Juan Diego’s? Why are they important to a small Episcopal congregation in Norwalk, Connecticut? For one thing, without stories, there would be no church. Without the stories of the first disciples and first Christians, we would have no sacred story and no Christian community. It was through the retelling of stories that the Gospel spread. And not just stories about Jesus, but also the very personal stories of those early Christians and Christians across the centuries. It is those personal stories that forge community because they help us to get to know each other and understand each others’ faith journeys. They are what help us to forge a community. Here at Grace we are in the midst of forming a new community with the members of Iglesia Betania.

Even with each other we need to keep telling these stories because not everyone has heard them. For instance, we of Grace and many of Betania have not heard Juan Diego’s story because it comes primarily from the Mexican communities. Although that’s changing both here and across Latin America

Now, more than ever, we need to share our stories. We need to learn from each other that we are individuals, not those Anglos, those Islanders, or those Latin Americans. Each of us has something important to bring to this new community. And without telling our stories to each other and then not only telling them to the larger community around us, but then engaging that greater community in shared ministry, without sharing ourselves, how do we bring the face of Jesus, the face of God, to others?

Almighty God, of your saving grace you called Mary of Nazareth to be the mother of your only begotten Son: Inspire us by the same grace to follow her example of bearing God to the world. We pray through Jesus Christ her son our Savior. Amen.

A Weekend Away

I almost didn't go. It felt like too much to pack even for one night away. I know most of that was because I feel like I've been packing and lugging stuff for weeks. And some of it is part of the grieving process about losing my job. But friends were expecting me, and I really was looking forward to seeing them.

So I packed an overnight bag, stopped at Whole Foods to pick up some side dishes, and made the three hour drive to Jamaica Plain in Boston for the Annual Harvest Ball. I got lost getting there. The only reason I had some semblance of an idea of where I was amongst the roundabouts was that a significant portion of the route Mapquest sent me on was the same as when I went up to spend July 4th weekend with friends in another part of Boston. I've never gone into Jamaica Plain from that direction before, but that was the route I was given. Maybe it's time to invest in a GPS.

Since what I brought didn't need to be heated before being served, arriving later than I expected was not a problem. I had plenty of time to fill out a table card for each dish (so people would know what was in them in case of food allergies or dietary needs), change, and chat with friends. I haven't been to the Harvest Ball in a number of years, and the dinner part of the evening has grown. There was more than enough food. Funny how pot lucks usually work out that way.

After dinner we cleared the tables and put the tables and chairs away. Our band for the evening, Spare Parts, played some waltzes before the main part of the evening, which consisted of Victorian era dances. Since the event had been billed as a period evening, many people dressed up. I have nothing from the Victorian era, so I figured my Renaissance garb was a better option than my suit. It was the right choice. I got a lot of compliments on it. There were men in suits and tuxes--both period and modern--and kilts. Quite a few women arrived in elaborate gowns from Victorian period. There's a reason dances were a bit slower then! Even a couple of contra dances most of us are familiar with were done at a slightly slower pace.

The break in the middle of the evening included a pot luck dessert table. Followed by more dancing. Usually, I stick around to help clean up, but friends from the dance community had graciously offered to put me up, and there were children involved. It did, however, give Robin and I a little time to catch up with what's been going on in our lives.

Late Sunday morning I drove out to Milton and didn't get lost because I had excellent directions. There I spent most of the day with my friend Laura and her family. Laura and I, who go back to high school, have been trying to get together for over a year. So long, in fact, that she had a present for my 50th birthday--10 months ago! Since she forgot to get a picture while I was there, I figured I'd post one here for her!

Here's the present


and here's what it was made for!


Of course, it can be used on a lamp, too.

Laura and I spent a lot of time catching up, but she also took time to talk through some things related to my job search. And she is helping me work on my resume. It was a real boost to be able to spend that time with her.

It was a great weekend. I needed to get away, even if only for an overnight. I'm feeling much more positive about things right now. Friends are a good thing!

Time for A Purge...

...but not today.

The Wednesday after they notified me my job was being eliminated I worked from home. Friends and coworkers who know me well will tell you that I have a lousy poker face. I needed the time and space to take in what is happening. I spent that Wednesday making lists. Once the announcement was out, I could start going through my office and sorting the accumulated stuff.

It's amazing just how much stuff accumulated over eight plus years.

Over the next few days I made and labeled piles of books, files, and resources for the Formation and Vocation Ministries Team members to go through. I made piles of things that I needed to bring home. So far I've brought home three tote bag of books, personal files, and personal items.

There's still a stack of books on my desk waiting to come home. And the two pictures and my EfM diploma are still hanging on the wall.

It's amazing just how much stuff accumulated over eight plus years.

Today I got tired of looking at tote bags and piles. I hadn't even completely unpacked the large tote bags I'd taken to Dance Camp last weekend. So I unpacked. I cleaned out the hallway bookcase and put the books from my office there--leaving space for what remains in my office. The files are now sitting in a basket for sorting. I don't know if I'll ever need most of this stuff again. After I lost my job at Pitney Bowes due to downsizing, I did much the same thing. The only things I still have from those six years are a favorite pen and a couple of business cards in a case with the others from my past jobs.

Each time I've been laid off--I've only left one job voluntarily in my entire adult professional life--I've gone on to something completely different. The accumulated books and files from the previous job eventually get donated and tossed. Skills are transferable. Stuff, not so much.

It's amazing just how much stuff accumulated over eight plus years.

It takes some creativity to find places for all this stuff in the 450 square feet of my apartment. Even before this happened I'd been thinking it was time for another apartment purge. When you live in a small space you need to do that from time to time. But given the current circumstances, now really isn't the time to be making those kinds of decisions.

I haven't even reached the angry stage yet...

It's Official

This morning management sent an email to the Church Center staff announcing what they'd told me Tuesday afternoon. While I was shocked and am currently in the numb phase, it wasn't a total surprise given the state of finances across the church. Quite frankly, the primary reason I had the job of Children's Ministries Officer in the first place is because a previous director was dismantiling a colleague's job in hopes of forcing her out of the organization. And I was surprised to have survived the General Convention layoffs last year. So 16 additional months of employment was a good thing.

As I said, I'm still numb. Friends and colleagues have already begun the networking rally, for which I am truly grateful.

This is not the first time I have been laid off. In fact, except for one job, I've been laid off from every position I've held in the course of my professional life. If there's one thing I've learned, it's how to pick up the pieces and move on. And I know that it's not something you do alone. Please keep me in your prayers as I make my way through this transition.

= = = = = = = = = =

If you're interested, here's the official notice:

To: DFMS Employees

Subject: Changes in Formation and Vocation Ministries Team

Dear Colleagues,

We write to let you know of changes being made in the area of Formation and Vocation Ministries. As of January 2011, the work of the Office of Children’s Ministries, formed in 2008, will be reincorporated into current staffing positions and among networks and local entities. Though this decision reflects a mission strategy we believe will enhance the work of the Formation and Vocation Team, the hard consequence is that the position currently held by Jeff Harre as Children’s Ministries Officer will be eliminated.

Jeff came to the Episcopal Church Center in 2002 as the Program Assistant for Children’s Ministries and Christian Education. In 2008 he became the Associate Program Officer Trainee providing administrative oversight for the Evangelism and Congregational Life Center and in 2009 he was named Children’s Ministries Officer. Jeff has been a valuable colleague in the planning of Christian Education Conferences and the General Convention Children’s Programs. He has consulted with dioceses and congregations on issues related to Christian Education and currently sits on the board of the National Association for Episcopal Christian Education Directors.

At the Church Center Jeff has been a committed member of the chapel team and a regular leader at Morning Prayer.

Jeff will be in the office through mid December.

Please join us in thanking Jeff for his service to this community and the children’s formation network he has so ably served.

We wish him the best in all his future endeavors.

Faithfully,
Margaret and Toni

Housework

I live in 450 square feet. Sometimes I wish my apartment was a little bit bigger. A separate bedroom would be nice. And I'd like to be able to entertain more than one or two people at a time. On the other hand, it's just me, and I really don't need more space. I'd just fill it with more stuff.

Of course, not making the bed in the morning means the apartment looks messy when I get home at night. And has anyone noticed that dust seems to accumulate more quickly these days? We seem to have the same problem at our office.

On the other hand, an advantage to living in a small apartment is that I can pretty much give it a thorough cleaning in about three hours or less. But do I really want to spend three hours on Saturday cleaning?

A couple of weeks ago I started trying some things I remembered from The Fly Lady, which Mom had done for a while. I started by shining both sinks before retiring for the night. After a few days of that I started setting the timer for 15 minutes every weeknight evening I was home. During those 15 minutes I dust. In five days I pretty much have the entire apartment dusted. The Fly Lady says set it for 10, but I remember reading someplace else that 15 minutes was a manageable amount of time. You can do anything for 15 minutes.

Once a week I tackle a "big" job. Washing either the kitchen floor or the bathroom floor. Cleaning the kitchen appliances. Sweeping up the crud that comes down the chimney into the fireplace. You get the picture.

There are still some things I haven't tackled. My desk is cluttered. I've been better about it, but I still tend to pile stuff on it until the pile starts to fall over. The file drawers need purging again, as do the bookshelves. Or at least the bookshelves need to be reorganized. Maybe I'll try The Fly Lady's Hot Spot approach.

In any case, it feels better coming home in the evenings. And I don't have to go into a cleaning frenzy when company is coming. Or worry about what kind of shape the apartment is in when someone drops by unexpected.

Now, if I could just figure out where to store the bicycle when I'm not using it.

A Trip to the Supermarket

This evening after returning from New York I drove to the local Stop & Shop to restock the kitchen. I had a list so that I wouldn't pick up anything I didn't need. Usually these trips go pretty quickly, thanks to technology. If you have a Stop & Shop card, you can check out a scanner. You scan items as you put them in your cart and then scan the "finished shopping" bar code at the register. The register downloads the information from your scanner and tells you how much you need to pay. And if you bring your own bags, you can pack them as you go along. Easy in and easy out.

Not today, however.

The ginger snaps (they are on my diet!) were 2/$5 according to the pricing on the shelf, yet they scanned at $3 each. I asked the person who oversees the automated registers, and she said there wasn't anything she could do, and I'd have to go to one of the regular registers where the price could be corrected. No problem, I said, and found the shortest line. The very nice cashier there managed to wipe all the data from my scanner when attempting to resolve the cookie pricing. A manager was called who was also unable to retrieve the data. Everything had to be rescanned and rebagged. In the end, they couldn't solve the scanning issue, so $1 from the store was added to the till to decrease my bill by the amount of the overcharge on the cookies.

Isn't technology wonderful?

Whenever I check out of a store, I know I'm in trouble when I can make change in my head faster than the cashier. I'm old enough to have worked as a cashier when the cash register only totaled the order. The cashiers had to count back the change manually. Once you had the method down, very rarely was your till more than 10 cents off either way. So why is it so hard to make change when the register tells you how much change to give the customer?

Another skill from my days as a cashier is packing brown paper shopping bags. Have you noticed how many of the "green" shopping bags are about the size and shape of brown paper shopping bags? One day a couple of months ago I observed a manager training a new employee as a bagger. I had my canvas bags, and she showed the new employee to pack the bags in the same way I used to pack paper bags. She was about my age, and I commented on the necessity of having to rediscover a lost art. We shared a smile.

Over the past couple of months I've become increasingly aware of how much more expensive it is to make healthy food choices. On those days when I don't take my lunch, I can get a sandwich, soda and chips for about $8.00 or so. If I go to the hot/cold bar and pick out things more in line with my eating plan, or get a salad and milk, it's more on the order of $10- $11. I can get a Wendy's Baconator combo with double patty, large size and a large Frosty for a little more than $11. When fast food is cheaper than healthy food, added to our over scheduled life styles, is it any wonder so many of us are overweight? And if you try to buy organic products as much as possible, which I do, that can increase your bill by as much as 25%.

Maybe I need to find a local farmers' market.

Well, That Didn't Work

Good idea, but not so good in the execution. Following the alphabet just made for a bad case of writer's block. Not that it is the only cause of writer's block. It just added to the block.

What to write about? That has plagued writers since alphabets were invented. Just write, many people say. Write what you know, say others.

That's all well and good for a personal journal or someone who is self employed. Blogs by their very nature are public. Extremely public sometimes. That means choosing your words carefully. And your topics.

I'm still working on finding a voice within those parameters.

Western Christian Educators Conference - Day 4

This morning I had to track down some paperwork for Human Resources. It didn't take very long, but I used it as an excuse to miss the morning session. I'd reached the saturation point, and I really didn't think the morning exercise was going to be all that helpful. Instead, I took care of a couple of things for the office and watched the view from my window.

I sat at the "wrong" table at breakfast. I got tapped to serve during Communion at our closing worship and to give the blessing at lunchtime.

Victor Floyd led closing worship. The pretty much the entire service was sung, including the blessing of the bread and the wine. One of the pastors in attendance sang the verses, and the congregation sang the refrain. That wasn't the only time while I was at the conference that the entire community gathered blessed/consecrated the bread and wine. Monday night and Tuesday night Arris had all of us hold our our hands over the elements as he said the prayer of consecration. At this morning's worship there were three stations, each with a holder and two servers. The holders held a plate of bread and a small bowl of wine. As each person came forward to receive one of the servers would take a piece of bread, dip it in the wine, and place it in the person's mouth. Then the server would lay hands on the person and give a blessing and perhaps a prayer, if the person requested it. After the congregation had been served, the servers and holders served and blessed each other before gathering in a huddle to say a final prayer for themselves.

This is how they do Communion at Victor's Metropolitan Community Church congregation. The practice arose during the height of the AIDS epidemic when it might be the only time in a week when someone with AIDS was touched by another person. I don't think anyone refused the laying on of hands, though Victor said that if it made you uncomfortable to be touched, you didn't have to be, and the blessing would be said anyway.

I forgot to ask Victor where the sung prayer of consecration came from. If I can't find it, I can email him and ask him where to find it.

After lunch, one of the Episcopal folks who drove to the conference dropped me off at the Lakeside Inn where I caught the shuttle to the airport. It saved me a $15 cab fare and gave us a chance to spend a few more minutes in conversation. These personal connections have been the greatest part of attending this conference. We stopped for coffee at the Starbucks in the Safeway. Slot machines in the Safeway. Slot machines in the airport. Slot machines just about everywhere! Of the resort hotels that the shuttle stops at, the Lakeside Inn is the closest to the conference center, and it's the dingiest. I suppose if you're gambling... At least it was clean, and the restaurant had good food (I ate lunch there Sunday).

I have a three hour layover in Salt Lake City, so I'll get some dinner there before catching the red-eye home. Tomorrow counts as a travel day, and Friday will be a Sabbath day.

Peace,
Jeff

Western Christian Educators Conference - Day 3

This morning we arrived for the morning session to find four small paper bags on each table. It was obvious that there was stuff in each bag. They were part of this morning's energizer, which was a community building exercise. Each table had to use what was in the four bags, and only the four bags of stuff, to build a model representing their community. That was followed by time to look at what the other tables built. Then every two tables had to combine their models, followed by looking at the other combined tables. Finally, we combined into four tables to build yet another model. What was interesting about our group was that we were the ones willing to move and integrate with the other tables, while they seemed to be more interested in us coming to them. This exercise comes from a Youth Specialties book (Experiential?). Here's the progression of our community model:

Our worship has been primarily music, and Victor Floyd, our worship leader, has been great. We have a variety of songs and styles, some of which he teaches us as we go along. This morning he played "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. A handful of us dissolved into tears. Sometimes songs just hit you that way. You can hear Rufus Wainright's version and see the lyrics on this YouTube video.

Joyce began her talk with some discussion about Harry Potter and how he would have been better off with some Christian education. She told us that it was clear from reading the books that his parents had been churchgoers and believed in God. In the scene where Harry and Hermione go to the churchyard looking for his parents graves, Harry completely misses the clues on some of the gravestones, including his parents', because he doesn't recognize the quotes from Christian scripture.

From Harry Potter she moved to Lewis' Narnia series, specifically The Last Battle. I can't even begin to tell you the context because I've never read the series, not even The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I suppose I really ought to read them, so I can get some kind of idea as to why are they so popular and what is it about them that appeals to so many people.

She also read us a rather lengthy quote from a paper by Karen Marie Just that was quite critical of Christian education/Sunday School curricula and the role they played in the development of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Someone tracked down the book the essay appears in, and it's $105 on Amazon.com!!!

The morning refrain was, "What we believe about God matters to how we live."

She gave each table a question about God and asked us to come up with three things we believed. My table's question was "Who is the immanent God?" This is what our anwer looked like by the time we got done with it:


An observation from this morning's sessions: I am amused (and sometimes aggravated) those who are sticklers about following directions yet can't follow directions from other people.

After the morning break, Victor spent a half hour talking about hymns. He's picked some wonderful music for us throughout the conference, and not all of it was in the hymnals! He also has a great sense of humor. Lots of good stuff, but the two questions that stick out in my mind are: Is it ethical to lead liturgy that you don't agree with? Is it ethical to lead liturgy the people don't agree with? Interesting questions to ponder, and not just in terms of leading liturgy.

Back to Joyce, who finally began to take us from the theoretical to the practical. We are in eight groups working on presentations about each of the age groups and their pictures of God and ways in which me might teach them about the image of God. We'll be finishing up tomorrow morning.

I've been making an effort both in the morning sessions and at meals to sit with different people. That's not an easy thing for an introvert. But, it's about making connections and getting to know others who are working in the same field. Today I ate lunch at a table of United Church of Christ educators. The conversation ended up being about a new program that's in the process of being released online. Obviously, I didn't have anything to add to that conversation. Still, it's been good for me to make the effort.

This afternoon while I was sitting in my room working on a couple of things, I looked up and saw this:


At one point today I realized I wasn't feeling quite up to par. A slight headache and that just slightly "off" feeling. Then I thought, "Just because you're on the waterfront doesn't' mean that you're at sea level!" Drinking some extra water helped, and by dinner time I was feeling fine.

For the fourth and final workshop session I chose something for me, rather than strictly for work: Small Groups for Big Impact Adult Formation led by Julia McCray-Goldsmith and Lyle SmithGraybeall. Julia I've known for a while through networks related to my job, but Lyle, who works for Renovare, is someone I met here for the first time. Again, I didn't learn a lot of new stuff, but there were some snippets of helpful information.

After the evening workshops, we Episcopalians gathered for Eucharist. Part of me really wanted to bring a Prayer Book, but I refrained. Aris' extemporaneous services have been wonderful. And he asked all of us to lift our hands during the actual prayer of consecration. Nor have they been totally "Aris-led services. They have been community Eucharists. These evening Eucharists have been important to all of us. They have strengthened the connections we are building with each other.

A good deal of what I've been writing in these blog posts about the conference will end up in my report to my team at the office. And I will be copying the Program Directors on that report. Even with the technology available to help us meet online, face-to-face connections are important. Many of the folks I have met here I would not have the opportunity to meet via Skype, GoTo Meeting, or any of the other online communications tools we use. I value those tools, but I also understand their limitations.

I have made valuable connections here, and they are all the stronger for having been made in person.

Peace,
Jeff

Western Christian Educators Conference - Day 2

We spent the morning with Joyce MacKichan Walker talking about the results of the National Study of Youth and Religion that was done in 2002-2003, specifically focusing on the book Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers, by Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton (Oxford Uni verity Press, 2005). Our table discussions were about our reactions to the data and how it fit with what we observed in our own communities. A lot of it didn't seem to fit, but the majority of those in the study turned out to be conservative Christians, which, of course, skews all the rest of the data. It left some of us wondering just how random the sampling truly was.At least half of our time was in discussion of (Christian) Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, which is the main thesis of Soul Searching

...[W]e have come with some confidence to believe that a significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually only tenuously Christian in any sense that is seriously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but has rather substantially morphed into Christianity's misbegotten stepcousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. This has happened in the minds and hearts of many individual believers and, it also appears, within the structures of at least some Christian organizations and institutions. ...It is not so much that U.S. Christianity is being secularized. Rather more subtly, Christianity is actively being colonized and displaced by a quite different religious faith. (p. 171)

My reaction? It's not the first time Christianity has "strayed" along these lines, and it probably won't be the last. And I'm not sure that's really a bad thing.

Often Joyce forgets that there are non-Presbyterian and non-reform folks in the room. Not all of us are familiar with the Westminster Catechism, for example. Note to self: Remember this when working with ecumenical groups!

We've been using music from different denominations during worship. Today we used The New Century Hymnal, which is not used by all churches in the United Church of Christ. It is an attempt to use more expansive language about God, and according to our worship leader, when it is used, it often leaves everyone mad.

My first workshop was "Let's Start A Sunday School." I didn't learn very much, and there really wasn't anything cutting edge presented. But it was interesting to see how a small church Sunday School is handled by someone else.

My second workshop was "Using Children's Literature in Sacred Ways." Every book on the table was "secular." No retellings of Bible stories, etc. My book for the workshop was The Three Questions, which is based on a story by Leo Tolstoy. We were asked to read through the book and then think of Scripture that might relate, or how we might use it in our congregations--and not just with children. I thought The Three Questions might make an interesting reading at the end of our service at Grace when Lois gives us a moment of silence to think about how we are going to go out into the world.

The Episcopalians here have been gathering in the evenings to share Eucharist. The one priest amongst us is Aris, who was a classmate of Rob Bloulter's at Berkeley. It has been an interesting experience doing the entire service without a Book of Common Prayer or a leaflet with the service in it. Some of what Aris did was jarring, but it was holy and life giving nonetheless.
(Get out of your left brain, Jeff!)

The office intrudes on the conference:

I've been checking Email a couple of times a day. This afternoon we received one from Toni Daniels. They're consolidating Church Center Staff and opening up another floor to be rented out. The General Convention office will be moving to the second floor, and the Program Staff will be located on the fifth floor. Yes, I'm moving again--the sixth time in the eight years I've been at the Church Center. I won't know details until I go back into the office because Toni wrote that they would be talking with those of us affected by this move during the week. Since I won't be back in the office until next week...

Peace,
Jeff

Western Christian Educators Conference Day 1

It's after 10:45 p.m. PACIFIC TIME, even though I'm on the shores of Lake Tahoe in Nevada. I've been up since 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time so that I was ready for the 3:40 a.m. shuttle pick up to take me to JFK. 7:00 a.m. flight to Salt Lake City, which is on Mountain Time, followed by an 11:35 a.m. Mountain Time flight to Reno, which landed at 11:45 a.m. Pacific Time. Then I took a two hour bus ride to the Lakeside Inn where I had lunch. Then I took a taxi to the Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center.

It's a beautiful site right on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Here are a couple of views from my room.



And here is my room, which could sleep up to 6 people (three queen-size beds). I have the room, which is almost as large as my apartment, to myself.

This is a multi-denominational conference, but most of the attendees come from reform-type denominations. This evening our keynote speaker Joyce MacKichan Walker focused on Matthew 28:16-20, the Great Commission. It's a little difficult to be a Great Commission Christian(Matthew 22:36-40) amongst Great Commission Christians. Did you know that Bishop Jeffrey Rowthorn's "Lord You Give the Great Commission" is hymn number 429 in the Presbyterian Hymnal?

But she led us through an interesting exercise. Each table of seven was given seven small numbered rectangles with colors and shapes on the other side. Each person at the table took one of the rectangles, copied the number on the back of a sheet of 8 x 11 1/2 white paper, and drew the shapes, enlarging them as best they could using the colors available in the baskets of markers on the tables, on the other side of their sheet of paper. When we were finished, we were to put the small square, color/shape side out, on a sheet of paper with numbered spaces and then put our large copy on a large grid of numbered sheets of paper.

Here's my sheet (I locked my inner perfectionist in the basement!)



Here's what our finished grid looked like:



Here's the original:



While we were doing the drawing at our tables, we were to discuss amongst ourselves the images of God we had as children.

After the main session, there were denominational Meet-and-Greets. Nine of the 10 Episcopalians in attendance gathered in a small chapel to have Eucharist to start off our time together.

More tomorrow. I hope to be tweeting from the conference on @EpiscoChildMin, which should also appear on my office Facebook page Children's Ministries - Episcopal Church Center.

Peace,
Jeff

B Is for Books

I've been reading since I was three or four. I remember sitting on the living room floor with Mom learning basic reading skills from a series clipped from the Chicago Tribune. I arrived for Kindergarten reading, and the school system didn't quite know what to do with me.

Tuesday nights were library nights. After dinner we'd pile in the car and make the five minute drive to the library. Whenever one of us became interested in some topic or another, the stack of books we brought home would mostly be about that topic. Build a solar oven? Go to the library. Make hand puppets? Go to the library. Learn about Asia? Go to the library. I know exactly what Mom did when I went back to college after coming out to the family during Christmas break. Yup, go to the library and find everything she could about lesbians and gays.

My first job was as a page at the library. Wherever I've lived one of the first things I've done is to go to the public library and get a library card. That means that even though I don't go to the library every week, I usually have a pile of books by my bed waiting to be read. And I have a pile of books related to Christian Education, Christian Formation, and children so that I can keep up with the current trends for work.

As if that weren't enough, I also have a virtual pile of books loaded onto my Kindle. And a daily newspaper. I usually use the Kindle on the train and when I'm traveling. I even have a copy of Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours Pocket Edition on it. It really does make traveling easier, since I don't have to lug around three or four books--even paperbacks take up a fair amount of space and weight in luggage.

So many books, so little time.

A is for Apathy

I'm taking a page from my friend and colleague Bronwyn's blog, although I'm going to begin with A and and try to go through in order. We'll see. No promises.

My dictionary defines apathy as:
1. Lack of interest or concern, esp. in matters of general importance or appeal; indifference.
2. Lack of emotion or feeling; impassiveness.

That pretty much sums up my summer.

Part of it has been the weather. Both the heat and humidity outside and the air conditioning inside (without which I cannot sleep when it's hot and humid) sap my energy. And on those days when the weather has been pleasant, my energy has been too sapped to do very much. When I'm not working, I spend a lot time rereading favorite books. That doesn't involve a lot of energy or thinking.

I haven't been practicing much either. By the time I get home most evenings I don't have a lot of energy, having spent it making sure I'm on top of things at work and planning ahead. Most of what's left goes toward minimal housekeeping chores. And since I have no gigs scheduled, practicing is way down on the priority list. Not to mention that I've posted only two entries here so far this summer.

About the only thing I've paid attention to is my diet. While I've not been totally diligent (read: some days have been total disasters in terms of either too much or not enough), I have been slowly shifting my eating habits. For the most part, my meals have been more balanced, and they've been smaller in portion size. As I've been better about my eating, my body has been better at letting me know how it's feeling. Or rather, I'm learning to pay more attention to my body.

I haven't been a total lump this summer. I'm on the planning committee for the 120th Anniversary celebration at my church. A group of friends that hasn't seen each other for several months has been intentional about getting together a couple of times over the six weeks. I've been recruiting for our Education for Ministry (EfM) group, which starts in September (if your in lower Fairfield County and are interested, let me know). I've been making vacation plans for December. And I have been listening to recordings of music I'd like to work on when I start practicing again.

But there is a long list of things I should have done this summer that have gone undone--some important, some not. Most days I look at the list and say "Oh well."

This week I've started to work on getting some of those items checked off.

And I will start practicing again.

As soon as I find the energy.

Maybe Next Year

I won't be attending the National Flute Association 38th Annual Convention next month. I wasn't able to save the money I'd need to fly to Los Angeles and spend almost a week in Anaheim. And last July I spent three weeks in the same hotel for the Episcopal Church's General Convention.

Today Summer 2010 issue of The Flutist Quarterly showed up in my mailbox. The Summer issue always the Schedule of Events for the current year's convention. Of course, I looked. During the first scan, I saw only three workshops I was interested in attending, primarily Zara Lawler's Saturday morning workshop "Interdisciplinary Performance Basics." Zara's workshop at the 2009 convention was a real eye-opener for me, and I regularly read her blog. As much as I like Zara's work and would love to take the workshop, it alone still isn't worth the expense of attending the convention in California.

Each time I looked through the schedule I found something else that interested me. Worth the expense yet? Maybe, but I don't have the money. It took me a long time to get myself out of debt, so I'm not going to participate in something I can't pay for up front. So unless someone hands me a rather large check in the next week, I won't be going to Anaheim.

So, I have some incentive to save for next year's convention, which will be in Charlotte, NC. Is it a coincidence that I'll be in Charlotte in February for network meetings for work and for the National Association for Episcopal Christian Education Directors Annual Conference?

And if I'm going to be down there, maybe I'll rent a car and make the drive west to Asheville and visit Biltmore.

Time to start saving and planning.

New (Sort Of) Food Routine

Since the Eater Hospitalization with diverticulitis, I've been trying to find a fairly simple way to plan meals. Saturday I FINALLY found one: Diabetes Meal Planning Made Easy, 4th ed. by Hope S. Warshaw. I'm now working on eating 1,400-1,600 calories per day. Actually, I think I'll be okay on that. And every couple of weeks I'll jump up to the 1,600-1,900 range so my body doesn't get too used to the minimal amount of calorie intake. That piece of information I remember from the Hilton Head Metabolism Diet that Brian and I did for a while back in the late 1980s.

The hardest part will be 5 oz. of meat. That's not a lot spread out during the day. On the other hand, there's enough on the menu to provide three meals and two snacks (or three, depending on how I shift things around). This evening I still have two starches, a milk, and a fat. That looks like six ginger snaps (woo hoo!), 2/3 of a cup of yogurt, and a tablespoon of peanut butter. Since this was Day 1, I should do better tomorrow.

This evening I fixed tomorrow's lunch and two snacks while fixing dinner. At least it was better than expending all that energy on preparing one meal. It still took a lot. I used almost every measuring cup and measuring spoon in my entire kitchen. And the new scale, which I purchased when I went grocery shopping today.

So I'm relearning a lot of nutritional information that I knew at one time. Actually, it's more reinforcement, because I managed to come pretty close to the calorie range over the past couple of months, even if the nutritional balance was a little off. The other major problem was many days I'd eat one large meal and two small ones.

Little bit, by little bit, I'm getting things back into balance.

Peace,
Jeff

Photographs & Memories

Which was the theme of my Senior Prom, and it is appropriate for this particular blog post.

I don't have a lot of pictures of me playing the flute, but I did find this small handful. Here I am in full Darien High School Marching Band uniform on Memorial Day 1977:


This one was taken during the parade somewhere on the Boston Post Road:

Twelve years later I was playing now and again at Grace Episcopal Church. Here I am just before Christmas Eve services 1990:


In June 1993 I went up to Boston to participate in the Pride celebrations with Lavender Country & Folk Dancers. At LCFD's Pride Dance on June 12th I played with the Contradictions:

Later that same summer, but once again with the Grace Church Choir at our outdoor service with Choir Director Priscilla Carroll:

Priscilla and I again; this time at Grace Church's day at Camp Washington during the Summer of 1994:

And here I am with some friends at the Lavender Country & Folk Dancers February 1998 Dance Camp. This pick up band played for one contra dance at the Saturday night party. I'm the one in the purple shirt in the lower left:



Here ends the trip down memory lane. There may be some other pictures buried someplace in one of my boxes or somewhere at Mom's, but these are the only ones I've found at this point.

Continuing Education

I love my iPod (thanks, Mom!). Obviously, I use it to listen to music and podcasts, and it's a great tool for playing the flute. But those of you who follow my Facebook posts or Twitter tweets know that I'm also listening to lectures and courses from iTunes U. I've listened to lectures about J.R.R. Tolkien and Johnson's Dictionary.

This week I finished a course available from Open Yale Courses, Diana Kleiner's course on Roman Architecture. I listened to it on the train back and forth to work, and then I'd check out the pictures provided as part of the course material online. I enjoyed it so much that I sent Professor Kleiner an email:

Dear Dr. Kleiner,

I've just finished listening to your course on Roman Architecture on my iPod. Thank you for making it available. The lectures have been my commuting companion for the past few weeks, and I found them both enjoyable and informative. Your enthusiasm for the subject comes through quite clearly on the audio versions of the lectures. I also appreciated being able to go online and look at the pictures you discussed, and often I was surprised at how closely I could visualize what you described without the pictures in front of me.

Thank you again for a great experience.

Sincerely,

Jeffri Harre

Much to my surprise, I received a very nice reply from her:

Jeffri--If I may?

Many thanks for your note. And what you say is very high praise--if you can actually visualize what I am talking about without seeing the images! That said, I'm glad you also checked the pictures out online because I think they came out very well and certainly offer an enhancement. And, in any case, as the saying goes: "a picture is worth a thousand words."

Thanks again for writing and all best.--Diana

Now I'm listening to Professor Dale Martin's Introduction to New Testament History and Literature. Although after four years of EfM, I seem to be a bit better informed than some of his students (the lectures were taped during actual classes), I am learning a lot. I recommended it to my current EfM group and will recommend it to next year's group as well. There's also an Introduction to the Old Testament that I plan on listening to next.

One of the nice things about the Open Yale Courses is that they make available some of the supplemental material for the courses. Check them out.

Peace,
Jeff

First Faire Of The Season

Here I am at 9:00 a.m. ready to drive Rachel and myself to Guilford, CT for the first ever Robin Hood Faire. It was on the small side, but if it's successful, it will grow. It's put on by the same people that put on what they're now calling King Arthur's Fall Harvest Faire, so we saw a lot of the same vendors and acts.

But there were some new ones as well. One of our favorites of the new vendors was Jessica Walters' Willowsong Designs. This was her first faire, having appeared exclusively at craft shows before. She does marvelous things with polymer clay, including whimsical dragons. She said she thinks that renaissance faires really are more her target audience. She hopes to be at the Southern Connecticut Renaissance Festival in Danbury next month. She will definitely be at the Fall Faire. We look forward to seeing more of her work.

Among the acts we hadn't seen before was Blackenshear. Here he is with the last bit of his Curious Magic show. Yes, that is a balloon banjo, and yes, it actually plays--even Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

Some of the story line, especially the joust portions. Things should improve as they get more experience under their belts.

Thirteen days and counting to the next faire!

Peace,
Jeff

Nuts Are NOT My Friend

In the months before my diverticulitis attack nuts had become a staple in my diet. They are a great source of protein and "good" fat. Because they take a fair amount of time to digest, they're also good to snack on before going to bed, so you don't wake up ravenously hungry and wondering why your blood sugar plummeted. So when I learned that I had diverticulosus, which is the actual condition, I wondered how I was going to replace the nuts. I was relieved when the doctor told me that current thinking was that nuts weren't a factor in causing diverticulitis. Nor tiny seeds. What I needed to avoid was things like popcorn, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds--all large seeds.

A couple of weeks ago I had painful day and wondered whether or not I was going to have to go back to the hospital. Fortunately, it cleared up. Then Wednesday night I started experiencing the pain--and other symptoms--that felt like what I experienced a couple of days before I went to the hospital. Yesterday, I thought I might end up going to the hospital this morning. Fortunately, the pain started to ease, and this morning I woke up feeling a whole lot better. Some extra fiber and water yesterday and today seems to have cleared it up.

Looking back, the only common link was a snack of nuts a few hours before the symptoms began.

So I guess I'll be eliminating nuts from my diet.

Not a happy camper.

Peace,
Jeff

Be More French

"Be more French," I can still hear Mlle. Ware telling me, as she often did during my years at Rockford College. Sally Lo Ware, one of two french professors, became my unofficial advisor and as much of a friend as a faculty member could become with a student. My official advisor was Dr. James Schmitt, the German professor. I was the only French major AND the only German major in my graduating class. It made for an interesting three years!

What Mlle. Ware was encouraging me to do was to loosen up and enjoy life--be less like my German forebears. "Be more French," she told me just before I left to return home for Grandpa's funeral. Don't be afraid to cry was what she meant.

For the most part, it became a running joke between us. Especially given the focus on literature that makes up most of a modern language major's study. I was not fond of the literature of the Romantic period, either in French or German. From Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther to Bernardin de Saint Pierre's Paul et Virgine, I suffered through my 19th Century lit classes in both languages. I thanked my lucky stars when I was able to take the fall semester of Survey of English Lit, which ended before the Romantic period.

My loathing of things Romantic carried over into music. For the most part, it seemed to me, the Romantic repertoire for flute consisted of arrangements of Franz Schubert's lieder or filling in as birds in the tone poems of the period. Nor was there much written by the more well known composers of the period. What little music from that period that I was exposed to, I disliked intensely. I found myself drawn much more to the Baroque period. One music-major friend referred to Baroque music as "mathematics for musicians." It was not a compliment. All that precision and mathematical exactitude, she moaned. Well, it certainly wasn't the mathematical aspect that drew me, but precision? Maybe it's the German side of me.

The one exception I found was Gabriel Faure of the late French Romantic period. For some reason his music struck a chord. Mlle. Ware would have been pleased to hear me play Sicilenne or the Berceuse (neither of which was originally written for flute but have since become flute standards). "Be more French!"

In an attempt to broaden my horizons, or at least my repertoire, a few months ago I added music from a variety of periods to my Amazon.com Wish List. For Christmas a friend of mine gave me the Music Minus One Romantic Classics for Flute & Piano. Of course, it includes arrangements for three of Schubert's lieder and Faure's Berceuse, but there were a couple of surprises. Two excerpts from Robert Schumann's 3 Romanzes and Johannes Donjon's Pan (Pastorale). I was particularly taken with the Donjon piece, and when I decided to start working on it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it won't take much work to get it performance ready. I've also played through the Schumann pieces, and although they'll take a little more work than the Donjon, I could have them performance ready within a relatively short period of time.

And I like them.

Mlle. Ware died a few years ago, but I can still hear her.

"Be more French."

Some Pictures from the NOERC Meeting

Here are a handful of pictures from the past couple of days. Enough to give a small flavor of what I've been doing. First, our trip to Philadelphia.

This is the front door to the Bishop White House. That's the curator telling us about the architecture and what they had to restore and rebuild when the Park Service took over the block.


And here we are listening to the curator.


And here we are in Bishop White's study. They were able to restore it pretty accurately because when the bishop died, his family commissioned a painting of the study as it was then. Some of the books are actually from his collection, and the rest are based on what an educated man of Bishop White's stature probably would have had on his shelves.

This afternoon Bishop Edward Lee, retired bishop of Western Michigan, visited with us and told us a couple of stories about Bishop White. One was about a time when Philadelphia was dealing with one of the epidemics common to cities of the period. City leaders came to Bishop White, a man of great influence in the city, and asked him declare a day of penitence and prayer. The good bishop, who counted among his friends prominent physicians of the city, told the city leaders that first they would have to clean the city streets AND institute a regular cleaning and pick up of garbage. Only then would he declare a day of prayer. They did. He did. And the city then had the first sanitation program in the States.

One of our members commented, "And bishops have been cleaning up crap ever since!"

Four of my NOERC colleagues having a discussion during one of our breaks.

These are the kinds of meetings the upper management at the Church Center don't seem to understand. Technology is great, but even if you can videoconference, it still doesn't replace in person, face-to-face interaction.

And how did I manage not to take any pictures of Christ Church while we were there???

Peace,
Jeff

Historic Philadelphia--Episcopal Perspective

This morning after breakfast we drove to the Haverford station and then took the commuter train into Philadelphia. We got off at East Market and made our way to Church House, the offices of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. Most of our group took cabs, but four of us walked to the corner of 4th and Locust where the Church House is located. That probably doesn't tell you a whole lot until I tell you that we walked past Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Yes, we were in the heart of historic Philadelphia.

We spent the morning at Church House learning about new resources from Church Publishing and then had lunch. After lunch Henry Carnes, the formation and education person for the diocese (his job description, as with many of ours, seems to be a moving target) arranged for us to tour the Bishop White house. The house isn't open on Tuesdays, but he arranged for a private tour, which was led not by a regular National Park Service guide but by the curator of the historic homes in the National Park Service District. It made for a much richer tour than we might otherwise have had.

Bishop White was the second bishop consecrated for the Episcopal Church, after Samuel Seabury of Connecticut. However, White was the first bishop consecrated by English bishops after an act of Parliament allowed him to be consecrated without swearing an oath of allegiance to the king of England. Bishop Seabury was always a little leery of his own consecration, which took place in Scotland at the hands of non-juror bishops (those who hadn't sworn allegiance to the English crown). Bishop White was also the first Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church while also serving as the Bishop of Pennsylvania AND as the rector of Christ Church Philadelphia.

Which is where we visited next. Founded in 1695, the current building, only the second on the site, was completed in the 1750's. We learned about the history of the church and more about Bishop White. We also learned about the renovations taking place at their 1911 Neighborhood Hall building--the first since the building had been built. Once the renovations are completed, it will once again serve as a vital resource to the community at large.

We stopped at the Bleu Martini for a drink before dinner at the City Tavern. The Bleu Martini wasn't historic, but it was fun. The City Tavern is historic, and the food was pretty good.

We were back to the St. Raphaela Center by 9:00 this evening. We did a lot of walking, and the weather was perfect for it.

Tomorrow we have a couple of workshops and our annual meeting. There are also other things on the agenda, but I'll be leaving for my brother's around 4:00 or so in the afternoon.

Peace,
Jeff

From The Sublime To The Ridiculous, Or The Ridiculous To The Sublime?

This weekend I was up in Woodstock, CT for the Lavender Country & Folk Dancers' Spring Dance Camp. Beautiful setting, good friends, good music, good dancing, some meaningful conversations, and a missed opportunity. Someone asked me to go for a walk with him after breakfast on Sunday morning, except that it wasn't very clear that's what he was doing. By the time I realized that's what he was asking, it was too late. I mended that fence after lunch, though it really didn't need mending. Now I have to figure out just what this dance we're doing is...

Usually I take the Friday and Monday of Dance Camp weekends as vacation days. That means I'm not rushed to get out of the City from work and get to camp by 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening. I can take my time packing Friday morning and take my time getting to camp. Monday serves as a "re-entry to the real world" day. I didn't get the re-entry this time, because I had to drive to Philadelphia (well, Haverford) for the National Organization of Episcopal Resource Centers (NOERC) annual retreat/meeting. So last night I came home and unpacked the Dance Camp stuff. This morning I packed for the conference plus a visit to my brother & his family. I returned the rental car (four people plus dance camp luggage would not have fit in my little car!), had the oil changed in my car, ran a couple of errands , and left for Pennsylvania only 15 minutes after my target departure time of Noon.

So much for a gradual transition from camp to real world.

It was actually a decent day for a drive, in spite of the humidity. There was little traffic except for the usual slowdown on the Cross Bronx Expressway, and I arrived at my destination in about three hours, including a stop for lunch.

So, here we are at the Saint Raphaela Center of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The rooms are clean, if a little crowded by the furniture in them. The meeting spaces are good. The food is well-prepared. There are no fans in the rooms. It may be a sleepless night.

Tomorrow is a field trip into Philadelphia.

Progress

Since I started working my way through the Rubank Advanced Method for Flute exercises I've found that in some ways they have been more helpful than the Taffanel-Gaubert 17 Exercises. For one thing the Rubank tells me what keys I'm working on. I finally can see the differences between the different variations of minor keys (natural, harmonic, and melodic). I can often recognize which kind is being used in the music I'm playing. And I haven't even reached that topic in my music theory reading. This will make a difference when I return to the Taffanel-Gaubert.

As many of you know, a couple of months ago my office was moved from the fifth floor to the second. As a result, I almost never use the elevator anymore to get to my office on Two or my colleagues offices on Five. Even though it's only been two months I'm noticing improvement in my stamina. I'm developing leg muscles again--and not a marching band in sight!

My cold followed by the bout of diverticulitis postponed playing the Bach piece at church, but the music director says we can fit it in almost any Sunday once I feel ready to play it. Which shouldn't be very long now.

Lots of small steps add up to some real progress.

Office Update

For those of you who asked about how I was settling in to my office on the second floor, here's a picture of what it looks like now. I have pictures on the wall! It's also been physically beneficial being on the second floor. I use the stairs a lot more, since it's only two flights from the lobby to my office and three flights up to the fifth floor where my colleagues are. I'm developing leg muscles again!

Anyone know where I can find a relatively inexpensive print of one of the Monet Rouen Cathedral paintings or of Harold and the Purple Crayon? I have another wall that could use some art.

Peace,
Jeff

Slow Period

For the past month I've had a series of medical issues. First it was the head cold I dealt with last month. The lingering cough kept me from practicing for a couple of weeks. Then, just as I was getting back into my routine, I ended up on the hospital for five days over Easter. This evening I picked up my flute for the first time in a couple of weeks. I kept it to a minimum, about 35 minutes. Just enough time to run through the next set of technical exercises, work on Frederick the Great's Daily Exercise #25, and play through some tunes from the Barnes Book of English Country Dance Tunes, Vol. 1.

Next week my routine will be interrupted once again by business travel. I've learned that taking my flute simply adds needless weight to my baggage. I rarely have time or space to practice. I may take a couple of pieces of sheet music and load a couple of versions of each piece onto my iPod.

Let's Start at The Very Beginning

I spent two-and-a-half days in bed with a head cold, and today I'm still not healthy enough to practice. Playing the flute sets me coughing. Using as straw to work on my airstream sets me to coughing. Frustrating, but I still managed to do put in some "flute" time.

During my time in bed, I picked up Music Theory for Dummies, which I received for Christmas. As with all the Dummies books, it's written in short sections, which were perfect for short periods between naps. I resisted the temptation to skip the first sections and go right to the stuff I know little or nothing about. I'm now in the middle of Chapter Six, "Tempo and Dynamics," the last section of Part I, "Rhythm: Keeping the Beat." Still stuff I'm familiar with.

Eventually, I'll get to new material. Usually it's a good idea to start at the beginning, even if the first part is a review of things you already know. I also plan on supplementing my reading with some lectures from iTunes U. Even then, it will only be basics of music theory I'll have gotten under my belt. At this point, that's probably all I really need to know.

Maybe...

Flute for Dummies

I first encountered the for Dummies books almost twenty years ago when I worked at Pitney Bowes. I forget which of us stumbled across them, but our department head ordered a set for us: Word for Dummies, Excel for Dummies, and PowerPoint for Dummies. Those books were a godsend. They gave us a great working knowledge--a PRACTICAL working knowledge--of the software programs we used every day. Since then the series has grown beyond anyone's wildest expectations and now includes a web site.

So when I learned they came out with Flute for Dummies, I figured I should at least take a look at it. Finding it locally turned out to be a little more difficult than I anticipated. For an instrument that is played by a lot of people (most amateur ensembles have to turn flutists away!), you don't see many books on the subject in local bookstores, even the big chains. Guitar, yes. Piano, yes, though slightly less. Flute, no. When I finally found it in stock at one of the nearby Barnes & Nobles by looking online, I drove over to pick it up.

I looked in the Instruments section and found the relative multitude of guitar books. I found the many piano books. I couldn't find Flute for Dummies. I looked amongst the new releases. Nope, no flute. Where else do you look? When in doubt, try the Information Desk. Ah, they found it shelved in the Classical Music section.

I've been spot reading it, and I've been pleasantly surprised. I don't know why I was surprised, given my past positive experiences with the for Dummies series. Karen Evans Moratz has provided a good overview of the basics and then some. I even learned something new: There's a third way to play B flat.

This is a book I wish I'd had during my brief stint as a teacher. I think it's a book that should be given to every beginning student!

Jennifer Cluff has written a short review. And I will probably write more as I read it more thoroughly.

You can also check out the book's Facebook page.

Settling In

This morning I arrived at work and remembered that my office is now on the second floor. I used the stairs to get there. This is what awaited me when I reached 231.

First, I shifted the computer.

Then I organized the bookshelves.

The bottom two shelves on both sides are set up for children. On this side I have some Godly Play thing set out. That's the Parable of the Good Shepherd on the bottom shelf.

The Post-it Notes are up.

And I set up my prayer space.


Just waiting for them to come and hang the pictures and the crosses. And upgrade my computer.

Peace,
Jeff

Open Mouth...

If you mention practicing your flute in one of your sermons, count on the parish's music director asking you to play at an upcoming service.

He asked me about a particular Bach piece but couldn't remember the name. Based on his description, it sounded like the Arioso, so yesterday I took my copy in to show him. He said it was the piece he'd been thinking of and mentioned that he had an arrangement for organ and flute that was in a different key. We'll be doing this piano and flute arrangement. We didn't settle on a date, but it sounded like he'd like me to perform sometime during Lent.

By the way, do you notice anything peculiar about this copy of the Arioso?

The Physical Flutist

On Tuesday Angela McCuiston posted about warming up:

As musicians (whether you be a flutist or not), we tend to be rather meticulous about our instruments and how we approach our practice time: warming up the smaller muscles of our embochures [sic], warming up our fingers with scales, even warming up our ears with long tones or our minds with imagery and planning the session out. But how much attention do we give to the rest of our bodies?

Very little, so I’m discovering.

Warming up your body is as important, if not MORE important than warming up our instruments, but it’s something we all to easily neglect.

One of my favorite flutists, Zara Lawler, has several entries about Physical Warmups on her blog The Practice Notebook:

Physical warm-ups not only prevent injury, they make your practice more efficient. If you start practicing without doing a warm-up first, your body is going to be trying to do two things at once: warming itself up to the task of playing and learning the new skill you are practicing. Eventually, you will probably accomplish both those tasks, but you’d be able to do it faster and easier if you did them one at a time. You can find my suggestions on physical warm-ups by clicking on “Physical Warm-ups” on the Categories tab...

I tend to practice standing up rather than sitting--unless I'm practicing with an ensemble. And sometimes, I even dance while practicing. In yesterday's International Herald Tribune, which I subscribe to on my Kindle, I ran across "Stand Up While You Read This":

It doesn’t matter if you go running every morning, or you’re a regular at the gym. If you spend most of the rest of the day sitting — in your car, your office chair, on your sofa at home — you are putting yourself at increased risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, a variety of cancers and an early death. In other words, irrespective of whether you exercise vigorously, sitting for long periods is bad for you.

That probably explains, at least partially, why I feel better when I practice on a regular basis.

If we should be warming up physically before practicing, should we also be cooling down? There isn't a lot of scientific research on the effects of cooling down. Or warming up, for that matter. However, most of us know how our bodies feel before, during, and after practicing or exercising, so listen to your body and act accordingly.

Goodbye 518, Hello 231

Su came around with paper signs with the names and phone extensions of the new occupants of offices. The signs are to help the folks who are moving the crates, phones, and computers.

That's Sabrina's name on the paper sign on my office. At least it's officially my office until Friday, but I won't be in for the next two days. Tomorrow is the Lifelong Christian Formation and Vocations Team retreat, which will take place at Church of Our Saviour in Chinatown. Friday, since they will be shutting down the phone system at noon to facilitate the moves, I will work from home.

Originally they scheduled the actual move to take place over the weekend. We were to have everything packed up by noon Friday and then unpack Monday morning. Except that they started moving people today. Why? It seems they only ordered 100 crates for the 20 people moving. I have 11 crates of stuff, and I have a lot less then most of the other folks moving. So, those of us that are moving into offices that are currently empty were asked if we could finish packing, let building services know to come and move our crates, and then unpack the stuff in our new offices.

They came to move my to move my crates after lunch.

So here's my new office on the second floor: #231,with my name on the paper sign. I didn't take pictures after I unpacked the crates, so those will have to wait until Monday. Basically, I dumped things onto the shelves. Except for the files. Those got put in file drawers: administrative files in the office, and everything else in my file bank, which is in the hallway behind my office.

At the moment, my new office seems a little dark. Some of that is due to the fact that the light in the hallway outside my office is out.

But the office is a little smaller, too.

Compare 518 here...












...with 231 here. Note the difference in the amount of wall space between the door and the bookshelves.

Hopefully, I will have time to organize the new office before a new crisis its rears its head.

Peace,
Jeff

A Different Method

It has taken me since August to work my way through the Taffanel-Gaubert 17 Daily Exercises. Obviously, I didn't do all of them every day, or even one a day. I began with Number 4 and practiced two pages for a week and then moved to the next to pages the following week. The past three weeks, however, I've worked on an entire exercise each week.

So last week, while working on Exercise #3, I contemplated whether I should stick with Taffanel-Gaubert, or should I try something new. This evening I pulled out the Rubank Advanced Method: Flute Vol. 1 that I first used in high school and again while studying with Betty Leeson at Rockford College. I know some teachers and flutists who look down on methods like the Rubank, but many, many of us started with them in public schools and even with private teachers.

I worked through the first 15 exercises in the Rubank (not quite three pages) and noticed something right away. The Rubank method tells you what key you're working in, whereas the Taffanel-Gaubert assumes you know. It also labels the Natural, the Harmonic, and the Melodic minor scales. I'm pretty good at knowing the major scales, primarily because Lise Mann drilled them into us during my year at Moorhead State University. I still struggle a little bit with the written key signatures. The minor keys escape me, because I never studied music theory. So working through the Rubank method while also reading Music Theory for Dummies is helping me to learn the minor scales. Not to mention strengthening my knowledge of the majors.

If it gets me to practice the "icky stuff," as one workshop presenter called it, helps me improve my technique, and helps me learn theory, then it's a method book that works.

Maybe I Should Have Gone The "Give Up Something" Route

I make use of Google Reader to track the blogs I read regularly and also to let me know if anything pops up in the areas of Christian Formation/Education. This afternoon I noticed this post on Susan Russell's An Inch At A Time. An online Lenten Study Group? Hmmmm... Studying Nora Gallagher's The Sacred Meal? Hmmmm...

A book on my To Read list and an opportunity to participate in an online community with a specific topic/theme, how could I pass it up? This morning I had a phone conversation with a colleague in Minnesota about starting an online community for Lesson Plans That Work, and we are in the process of setting up two Lesson Plans-related blogs (more on that at a later date). So, I whipped out my trusty Kindle and ordered the book, which of course, was delivered in seconds, and I started reading it on the train ride home.

I'm leading a Lent study group in my parish on Diana Butler Bass' A People's History of Christianity at noon on the second, third, and fourth Sundays of Lent. And I'm participating in the 8:00 a.m. bible study on the Passion Narratives being offered by our priest on every Sunday in Lent. Vestry, to which I was elected at January's Annual Meeting, meets the third Sunday of every month at noon. I finally have keys, so I can access the classroom that will become our new prayer room. Not to mention that I'm the parish webmaster, which means overseeing both the web site and our Facebook page.

Oh, and my full time job at the Episcopal Church Center.

I think I'm about Lented out, and it's only the first Monday in Lent!

Peace,
Jeff

Kindle Strikes Out

Don't get me wrong, I love my Kindle. Mom gave it to me for my birthday, and I learn more things about it on a regular basis. It's great for traveling, since it's a lot lighter and less bulky than packing three of four paperbacks. It allows me to store books online, which takes up no space on my already overstuffed bookshelves. I can take notes on it as I'm reading an electronic text. I can download work documents onto it for reading on the road; nice for long documents, since the Kindle screen is much easier on the eyes than a computer screen. As I said, I love my Kindle.

One thing I've avoided doing is purchasing electronic sheet music because it seemed to me that would be pointless. However, I thought I'd give it try just to see if there might be anything useful with electronic sheet music. So I turned on the Kindle's wireless and went to the Kindle Store.

I started by downloading a sample first. Strike one. Sheet music samples are one page only, the page which reads

End of this sample Kindle book. Enjoyed the sample? Buy Now or See details for this book in the Kindle Store.

Since this was a test, I looked for an inexpensive piece of music. I ordered Johann Sebastian Bach's Flute Sonata No. 2 in E-flat Major (BWV1031). Cost: $1.56 for the flute part. Most sheet music is optimized for the Kindle DX, but it is still readable on both other Kindle devices, including Kindle for PC. Even on the DX, I doubt it would be large enough to read from while playing. Strike two. You can't print anything from an electronic edition, so this is useless for playing.

So maybe it would be useful for studying a piece of music and making notes before playing? Strike three. The annotation function does not work on electronic editions of sheet music.

Yooooou'rre out!