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.