Lesser Feasts

  Orientation begins on Wednesday at 8 am, so I have no excuse not to be at Morning Prayer at 7:30. The rector officiates. He is Scottish. I worry that when we have lunch in a couple of weeks, I will alarm him by my enthusiasm for all things Scottish. For now, though, I'm just delighted to have been invited to celebrate at the occasional midweek Eucharist and participate in their very robust adult formation program. ***** The first speaker at orientation is the Vice President for Mission and Ministry, a Jesuit. He talks about Jesuit values, about Ignatian spirituality, and it's all very lovely. It will become clear to me over these two days that the university really does take its Jesuit identity seriously. ***** That's my first we're-not-in-Kansas-anymore moment. My second is when the provost speaks to us. My former provost was noteworthy for his ability to speak at indefinite length while conveying no information of any kind. My new provost is the opposite: clear, str...

Tuesday There are, no doubt, some who think that the Mozarabic Preface is a bit much for a ferial Eucharist in the Season after Pentecost. They are, however, incorrect. And, more to the point, they are not celebrating the Eucharist in the Chapel of the Apostles today. The celebrant has remembered to put on his black shoes. He will maintain an unblemished record of black-shoe-wearing throughout the week, for the first time ever. Wednesday The Conference celebrates Solemn Eucharist, Rite One, with the propers For the Departed. The celebrant (who, to be fair, has been an Episcopalian for only forty years) mangles the Summary of the Law. The first performance of Malcolm Archer's setting of "Faire is the Heaven"  (beginning at 29:39) is beautifully sung. The thurifer, sacristan, and crucifer are all highly competent, flexible, and delightful. The person who runs the sound board and keeps me from having to keep turning my microphone on and off -- microphones are, of course, an ...

Thirteen years ago today I was ordained to the priesthood. I generally like to celebrate the Eucharist on the Third Sunday of Advent. At my first parish I'd always joke about pulling out the pink vestments for the gay priest. (Yes, rose, I know.) At my current parish I'm not the  gay priest, and we don't have rose vestments. In any event, I observed the occasion yesterday by playing the piano for the Christmas pageant in the morning, posting new episodes of the Noonday Prayer Podcast all afternoon, and singing Compline in the evening. It was a very lovely day. I have no profound reflections about priesthood to share today, just profound gratitude. Despite the fact that my full-time job is outside the Church, I've had wonderful opportunities to live into my vocation. (Digression: are Episcopalians the only people who say "live into"? I feel like we say it a lot, and no one else does.) The Church is truly a wonderful and sacred mystery. Today's anniversary ...

  Sir William Gillies, Wet Weather  (1961) Since returning from the conference I've had hardly a moment to collect my thoughts. There's been so much to do that I have felt overwhelmed at times, though in fact everything's gone pretty well. In the twenty minutes or so that I have before I leave for the meeting of the bishop search committee, I want to think back on -- really, just inventory -- what's gone on in the last couple of weeks. I bought the painting that I used as the image in my previous post. It's hanging in Edinburgh until the exhibition closes in three weeks, and then it will be shipped here. I am truly excited about this. I reviewed applications, and then reviewed them some more. I did four classes on Berkeley, each weirder and wilder than the one before, and got fantastic questions from students. I celebrated the Eucharist and preached on the High Priesthood of Christ. I confronted a student about some egregious plagiarism and became so genuinely worri...

John Maclauchlan Milne, Iona Shore (As is so often the case on this blog, the painting has nothing to do with the post. It's just a piece of Scottish art that I love.) I have a fairly easy gig right now in my day job. Because I'm teaching a 300-student lecture, I am just teaching one course this semester. That means only 100 minutes of classroom time a week. Now obviously there's preparation, supervising teaching assistants, wrestling with USF's reliably unreliable IT, and so forth, but still, it's an easy gig. And I just sent off a ton of research around the beginning of the month, so I can take a breather in that aspect of the job as well. (There are only so many times you can copyedit your own translation of Anselm's On the Procession of the Holy Spirit  before you feel like giving up on the whole enterprise and turning Unitarian.) So the Church's timing in claiming more of my attention is excellent. I am now on the Diocese of Southwest Florida's bish...