St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church

Sunday I attended mass at St. Bart's. I was in my cassock and surplice and sat in the chancel so folks could see that I was there. Fr. Gawain alerted them to that at the announcement time. Then at coffee hour I spoke with a nice group about my first year at seminary. They listened attentively and asked questions (we did get around to the McGreevey caper) and I for one, enjoyed myself. It was nice to see old friends and be at St. Bart's again. Some things have changed, but for the most part, it's the same friendly place.

The semester is over. I took my church history (last) final on the 10th and have been recuperating ever since. There was a lovely party held by the upperclasses with banners reading "Congratulations Rising Middlers," lots of cheers and applause and all around good feelings. It's still sinking in as I sink into my easy chair here at home and don't have to worry about reading or papers due or exams for a little while.

The papers are all completed and handed in, so now there is nothing left for me to do but study for the church history final. We were given a "prospectus" on what to study for this exam. Instead of just telling us to study eveything and then some, he wrote it out on his "prospectus." Joy. Does it make it any easier to learn all that stuff?

We are closing in on the end of our junior year...um, that's not the "royal" we, that's we juniors of the class of 2009. Another week and a half of class, reading week, then finals on the 9th and 10th. I have finished and submitted my NT exegesis paper, my final Church History mini-paper that takes longer than a 10 page paper!, have my OT paper ready to print and hand in, and have only my philosohpy paper to struggle through. Ten pages. I don't know if I know 10 pages of "philosophy words." I have settled on comapring/contrasting Augustine and Kant on evil.

Happy Easter!

It is Lent, and even better yet, it is Holy Week. And do you know how you can tell? By checking the secular news and your local bookstore. There you will find fabulous stories of ossuaries, bones, Gospels of Judas and Secret Mark. And exactly what do these supposed "finds" have to do with Christianity?

The authors of a new novel, The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot, came to the seminary to basically hawk their book.The real authors are Lord Jeffrey Archer and Prof. Moloney, a Roman Catholic priest. They explain that their intent is to"rehabilitate" Judas and their book is based on "possibilites" in the story of Judas and his relationship with Jesus. When they finished speaking I felt that the best possibility might be for them to not plan on record sales. This is a slim volume, nicely packaged with a string page marker. Wow!

Yesterday the Presiding Bishop was here. Now, other than seeing photos of her, I had never seen her let alone speak. I wasn't quite certain what to expect, but I definitely wanted to make my own evaluation considering the hubbub that has surrounded the lady. We met Bshop Jeffers-Schori in our meeting room here at GTS. She is a tall, slim woman and very graceful in the way that she carries herself. She is soft-spoken with a good sense of humor and a friendly way that puts a person at ease in her presence.

This past Saturday the seniors seminarians from New York were ordained to the transitional diaconate. I would have liked to have been there, but there was something already on our calendar. Anyway I was talking briefly with one of our brand new deacons, a favorite of mine around here, and he was telling me a little about the ordination. Later, when I was alone, I realized that I don't even think about that anymore...don't daydream about ordination. I used to...when I was going through the process.

Heading back to seminary this afternoon and that Church History exam on Tuesday. Not much of a break, well not the kind I had envisioned. I was hoping for, planning for extra sleep (did get that!), relaxing days reading for pleasure, or going shopping, or just hanging around doing nothing useful. The good part is that we didn't have to go to class, so, it was less work. That in itself helped. And there was plenty of time to study for the test, which was also good.