Covenant Association, Nashville, TN was an alternative to the Religious Right and pursued a social justice agenda of desegregating the schools, advocating for the Metro Human Rights Commission and trying to end Christians’ attempts to convert Jews.
He was standing in the hall, outside the room. In the room, surrounded by other family members, his mother lay in a hospital bed, dead. He was standing outside, grieving in his own way, but in his own way unable to go to the bedside.
This liturgical requirement of the Church puts ordinands to the priesthood in the position of either saying something they know to be untrue – that they are truly called to be deacon – or of finding a way to make it true.
The 1928 Prayer Book is clear. The diaconate is a probationary period in which a man will show himself worthy (or not) to become a priest. This is highly questionable ecclesiology, but at least it makes sense.
For these congregations, controversies within denominations may affect their histories some, and there are sometimes histories of conflicts and regroupings, but there’s a ground base of continuity that really has nothing to do with the Great Issues of judicatories and church conventions . There’s simplicity of focus: people are involved in their churches as a foundational part of their family and community life.
It was a bit like the movie “Father of the Bride,” when Steve Martin’s daughter announced that she was getting married. Rather than seeing the lovely, mature woman in front of him, the Daddy in him sees his little girl, in pigtails, saying a ridiculous thing-“I’m getting married.” Our little Pookie getting ordained? How can it be?
While drinking cocktails at a retreat for new priests a few years ago my colleagues and I started talking about the things we do in our offices that we don’t want parishioners to see. One fellow admitted to spending an inordinate amount of time on Facebook. My vice, I admitted, was video games, specifically ultra-violent first person shooters like “Counter-Strike.”
“I was on Jeopardy! recently. Maybe you saw it. I was the woman in the middle. The one with the clerical collar on.” Cafe contributor the Rev. Kit Carlson writes about her 15 minutes of fame.
I recently left a church I love. Not for any sensationalist reason, but for the simple fact that God was calling me elsewhere and it was time for me to go. The fact that I left for the right reason didn’t make it any easier. It was a church that felt like my church, and a group of people who had quickly become my people. Nothing about leaving was easy, and the hardest part of the whole thing was having to say goodbye.
I remember asking my own rector what day of the week he found best to take off. He said, “Well, I don’t have one regular day off. Enough happens in the parish that it’s hard to take the same day each week. But, I do try to take one whole day each week.” I knew then that he didn’t get a day off each week, and that if I could manage only that I’d be making progress.