June 19, 2012- Officiate a Morning Prayer For AAM

Day: June 19, 2012
New Thing: Officiate a Morning Prayer For AAM    
Inspiration: AAM, 1789 Book of Common Prayer 

 Reflection: On this day, I had the great honor of being the Officiant for the Morning Prayer service for the Association of Anglican Musicians which featured the liturgy from the 1789 Book of Common Prayer and some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard. Here is the description:

On Tuesday morning, the Choir of Saint Paul’s Church in Chestnut Hill will offer at Saint David’s Church a service of Morning Prayer from the 1789 Book of Common Prayer ratified at the first General Convention in Philadelphia. The service will feature a newly commissioned work by Grayston Ives. In addition, the choir will offer Benjamin Britten’s Festival Te Deum and Michael Sitton’s unpublished setting of Locus Iste, originally written for the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, GA.The Choir of Saint Paul’s Church, Chestnut Hill (Zach Hemenway, Director of Music) is comprised of approximately 50 singers, both professional and volunteer, who come from a variety of musical backgrounds. The primary duty of the choir is provide choral music at the Parish Eucharist each week, in addition to Evensong once a month.

And one of the highlights for me was having our own Bishop Paul preach a stellar sermon that brought down the house. What a day!

Week of 5/25- 6/3- St. John's in the Wilderness in Eagles Mere

Week of 5/25- 6/3
New Things: St. John's in the Wilderness in Eagles Mere    
Inspiration: Supply Clergy Work

All of the beautiful pictures come from my talented sister-in-law Kim

 

Reflection: If you remember from last year when we first visited this beautiful Victorian town for our friend's wedding, Eagles Mere, PA is a place our family grew to love in a very short time. By a very happy coincidence, a few parishioners at St. David's are also members of the St. John's in the Wilderness Episcopal Church community there and invited me to do a few weeks of supply clergy work with them. The people were so welcoming, the worship was moving and deep, and the time was spend in a restful fun way with trips to the lake, kayaking, hiking at World's Ends State Park, and a stop at Knoebles Amusement Park! Question: What more could we want? Answer: nothing.

Andy, Ken, Kim, D., Me

4/28/12 Rock Climbing with Ali!

April 28, 2012
New Things: Rock Climbing with Ali!  
Inspiration: The Trill of Adventure...and a groupon-coupon

Climb on you crazy chicks!

Reflection: Ali and I decided to take on a totally new adventure when we went rock climbing at the High Rocks Vista in Ralph Stover State Park. I got the idea when I found a great groupon- coupon for an all day "Intro-to-Rock-Climbing" class and thought that it sounded pretty great. 

Well, I have to say, it was a great day, but there was very little "Intro" to it's "Rock-Climbing." When we got there, we were give the direction to put on our gear and then start climbing. So, climb we did. It was definitely a "face your fears" kind of an experience, but both Ali and I made it all the way to the top and tried lots of difficult climbs all day. I would recommend trying this exhilarating exercise, especially if you have you own partner-in-crime-and-adventure-little- sis like I do.

We really do have some awesome adventure together. You're the best, Ali!

Don't be fooled by this picture. He is NOT giving us any instruction other than "make sure you do not leave your helmet sitting on its back like a sad turtle or it will roll away. We want happy turtles. OK- You now know all that you need to know. Get up there!"

On the climb.

At the top!

The Week of 4/2-4/8- Holy Week at St. David's

The Week of 4/2-4/8
New Things: Holy Week at St. David's  
Inspiration: Jesus' Death and Resurrection 

Placing the nails in the Pascal Candle- All Pictures Copyrite- St. David's

Lent, Holy Week, The Great Vigil of Easter, and Easter Sunday itself at St. David's was simply awesome. During Lent I did another Daniel style fast and yoga everyday along with a few other things to help sink deeply into the season, but the final days truly brought home the beauty and mystery of Christ's journey in new ways for me by being in this new holy place. To be honest, I can't really describe it, so here are a few shots from the Vigil to give you a little taste:

I was very honored to chant the Exultet and preach at Vigil!

Little D. also had her class pageant just a few days after this. It was a farm theme and she was perfect. She stole the show. No, I am not bias.

The Week of 3/19-3/23- Drew Classes: Writing for Worship

The Week of 3/19-3/23
New Things: Drew Classes: Writing for Worship  
Inspiration: Doctoral Program at Drew

Reflection: During this week, I headed back to Drew for another round of classes. This one was focused on "Writing for Worship" and we did a lot of just that. We wrote liturgies, prayers, classes, hymns and more. Some of my personal projects included: a new version of "Onward Christan Soldiers" (because I really dislike those lyrics), a litany about divorce, a prayer for a home table ritual, an a class on prayer writing. One of the highlights was a guest lecture and workshop with hymn writer Andrew Pratt who is a prolific lyricist. I was really impressed with his daily ritual of writing a hymn a day. A hymn a day! Can you imagine that? While there, we took part in a special service to debut one of his new hymns and one of my favorite music leaders and hymn writers, Mark Miller (who works both at Drew and at the Yale ISM) did this cool improve to one of his newer hymn texts. Very cool stuff.

An Update

Wow- So where have I been? 

Hi everyone!! So, remember when I said that I was worried that if I didn't post every day I might not be able to keep up?? Well.....yeah. That is exactly what happened.

So, here is what I propose: I am going to give you a few highlights and take you up to my pilgrimage to Bardsey Island in Wales (which was one of the most inspirational moments of my life) for now. I don't have any picture of that yet (long story), but as soon as I do I'll post those as well. And then we will keep going from there. Deal?


I have actually really missed this exercise and I am thinking that this will be making a come back as a resolution again for next year. 


Thanks all!!