Kind of a cliche among bloggers, I think, but I'll say it anyway: I have been lax in the blogging but hope to do better. Really.

And now for news: In the couple of weeks since I've posted, I served on a chapel team, which happens once a year for us VTS seminarians and for me involved being a chalice-bearer at a Eucharist with the new (female) suffragan bishop of Virginia, during which we temporarily ran out of wine, which was a little stressful; visited General Seminary for an Episcopal Evangelism Network conference, where I attended a very cool jazz morning prayer service and also a jazz Eucharist with the Theodicy Jazz Collective, a band you should Google; got news that I am a student body chaplain (there are lots of us--19 I think--and I am very happy that my fellow Mississippian Alex Allain is also in that group); had a bit of a melt-down after missing a chapel team meeting during a week that was jam-packed with stuff to read and write and be present for (it so happened that my melt down, a bit of crying in front of my very kind chapel team leader/professor and another member of my team corresponded with lots of other junior class melt-downs); had a really nice lunch in the Refectory with Bishop Gray, who surprised us all but mostly Alex, who discovered the Bishop was here as he (Alex) wandered into breakfast Wednesday morning; found a spiritual director; overslept for morning prayer after staying up way too late listening to a senior and a middler discuss the difficulties of transitioning into seminary life and how a lot of what happens here is "hazing," in their estimation.

And then there's the school work. I have lots of stuff to write in the next several days, though thankfully none of it has to be all that long. There's a church history essay and a log entry on my service learning site as well as a case study to write up and present to my TPM class. I also have to recite the Shema in Hebrew on Monday and then come up with some prayer to say in Hebrew on Thursday. And then in a few weeks are exams and then fall break and on to Old Testament and New Testament, where I believe the rubber will meet the road for me. I hear I will be reading pretty much nonstop. I am very thankful I actually like to read.

Two weeks of classes down (I have no classes on Fridays, or Wednesdays for that matter, though of course plenty of work to do), and the days have become sort of a blur. I've learned that there's no real normal at VTS. Just when you think you've established a routine, something comes up.

Today, for example, our afternoon language sections were canceled so that we could board a charter bus for Catholic University of America. There, we met students from other seminaries in the DC area at an ecumenical prayer service. After the service, we were randomly divided into groups of four or five and whisked off to various Catholic centers, monasteries and houses for dinner.

I had the good fortune of hanging out with a group of Franciscans at Holy Name College, which is their house in Silver Spring, Maryland. The house is attached to what they laughingly described as a "mega-parish," St. Camillus, where four priests (also Franciscans) celebrate 9 masses each weekend. The masses are said in English, Spanish and French (for the large community from the Congo). The congregation represents more than 100 countries, and the Easter Vigil usually includes around 150 baptisms.

Also, we didn't get to meet him, but Robert Lentz, a somewhat well-known iconographer lives and works at Holy Name. He's "written" icons of a female Jesus, Harvey Milk and other somewhat "challenging images" (to borrow a phrase from trinitystores.com, where you can view his work), so he's not particularly well liked in some circles. Either way, his creations are fascinating.

During the more routine days of the last couple of weeks, I've gone to class, read, gone to chapel, read, worked out, read, eaten, read, slept, read, and read some more. And even so, I still didn't quite get to everything. I understand now why so many priests kept telling me, "Don't try to read everything. You can't do it." Amen and amen. Now, to bed.

So all of us juniors have survived August term, which ended with our Greek and Hebrew exams on Thursday. The Hebrew exam was not nearly as hard as I'd expected and I think I did pretty well. While I still love Hebrew it will be good to meet twice a week versus every weekday. In celebration of our making it through August and also to celebrate the four August birthdays in our junior class, there was an 80s' Luau on Friday night. Almost everyone came out for it--even some of us older seminarians--and it was good to celebrate together (my celebrating ended long before midnight, while others were up till around 2 a.m., I'm told). Thankfully, if I turn the air on in my room, I can't hear too much of what's going on on the patio down below.

When school starts after Labor Day tomorrow, I'll not only have Hebrew to worry about but also a required liturgics class formally called "Oral Interpretation of Scripture," but informally referred to as "read and bleed"; a required "Theology and Practice of Ministry" class (which in addition to class time involves 15 hours of community service, in my case helping formerly incarcerated men and women with resume writing and interview skills); church history; and "Introduction to Singing," which I'm really excited about since I'm a pretty terrible singer. In the second quarter later this fall, I'll pick up Old Testament and New Testament classes, having finished TPM and read and bleed during the first quarter. In addition to all that are daily worship, work study (in VTS's fundraising office) and Tuesday morning formation groups. I will be busier than I've been in a long time.

And of course I will need to fit in time to explore DC. I was able to do some of that on Friday, and visited the Hirshorn Museum, the Smithsonian's modern art museum, which had a great installation called "Belief + Doubt." This consisted of huge red, black and white words covering the walls and floor of the museum's bottom floor. My favorite part was the wall reading, "Belief + Doubt = Sanity." 

On Saturday several of us attended a funeral in DC for the mom of a fellow junior. This was held at St. Paul's K Street, known for its AngloCatholicism. It was a beautiful service, but sadly St. Paul's, which is all about social justice and also very much for gay rights, has never allowed a woman to serve there. I hear the rector is working to change this attitude, thankfully. 

On Sunday, I saw the complete opposite end of the Episcopal continuum at St. Mark's Capitol Hill. Church in the round--with the altar in the middle of the nave, and chairs surrounding it--is a pretty cool concept and I was glad to experience it. The rector there, Paul Abernathy, believes firmly in open communion and made a point to say that just as Jesus would not exclude, no one is excluded from receiving communion at St. Mark's, baptized or not (despite the canons of the Episcopal Church, which he of course didn't' mention). Also, the rector had written much of the Liturgy of the Word, we used language from Prayers for the Inclusive Church for the Liturgy of the Table, we read only the Gospel lesson, there was no creed and we skipped the confession, so visiting there raised a bunch of theological questions for me. 

But while parts made me a little uncomfortable, other parts were deeply moving, including the Prayers of the People, when anyone could speak up, finish with a "This is my prayer," and then hear the congregation respond with an "Amen." Also moving was the communion, which was celebrated jointly by the rector and his young female associate. Communicants gathered around the altar, received bread and wine, waited for everyone else around the circle to receive, then the rector dismissed the small group with a hearty "Go in peace!" Also, the people were extremely warm and inviting and seemed to genuinely care for one another as well as those in need, which made me wonder if messing with the liturgy is okay for a church that identifies as Episcopal if the people of that church are in fact living out the Gospel.

And last, here is the blessing from St. Mark's Capitol Hill, which I believe is also from Prayers for the Inclusive Church:

May the outrageous welcome of the Mother and Father accept us for who we are; may the incarnation of the Word touch us and hold us close; may the wandering of the Spirit help us risk ourselves for love; and the blessing of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer be with us and remain with us always.