visiting Seattle
All the flights and connections from Sydney, to Los Angeles, to San Francisco, finally to Seattle 24 hours later went well
I'm visiting my friends Eric & Nicole and their kids Kiara and Adelina in Seattle for a few days while I'm in the US. Seattle isn't really on the way to Omaha (it's the north eastern most city in the US, almost on the Canadian border), but very much worth it to spend time with such great people.
Eric and I became friends when I was studying in Chicago 8 years ago. I was on sabbatical, and Eric was in formation as a Lutheran pastor. He's now ordained, married to Nicole who's a passionate Catholic, and is associate pastor at Messiah Lutheran church, Auburn (near Seattle).
It was great to see Eric in action leading a service and preaching. His message on the gospel of Jesus healing the centurion's servant was a great mix of proclamation of a basic Christian message (Jesus healed many people in the gospel in many ways, and he still heals today in many ways, often emotional and mental), and of a challenging message for mature believers (that the centurion, a decent man though he was, participated in unjust structures of his society which put him on the wrong side of history, and that we are often blind to our participation in unjust structures today such buying cheap clothes made in sweatshops). It was a really accessible liturgy, structured like a Catholic Mass with some prayers in common and others different. The hymns were all ones we do at Holy Cross. By contrast, the Catholic Mass we went to in the evening was so much less engaging, less accessible. The priest (a visitor) gave a rambling homily about nothing much, I didn't recognise any of the songs, and nobody greeted us beyond handing us a bulletin.
It was also good to look at how a married clergyman ministers with his wife at the service. Nicole and I sat in the front row, and Eric would come back and sit with Nicole at various parts of the liturgy, holding her hand. I've never asked one of our permanent deacon's wives what its like to sit with your husband for Mass year after year, but then after his ordination he vests and is on the sanctuary, and you're sitting alone. I want to explore this further when we begin the diaconate formation program later this year. Perhaps we have things to learn from protestant churches who have lived with married clergy much longer than we have.
I'm visiting my friends Eric & Nicole and their kids Kiara and Adelina in Seattle for a few days while I'm in the US. Seattle isn't really on the way to Omaha (it's the north eastern most city in the US, almost on the Canadian border), but very much worth it to spend time with such great people.
Eric and I became friends when I was studying in Chicago 8 years ago. I was on sabbatical, and Eric was in formation as a Lutheran pastor. He's now ordained, married to Nicole who's a passionate Catholic, and is associate pastor at Messiah Lutheran church, Auburn (near Seattle).
It was great to see Eric in action leading a service and preaching. His message on the gospel of Jesus healing the centurion's servant was a great mix of proclamation of a basic Christian message (Jesus healed many people in the gospel in many ways, and he still heals today in many ways, often emotional and mental), and of a challenging message for mature believers (that the centurion, a decent man though he was, participated in unjust structures of his society which put him on the wrong side of history, and that we are often blind to our participation in unjust structures today such buying cheap clothes made in sweatshops). It was a really accessible liturgy, structured like a Catholic Mass with some prayers in common and others different. The hymns were all ones we do at Holy Cross. By contrast, the Catholic Mass we went to in the evening was so much less engaging, less accessible. The priest (a visitor) gave a rambling homily about nothing much, I didn't recognise any of the songs, and nobody greeted us beyond handing us a bulletin.
It was also good to look at how a married clergyman ministers with his wife at the service. Nicole and I sat in the front row, and Eric would come back and sit with Nicole at various parts of the liturgy, holding her hand. I've never asked one of our permanent deacon's wives what its like to sit with your husband for Mass year after year, but then after his ordination he vests and is on the sanctuary, and you're sitting alone. I want to explore this further when we begin the diaconate formation program later this year. Perhaps we have things to learn from protestant churches who have lived with married clergy much longer than we have.
Already you are learning and sharing. This is an interesting observation. Two things, how can we be more engaging with visitors and regulars, and how can we get our Priests on fire and challenging us, not preaching to us on the gospel. As we just passed the feast of Corpus Christi, how is Christ living inside us as we leave the church, or do we see him living in the box on the altar behind a vail???
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