Merry Christmas

One of the reasons I love living on the West Coast is that on Christmas Day, your bulbs are already starting to peek through...and you know that when Father Christmas comes, spring can't be that far behind. :)


Christmas Eve was nice...very quiet and relaxed. Played Scrabble...and well, you can't win them all, right? But it was VERY close..4 points or so...and we have a week of potential SPEED Scrabble coming up so things are looking up for me.


Went to church and then came home and cracked a bottle of wine, opened presents...lovely.


Now I must pack so that I can be ready for our flight...we have to be at the airport for 6am!!! O my.

1st day off...ahhhh.

Drank coffee in bed and read my book. (another Bujold...I'm on a streak)

Hit Coquitlam Centre just at opening and before it got busy.

Made sugar cookies. (very festive, don't you think?)

Made a yummy dinner...a creamy roasted red pepper pasta with leftover flank steak from Sunday night.

And then, do you know what I did?

In a span of 4 hours, I watched THREE hours of DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER.

It's true.

Oh my. I love that show. But I usually only have access to one or two episodes at a time. Seems rather irresponsible of networks to offer such a BUFFET of guilty pleasures all in one evening.

There, my confession has been made. I feel much better.

Have YOU ever watched Dog?

Advent week 2

I love it when a church feels like a church.

Smells like a church. (incense)

Looks like a church.

We sang at St. James Anglican on Sunday evening for their Advent Carol service which is loosely based on the King's College tradition. And it was LOVELY. Readings from Scripture, but also from Madeleine L'Engle and other authors who have written beautifully about scriptural events.

The choir sings from the loft which I also love. Namely, because we get to look at the beautiful front of the church. With it's candles and beautiful altar and woodwork and...(sigh). Worshipping in a place like that gives me "tradition envy"... you know, where you wish you came from a tradition other than that of boxy 60-70's "all purpose" architecture that has morphed into "community college" styles. (ever noticed that these new huge churches even call their locations "campuses"?)

Okay, enough rant. But really, it was BEAUTIFUL. And the building really makes the human voice RING. Love it.

The other thing I love about St. James is that it is right smack dab in the middle of the downtown eastside. There are always people sleeping on its steps. (okay, I don't love that they're out on the steps, but I love that the church is right there!) And I think I also have a special love for it, knowing that my friend Donna's amazing piece about Communion takes place as she makes her way from her community house on the other side of the park to St. James.

I know that we can worship anywhere...but I sure hope that the new heaven and new earth include some of history's greatest church architects.

advent week 1

To read one of the funnier accounts of an Advent experience from the planning end...I can SO relate except for the kids part, but then sometimes I think I'm enough chaos all on my own. Go read this Advent misadventure

More another time, but let me just say for now that if you can get your hands on Peter LaGrand, Ben Keyes & Jill Zimmerman's new advent/christmas/epiphany album, YOU SHOULD. Oh my. I love these people. And they can sing/play/arrange.

SO good.

dialogue

Following up on a previous post about Ted Haggard, Mark Driscoll etc.

Apparently things had heated up - to the point that there was a protest planned for Mars Hill Church tomorrow. Here is
one report

and another from two very different sides of the conversation.

secret to a happy marriage

Marriage. In two days, we will have been married for an entire 11 months.

The secret?

Don't walk to the skytrain station together.

Most of the time we don't have to worry too much, as I'm usually not ready by the time he's leaving. But from now on, even if I'm ready, I think I will find one more thing to do.

You see, I'm a bit of a morning person - meaning I wake up happy most of the time. And then I'm also verbal. (shocking, I know) And Gordon is lovely 98% of the time, but he has this little part of his personality that he refers to as "surly"...this part is closest to the surface for the first 2 1/2 hours he is awake in any day. Mix surly introvert with random and distracted verbal extrovert and shake it up for 5 blocks and WHAMO! you have marital distress.

But allow these individuals their own pace, path and personal space and all shall be well.

This morning, we temporarily forgot this little bit of wisdom. It's okay. We've had a little laugh at ourselves and solemnly promised to make our own ways to the skytrain from now on. (Whew, that was close!)

Your happy marriage secrets?

the snow in Vancouver 'never' sticks...

There is snow on our barbecue. Crazy.



This is Crowley Drive.


And this is the North Shore.


UBC has no power so they're closed ... so I guess I'll work from home and do as much of the exegesis homework as I can without access to the library. And as for the rest of the day? Who knows.

oh the weather outside is frightful...

Did I bring on the weather by putting up our tree yesterday? (see the 3ft. tree in the corner?)



Had Cheryl over for dinner and went to a movie. When we got back, this is what it looked like...



And this morning...



So I think we're just going to stay in today...

how much is a blog worth?

I have no idea how this works but found it on maggi dawn's blog and couldn't resist...

My blog is worth $1,129.08.
How much is your blog worth?

Tuesday mornings...adventures in discernment

So I have my coffee and a bowl of cereal. Have read through any new posts on my blogroll. Woke up dreaming about the final song for this morning's chapel.

Tuesday mornings are usually mostly filled with thinking about what is to come later in the day.

Will everyone show up who is supposed to DO something?
Will everyone DO what they're supposed to do? Or something sensitively 'other'?

It leads me to ask questions about the nature of listening to the Spirit.

How much of what some people call "the Spirit" is just somebody's common sense?
How much of what some people call "common sense" is really the Spirit?
How does one know whether it is the Spirit in the long beforehand planning or the last minute changes? Or both? (Now I know that there are those who lean towards "anything spontaneous is inherently more Spirit-led than something planned" but I can't stomach it as it seems to put the Spirit in a jacket until the moment something is happening...wierd.)
When one is actually in the midst of something (ie leading a service), how do they know when to stay with the plan and when to veer off into something new?

I had the privilege of working with a group of people for a couple of years who liked to think about, talk about, and DO all of the above. The only "answer" we could ever seem to come up with was a word that isn't nearly as concrete as would be helpful: DISCERNMENT.

Hm. And now, I'm off to try it out. Happy Tuesday!

haggard and driscoll and other 'heroes'

Here is an open letter from a co-pastor of a Vineyard Church in north Seattle...Scot McKnight comments on the letter on his blog too...

Meanwhile, there is a lot of talk about Haggard, fundamentalism, traditional/complementarian/egalitarian...

For your perusal... the Scroll is the blog of the Christians for Biblical Equality. There's a lot of good stuff there.

I promise to link some more "fun reading" sometime soon. :)

Meanwhile, happy reading...

quite a day...

Friday is a quasi-work day for me...usually a couple hours of teaching and then errands, etc.

Gordon had today off though...so we slept in, then I went off to teach.

We ate a quick lunch, caught A GOOD YEAR at Metrotown (good movie...we liked it!), drove out to Langley to meet Sue, our friend who has spent the better part of the last 3 1/2 years in Lebanon and returns next week. Following coffee we picked up our friends who have just returned to Canada from 3 years in Chad. We took them out for dinner and had a great "kill the fatted calf" kind of evening.

On the way home, just in case we hadn't packed enough into the day, Gordon gave me a crash course in Phonetics. Bilabial fricatives, egressive pulmonary airflow, voiced, voiceless, plosive... all sorts of crazy things. :)

I'm ready for a little sleep ...

rain and a microwaveless kitchen

Winter has come - and I forgot that it doesn't get cold...it's just really wet. No sign of sunshine this morning. None. Which would be perfect if I could stay home and sit in front of the fireplace. Which I can't for two reasons:
1. I have to go to work.
2. We don't have a fireplace

We were all homeownerish on Saturday and went to Lee Valley to get these fancy brackets that you can put your microwave on so that it sits just below the upper cupboards, giving you back the counter space that the microwave has been hogging...

This was followed by a few hours of installation and then a short while of de-installation. (including ripping two holes in the wall)

Then we went to Rona to buy materials to repair our drywall...Gordon had a swatch of the ruined wall in hand so that they could match paint. :)

So the microwave is still sitting on the dining room table as the mud takes forever to dry...we're on coat number 2...

All of these "we" pronouns...well, you should think of it like this: The space-saving desire was mine, the discovery of the brackets at Lee Valley was mine, the rest of the hard work and frustration and repair work has been Gordon's.

The saddest part is that when this is all finished, the microwave will STILL go back on the counter. We'll be back where we started. Except that now "we" know how to repair drywall. :)

Happy Monday.

Quite a week! (10 days)

Well, I'm back from Manitoba and am still full of "CCC this" and "CCC that"...we cram so much into a short period of time that it seems to leak into the weeks leading up to and away from the project. The people: fantastic. The music: satisfyingly challenging. The whole experience: wonderful.
Winkler, Gretna, Headingly, Brandon, Steinbach, Kleeveldt, Winnipeg...what a trip. Very Canadian with urban and village experiences set side by side. And then the singers, from all over the place, small town, big city and some from both. :)

And then a pitstop in Calgary on the way home.
Reunited with Gordon (sigh)

Gordon while I was away:

Gordon when I got back:

And then my Dad's big birthday bash. Tons of fun. Here's one of the whole fam...

From Southern Manitoba with the CCC

Greetings from Gretna, Manitoba. ("Where?" you say.)

It's about 120 km southwest of Winnipeg, almost to the American border and other than a few streets of houses, a post office, and a convenience store, there's not much else. Except MCI - Mennonite Collegiate Institute, a boarding school with about 125 students and currently an extra 17 singers, a director and a cellist.

We've been here since Friday night and have had the privilege of rehearsing in Buhler Hall. (nice name, eh?) It is a great choral space and has been a joy to sing in. Tonight we perform here and then in the morning we head for Brandon. Thursday for Steinbach and Friday for Winnipeg.

Each day (starting today) we have a workshop in the daytime and a concert in the evening. Our music is coming together well, but it is a LOT to keep straight and takes an enormous amount of mental stamina. GREAT group of musicians and we enjoy our time together immensely.

Too tired at this moment to write much more...sorry...but I'll try to keep posting through the week!

out of the mouths of search engines...

So I have this bookmark file titled, "church staff" in which I keep websites of churches that seem to have women and men both teaching and leading...partly out of curiosity, partly because I feel like there are NO places this is happening and that simply isn't true. I need a list of places that can give me hope for a future in which we can stop having the "should women do this" conversation and get to work on the "how" they can do it.

So I had two church websites on my list. Ooh, I just thought of a third that I could have had. Shoot. Anyway, I decided to let goole help me add more to the list...

Then, google responded with it's own comment. What do I mean? Well, try this:


Open a new browser window.

Navigate your way to GOOGLE (if it's not already your homepage).

Type this: "church staff" she

What does it say?

exegesis and choir and chores, oh my

It's one of those days were there is a little bit of everything. So perhaps I'll just make a list rather than trying to write prose:

-did (and am doing) laundry
-had friends over for breakfast ... waffles and Spolumbo sausages... Yummy!
-the inevitable tidying up that goes with having people over (why is it that clutter or a spot on the floor can go unnoticed until 20 minutes before company arrives?!)
-worked on exegesis for a bit - am starting to itch to get into word studies and whatnot...I guess I'm on the right track!
-am setting up (with MUCH help from Gordon) my new computer...which we named "Skookumchuck" as our first two computers have been "Tofino" and "Uclulet" ...
-we're off to run a few errands and then head out to Langley to have dinner with Gordon's folks and then we're on to Abbotfords for Abendmusik Vespers (if you live in Vancouver, you can catch us SUNDAY NIGHT @ 8pm at Knox United on Balaclava @ 41st)

Off and running!

people can sing

People can sing. It's true.

Many of them have been told at some point in time that they can't, but MOST of them actually can. And even the ones that truly can't can join in a group.

And so I don't understand why we would ever gather together to "SING" and then let some people at the front just play the music and do the singing while we mumble along.

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

So if I'm at the front of a room that you're in, and it's time to sing...I mean that it's time for YOU to sing. I'll sing with you...maybe help you find your way a bit, and on rare occasions, sing something that will decorate what the whole room is doing...

Nah, you'll just have to be there to understand.

This weekend 400 people were in a room and there were instruments and singers at the front...but they were only there to accompany the 400 person choir. And you know what? They SANG. And they sang songs they knew, and songs they didn't know, and they learned new things and they sang unison and they sang in parts. A capella and with full band...which by the way was two guitars, a piano, a djembe, a violin, a viola da gamba, a trombone and a french horn. Yes. I'm not making this up.

We sang old hymns and new hymns, old texts with new tunes, and new texts with old tunes. We sang songs from South Africa, England, US and Canada...some written by famous people, and some written by not-so-well-known folks.

It was a weekend of working for me, and I'm pretty tired, but I also feel an overwhelming sense of loving my job.

This is a unique job in a unique community ... I'm just hoping I can say that at several points throughout my career.

a bouquet of sharpened pencils...

There is something about a new school year that causes me to long for Staples or Office Depot. However, when you keep taking one class at a time, you can't really justify a "school supplies" shopping spree. Maybe a new pen or notebook. Definitely the required textbooks. After that, you're done. Put the organizational materials back on the shelf. And the box of highlighters.
Go home and look on your shelf of such things from years gone by. Pens, highlighters, underliners, post-its, etc. No pencils as they seem to disappear during the teaching of piano lessons and the rehearsing of choral music. Aha! Add pencils to the allowable list.

Anyway. This is that week of life when I have to constantly check my schedule as to where I'm supposed to be. This is that week during which I have a suspense-like curiosity as to whether I've double-booked any students, made an impossible transition, or just made a thoughtless commitment that will turn my life upside down.

I think I'm safe on all three counts, but ask me in a week.

I like the new beginning part of weeks like this. New class: Exegesis. New community: Regent...still Regent, but new because the old people have gone and the new people have come. New student schedule: Thursday from noon to 9:30 and just an hour and a half on Fridays. New music: Abendmusik AND CCC.

(sidebar: Did I mention that I get to sing another project with the Canadian Chamber Choir?!?! Oh my. I think this passed without mention. Yes. October 13-21 I will be in Manitoba with 17 others from across Canada to sing and sing and sing. We'll be in residence in Gretna for a few days and then have concerts in Winkler, Brandon, Steinbach and Winnipeg. I'm VERY excited to sing with them again. The three projects I've done with them have been fantastic and have always left me exhausted but very enthusiastic about music-making. More to come on that later!)

So yes. A 'new' year is beginning.

Happy new year!

a comment on a blog that turned into a post

Okay...read a blog post this morning that I couldn't resist responding to and after writing what I'll paste in below, thought it really could serve as a posting here too...

You can read the post here: http://slanderwoman.wordpress.com/2006/08/26

Ooh...love this post as much as I love the kind of days it describes. And books.

I admit I did read the Brothers Karamazov and it did captivate from time to time, but in between I persevered because it is a classic and I felt a sense of duty.

In the years between then and now, I've grown a bit more of a "reader's perogative" ... I sometimes choose not to finish books I start. That took some time. :)

My favourite "floosie novels" are a trilogy by Catherine Fox. I had to order them from Amazon.co.uk as they aren't in print on this side of the Atlantic. They're novels about a seminary in a Cambridge/Oxford - type town in England. But the characters are anything but 'typically' Christian. In fact, when I've recommended them to others, it usually includes a bit of a content warning...although I usually only recommend them to people I know won't be offended by a little bit of what I like to call 'reality'.

I think you'd like them. :)

I, too, love the Susan Howatch novels. And sometimes I'm known to read a Rosamunde Pilcher novel. They're usually about a cast of characters who are somewhat unattached at the beginning and all intertwined by the end.

My husband like Science Fiction/Fantasy and Historical Fiction, so I'm stretching my wings in that direction a bit. A couple of favourites so far have been Cordelia's Honour by Lois McMaster Bujold (one of many in a series, but my DH thought it most accessible and likely to please the likes of me) and Household Gods by Judith Tarr & Harry Turtledove (a historical fiction/fantasy where a modern single-parenting, career-minded woman wakes up in the body of a woman of similar situation in Roman times. It's funny and charming and really sucks you into her story...) In a similar vein, I just finished Lindsey Davis' A Place of Honour which explores a woman's journey from slave girl to freedwoman and really the love story between her and an 'unknown' man who winds up as Emporer of Rome....a bit of a historical kick.

Meanwhile, I'm re-reading Persuasion which is my favourite of the Austen stories.

I could go on, but I'll leave it at that for now as we're leaving in 20 minutes and I still have a towel on my head. :)

a beautiful spot!!!

It was SO worth the work.

The trip up was beautiful and much shorter than we had anticipated. Pender Harbour is LOVELY - so quiet and beautiful and relaxed. The Sunshine Coast Resort was wonderful...clean and set up well for a holiday like this. (microwave, fridge, bbq and cooktop) There is a new and old lodge. The new lodge looks very nice, but we were quite happy in the old one, which is also $60 less a night.

We rented a boat the first afternoon and travelled out of the harbour and up the Agamemnon Channel (doesn't that sound adventurous?).

We slept in.

We sat in muskoka chairs on our porch and read books and drank coffee in the morning sun. (ok, I drank the coffee)

We drove to Egmont and walked out to the Skookumchuck Rapids. (Skookum=BIG chuck=WATER)

We relaxed.

Wonderful.

working so that we can holiday...

There's this wierd thing that happens when you're getting ready to go on a holiday...especially when the destination includes a kitchen...there's all this work to do!!!

Shopping lists and those little "What else might we need?" moments...But I'm off to go for a walk with my sister-in-law who has done this dozens of times, so I'll seek a little advice!

At least I'm not working in these days leading up to the trip...so I have time to get things ready.

I love working and can imagine that I would be a little stir-crazy without it, but I really like having time to do stuff around the house too. I guess I'm exercising my nesting muscles these days. :)

I'm getting excited to go away - and happy for Gordon to have a break from working as I feel like I've had this long break while he's continued on in the saltmines.

We're off to Pender Harbour...neither of us have explored the Sunshine Coast before so it should be fun...More to come!

getting older...

Yesterday afternoon I went to visit Gordon's Oma and her sister Martha. They live in an assisted living complex in Abbotsford, both having recently moved down to the Fraser Valley from Vernon to be nearer their children.

My sister in law's Dad lives in the same complex so I dropped in and had a quick visit with "Grandpa Janz" too. (When your brother gets married when you're 2 1/2, you end up with a "third" side of the family...or at least I did)


Most common question of the day? "What is your name again?" (hee hee) And the answer of course had to include WHY I was there..."I'm Andrea, Gordon's wife..."

We visited and checked their fridges and cupboards to see if there was anything they needed from the supermarket...Oma decided she didn't need anything so Martha and I headed to Save-On...on this little outing the question became "What am I getting here again?"

It must be terrible to know that you know, but not be able to find the right bit of information. I told them that it's okay, the younger folks can remember today and yesterday, but their job is to remember all the stuff that happened before we were born...as without them, we'd never know about it!

As I started to say my goodbyes, they began to talk of their loneliness...one finally asked, "Why am I so lonely?"

Before I could think about it, I found myself telling them that they are created in the image of God and thus long to be connected with others in relationship. When they are lonely, it is that image being reflected...

I didn't mention that perhaps we are ALL lonely to a certain extent. We are all around people quite a lot of the time, but not very many of us have the relational connections we long for, though from time to time we get a taste. So really, they aren't much different than the rest of us. They live among all these people, eat with them daily, congregate in little sitting areas to set puzzles and play scrabble or just to chat about days gone by. But at the end of the day, whether they've had ten visitors or none, they're lonely. They long for more.

I go about my day, experiencing Gordon's companionship in profound and quotidian ways. I have friends and family with whom I interact throughout the weeks and months. I work and play and rest. And still there is a longing.

The difference is partly that I am young and mobile and mostly independent. Oma and Martha are now dependent on others to get them beyond the complex in which they spend all their time. They are looking back on most of their lives, while I can look backwards and forwards...

At one point, they asked me what I do for work...(they were to ask this question several more times before the afternoon ended) and when I described designing and facilitating worship services, Martha exclaimed, "You're a pastor!" I replied, "Well, yes, but I don't ever preach." Her response was priceless. "But the part you do is even more important than the preaching."

No kidding. Loved that moment. :)

BC Day and the Beach

Whew.

It's August 7th, what we like to call BC Day here in beautiful British Columbia. And do you know what that means?

I'm all finished. One entire trip around the calendar as Music & Worship Coordinator at Regent.

A Fall term complete with the All College Retreat. A break complete with a wedding. MY wedding. A Winter term including the first months of marriage. My first Pastors Conference and Spring School, Tradition Conference and Summer School.

(sigh)

It was good. Not always easy or fun, but sometimes amazingly fulfilling and incredibly enjoyable. Saw someone yesterday who I hadn't talked to in quite awhile and they seemed surprised that I was going to go for another year...whereas I can't really imagine NOT trying at least one more year... I guess when I spoke to him last I must have been quite aware of some of the 'cons' whereas Pastors Conference and Summer School especially are heavy hitters on the 'pros' side. And they are quite recent.

Funny how perspectives shift.

Anyway, I'm in for another ride around the calendar...but not for 3 more weeks!!!

We're off to Ambleside in a bit, picking up carless downtown-living friends en route and packing a mean picnic. Hummous and pita, fresh and homemade lemonade, fruit, cookies, mmmm...

Happy BC Day!

Boys can be pastors, too!!

Was reading The Scroll - Christians for Biblical Equality's blog - this morning and came across this quote...

"My friend Wendy Joyner, pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Americus, Ga., tells the story of a little girl in her church who, after hearing a male guest preacher, turned to her mother and said, “Mom! Boys can be preachers, too!” I think that story illustrates that perspective matters. A little girl who had only known a woman pastor thought nothing unusual about her situation. She experienced God through a woman pastor just as many children experience God by means of a male pastor."

Makes me smile.

And it makes me remember a conversation I had probably 15 years ago with my niece Laura. She was 4 or 5 and was asked what she wanted to be when she grew up..."A pastor," she said.

I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure I told her she couldn't be a pastor. I also remember wondering why.

Anyway, in 15 years I have come to realize that there are more ways of interpreting scripture and history than that which I saw modelled and heard preached in my childhood. Thankfully.

I think now about some of the female mentors I had growing up and am so thankful for their examples, but also sad that they spent a lot of their lives bumping their heads on glass ceilings that were theologically justified. I realize that when I bump my head now, it is on a ceiling that is cracked and broken in certain spots...and that encourages me.

oh my!!

Chapel # 21 today:

Sitting at the piano with Celia and Vania ready to improvise away with me and suddenly it strikes me...

There is a chapel full of people. Students of various ages and stages, backgrounds and nationalities. Visiting faculty members including Alister McGrath, Jeanne Murray Walker and George Marsden. But what stunned me was the presence of Brian Moss (http://prayerbookproject.blogs.com) and Jeremy Begbie (http://www.theolarts.org/people.html).

Both of them have been highly influential on both my thinking and practice where music, theology and worship are concerned.

It was an honour.

More to come...but must run for now!

15 down, 10 to go

Wow. When I ennumerate it, it sounds pretty good. :) Back in early May the numbers looked daunting, but now that I'm 10 services away from the end of term, it feels okay.

47 worship events in 13 weeks. When I ennumerate THAT it seems ridiculous. But the living out of it hasn't been too bad. Pastors Conference (7) was fantastic. Crazy level of participation. Spring School (15) was a bit uphill but had its moments of being worth all the effort despite low numbers of people...I'm afraid that when you put a few people in a large room it doesn't really matter how well they enter in, it still feels like a balloon you let go of before tying... And now Summer School (25). More people around, both visitors and year-round folks. More energy - partly due to numbers and partly due to Summer School's history and the momentum that it has going. And some great faculty - guest and 'regular' - who have pleasantly surprised me again and again with what they can manage to say in their 8 minute reflections. (okay, some of them take 10, 12 or 15...) :)

Anyway, in case anyone out there is wondering if I'm surviving, I am.

Meanwhile, Gordon & I are off to Calgary on Friday for a quick trip to see my folks and a whole whack of family that will be in town for my aunt and uncle's 40th Wedding anniversary. More on that later...

Week 2 and still standing

Sorry for the lack of posts...I'm afraid the two weeks off killed any schedule I had and then the first week of Summer School was just a blur.

It made me realize a couple of things:

1. It has been a LONG time since I've kept normalish (8:30-4:30) hours. Probably since the summer I was a receptionist at Baker Insurance on 17th Street in Calgary. And I think I was 19 or 20. Since then I've been a music teacher (after school hours), a student (all hours), a barista (4:45 AM starts), and more music teaching. Then I was the interim worship leader at north shore (weekends and a mix of some day time and some evenings) while still teaching a couple days a week. (read: evenings)

So USUALLY I have at least a couple of mornings a week to run errands, read, relax...etc because I'm working well into that evening. And the truth is, I like having my 'evening' in the morning. This working all day and then coming home and still needing groceries is a new experience.

2. I would LOVE to someday teach the kind of class I'm TA'ing for. And I'm loving working with Edna and hearing from her years of experience. I do think the first day I would spend time getting people to talk about where they were from...and then have us self-identify prejudices that we bring with us into worship. "Hot buttons", slants and just plain-old beefs. It seems to me that THAT would be a VERY helpful exercise both for the class AND for the professor. It's amazing how some people come to a class on planning theologically sound worship, taught by someone with their Doctorate in the field (not to mention YEARS of experience) and still they seem to be there only to share with the class all that THEY know. Why wouldn't you come expecting that you might LEARN something.

3. I LIKE CAPITALIZING WORDS. (new observation)

4. How do you know when an uphill battle is something you should persevere through and when it is an indication of a door that should close? More on that another time.

New Location

Well, I've moved. Not physically, just a cyber move. But if you ever want to look at OLD posts, there on inbetween.blog.ca


Meanwhile, moving over here allows me a little more control over the site, including being able to include the REVGALBLOGPALS ring link on my site which I could never figure out how to do at the other site. :)


This is day 4 of 25 Summer School Chapels. Whew. Seems like having hiked for awhile and realizing you're still at the bottom of the mountain. But it has been good so far. Good participation, better numbers that I had expected, and enough people interested in being involved in some way.

Meanwhile, TA'ing for Edna's class on "Planning Theologically Sound Worship" has been great. The material is interesting. (and o-so-practical) and it has been good to meet the folks in the class and to be a part of their conversations and learning process.

More to come.

you can find me...

...at http://inbetween.blog.ca

My blogging home. :)