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!
Monday, July 31, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
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...
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...
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
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.
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.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
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.
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.
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