Weekly Musings

Laura and I are going to Chapel Rock (the Episcopal retreat center in Arizona) this weekend. It's our first time going and the occasion is a young family retreat. The days are modeled after the hours of prayer in the BCP, which means 3-4 short prayer services a day as opposed the the 6-7 monastic hours a day. A few participants are leading discussions that are relevant to families, myself included. I think the subject I'm going to kick-start is living the ideal of nonviolence and gentleness in today's world.

"If we are committed to personal nonviolence, how do we see our responsibility to protect our family..." something along those lines. I've spent the last two weeks reading about Christian nonviolence in one of my classes, so the subject is forefront in my mind.

There will be a recap once I'm back from the retreat, though probably after I finish the work load for school (Thursday?).
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I have been asked to join a discernment committee for a parishioner feeling called to the deaconate. I accepted the invitation.
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Lent starts next week and I'm not sure what to do yet. I don't want to give something up, although denial is part of the traditional understanding of the season. It just seems that it is treated as little more than a new year's resolution. I'm thinking that I will add something to my disciplines. My schedule is such that I find it difficult to get up for morning prayer and when Laura announces bedtime, well, she can't really get to sleep without me being in bed too. I'm always awake at noon though. So I think I'll add daily Noonday prayer (Sext for the Benedictines) to my discipline. Maybe I'll keep it after Lent.
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I found something interesting: an E-book of common prayers from a Catholic forum. The tagline "'Cause you want to talk to God, but sometimes you're at a loss for words," describes me perfectly. I'm not good at unorganized prayer, but I find that I'm getting better because I'm letting the common prayers in the BCP guide my own thoughts and words.
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Speaking of Catholicness, A friend (thanks Alyson!) is sending me a box of books on Catholic theology. Considering that I'm swinging from hard Protestantism to the Via Media of the Episcopal faith, Catholic theology serves as the counterbalance. Even though I disagree with some doctrines, there is something to be said for 1,900 years worth of work. And with the little I have seen, I'd put anyone with an M.Div in Catholic theology against Rick Warren.
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A friend from church recently asked if there are any progressive Christian musicians. I honestly do not know. If there are, I don't think that they make it onto mainstream Christian radio...maybe they do. But that got me to thinking about music. I consider myself a traditionalist in that I am not a fan of the vast majority of contemporary Christian music. I like the old hymns of both the English (and Celtic) church and the Baptist hymnal with which I grew up. Furthermore, I love the tradition of chant, both elaborate and plain, in the Catholic tradition. If a become a priest I will intone the Eucharistic prayers.

(Tangent: As Gil (my priest) and I were ending our procession out of the sanctuary last Sunday (I was crucifer), he said to me that the hymns sounded very Baptist. I agreed. I don't think that was intentional, but both of us and the choir director are refugees from the Baptists.)

Am I bothered that there are few "liberal" songs? Not really; we have a rich enough tradition to pull from (see the St. Francis song below). There is so much theological complexity that cannot be articulated in songs, and if someone were to try, well, the song would be boring to me. My personal rule is to sing loud and proud and theorize it all later. Sometimes I'm uncomfortable with what we sing but it must be confronted instead of ignored and buried.

I also think that the realm of wonderful spiritual music is not limited to religious artists. Some of my favorite spiritual pieces come not from "praise bands," but from secular artists who share their faith with us. I don't know why, but they seem more real to me. I think it is because I don't buy into the overly sentimental nature of modern "praise" music. That's not to say that I doubt their sincerity, but it seems shallow.

Consider Sarah Maclachlan's rendition of the prayer of Saint Francis.


The old is made new in an exciting way.

How about Elliot Morris's "Faultline"?

Powerfully prophetic. Is he a modern day Elijah? Well, I wouldn't go that far but I believe he is in line with the Spirit in a day where the chaos of war is considered comforting and necessary.

Or "Starlight" by the Wailin' Jennys (not to mention the rest of their work). This particular song so multi-layered that it's accessible to many. It exemplifies brokenness, a universal feeling from which Christians are not immune, and it echoes the Psalms in which the Psalmists are yelling to God "Where are you!?!?" The song also ends with that ambiguity, which is also a fact of life that I think the sentimentality of much of today's Christianity (and its music) ignores.