Last spring, a UChicago PhD student and I led a course for three Episcopal churches in the western suburbs of Chicago. Our topic: the Eucharist. We went into much of the history, theology, and current ethical demands of practicing communion. Many people are asking me for the material, so here is our course booklet:
Church of the Holy Nativity
Church of the Holy Nativity (CHN) is an Episcopal parish in Clarendon Hills, Illinois, where I did my second-year field placement during seminary (2007-2008). Its rector, the Rev. Aimeé Delevett was my supervising pastor and mentor.
Ministry Moments: U2Charist
For those of you who didn’t know, I worked this year for my field placement at an Episcopal Church: Church of the Holy Nativity. It’s amazing how much change a small parish can make when they have around 110 people at worship on Sundays.
The U2Charist. These worship services have become a fad for Episcopal and Lutheran churches and we weren’t ashamed to try one for ourselves. The U2 catalogue contains the anthems that could make up hymnals for the faith of many Christians. Using them in worship seems as natural as using Psalms in prayer. Aimée (my boss) and I went to a different U2Charist service last spring and thought we could do one at CHN if we built up to it. We did it.
The evening was a MAJOR success. We had over 180 people and the attendees donated over $3000 for our two charities: Episcopal Relief and Development and Opportunity International.
U2Charists can happen successfully with little planning; but, as with all ministry, the more work that goes into them the more meaning can come out. How much planning did it take?
Aimée foreshadowed it to the church an entire year in advance. Back when I was just visiting the church as an attendee (but late enough we knew I’d be back this year as an intern), Aimée had the church dream up future special events they wanted to do. She planted the U2Charist and it stuck. At least two of the volunteers on the planning team had been mulling it over since that announcement!
But just giving a year’s advance warning wasn’t enough to help our congregation understand why we do a different worship service. The messages of many of the U2 songs have to marinate before people can draw the links for themselves between the mission they hear on Sundays, the music they listen to on Tuesdays, and the special worship experience we had on that Friday.
So we started the education process early; five months early, to be exact. Back in January, Terry Johnson and I led and organized the “Living into the Millennium Development Goals” adult education series. We split the goals for one every other week – with intro and final reflection sessions – so our congregation could command and conquer them in the full goal of eliminating the world’s extreme hunger and poverty — or at least know how we could try …
I was particularly proud of the reflection process we spurred in people at the beginning of the series. We handed out labels with statistics and reflection questions so people could put them on whatever they normally read and think about the goals at times beyond Sunday mornings. Think of it: have a magazine you peruse at the breakfast table but one author in there seems like he just tarnishes the luster of that literary gem? Well, cover it up with the stickers! Have those extra blank spaces on your refrigerator calendar just because the month didn’t end on the last day of the week? Well, cover them up with stickers!
The series lasted for five months. We tapped lay leaders to help lead sessions on most of the goals. For instance, one of our members who’s a leader at a Chicagoland literacy non-profit led our session on Universal Primary Education. One of our members who works at Argonne National Laboratory teamed up with another member who does landscaping to lead the session on Environmental sustainability. The training was happening, and the church was preparing 
itself for the worship service, and more importantly, what will happen after the worship service.
The plug-n-play team of eight members showed up when they could, took on responsibilities as they felt able, and pitched in to plan every detail of the event. They deliberated on meta-event questions, like “who should the money go to?” and “what are the resources in scripture and in the songs that 
are the backbone of the worship service?” They on micro-event questions, like “is there a way to move the first four rows of pews out so that people can sing and dance but everyone can still see the communion table?” and even better, “what should we do if we get too many people? Do we have overflow areas and ways to still include them?”
So our planning started with two requirements: 1) listening to recorded music could get lame and boring, so we needed a live cover band, and 2) the U2Charist would happen at the end of the spring at a date that worked 
for the cover band. Oh, and there was another blessing for the service – an offering had to be taken to support work on the MDGs (apparently this was part of the reason U2 let these services happen without charging royalties).
The cover band turned out to be GREAT. They called Elevation and they band members are from the Chicago and St. Louis areas. The lead singer, “Danno” (real name = Daniel) knows how to work a crowd and knows how to make the music fun. I was running the on-screen lyrics and graphics for the group and knew the songs well enough I didn’t need to look at the group continually, which turned out to be full of surprises, like when I looked up and Danno was at the top of the loft singing with the youth. Or like at the end when I looked up and he was in the middle of a conga line snaking its way around the sanctuary.
The night was capstoned in a comment I heard from one of CHN’s most energetic parishioners. She went up to Danno, and didn’t say, but shouted at him: “I don’t know a single one of these songs, but that was awesome! This is one of the most exciting nights of my life.”
And then she gave him a huge hug. But it turns out that it wasn’t the last time she would see the group. This was a Friday night, but then they were performing the following night at a nearby town’s Irish Pub and the next week they were performing at Navy Pier. She took her daughter and granddaughters and at the Navy Pier gig, Danno even called one of the granddaughters on stage to sing with him. The whole “epic” nature of it is kind of funny.
Oh, and I HAVE to mention why we had such great pictures for the event. One of my high school youth group members at CHN, Lucas, was willing to use my camera after I shoved it onto him. He did marvelously!
U2Charist Details
My weekend project: scratching my itch for creativity and designing the promotional postcards for CHN’s U2Charist in May.
U2Charist: Original of the Species
Hey all,
This week, the devotional uses the U2 song “Original of the Species,” which is also from U2’s recent (2004) album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. If you don’t already have the CD or song, here are two electronic outlets. Through iTunes (http://www.itunes.com), you can buy and download the track at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?i=29600302&id=29600233&s=143441. Or you can order the full CD through Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/How-Dismantle-Atomic-Bomb-U2/dp/B0006399FS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1205248428&sr=8-1.
Original of the Species
What does it mean to be human? How would you teach a child what it means? Would you tell them they’ll screw up repeatedly in their lives and always need second chances, even though they don’t deserve them? Would you explain a lack of fairness to the world? Would you teach them how humanity is full of creativity and constantly going ‘beyond its own imagination?’ Would you explain that humanity is fully destructive – both physically and relationally? What’s your picture of humanity?
In fancy, technical language, this is called a theological anthropology. The best-known example of this is how people explain the lives of Adam and Eve in the beginning of Genesis. Created perfect and good, humanity somehow disobeyed and creation was no longer perfect. Some theologians stick to the story of Adam and Eve and argue about what can or can’t be done because of their actions. Some theologians venture to other pictures of human nature, such as in the first creation story in Genesis 1 where humanity is created in God’s image and given a different charge and purpose in life. Is humanity “Fallen” or “Blessed” or both? Are humans permanently disabled by sin or can sin be dismantled and washed away.
Needless to say: there’s no one picture of humanity constraining theologians. And Rock stars don’t have a standard either — which helps their songs give different pictures.
“Original of the Species” paints a picture from a parent’s perspective. Humanity isn’t distant or separated – it’s ironically independent, headstrong, and yet needlessly constrained (almost as if it has the potential to be so much more).
Bono wrote the lyrics to this song to the daughters of the band’s lead guitarist, The Edge. But it works just as well to imagine God blessing us like a parent with these words:
Baby slow down
The end is not as fun as the start
Please stay a child somewhere in your heart
I’ll give you everything you want
Except the thing that you want
You are the first one of your kind
But then, in the chorus, come lyrics that could be either Creator’s or created’s – words saturated with need and with reverence:
And you feel like no-one before
You steal right under my door
And I kneel, ’cause I want you some more
I want the lot of what you got
And I want nothing that you’re not
And imagine: how would God bless humanity? What words could encourage to be more like we’re created to be? What words would we need to hear so we knew we could and should be the best versions of ourselves?
Everywhere you go you shout it
You don’t have to be shy about it, no
Come on now show your soul
You’ve been keeping your love under control
“Original of the Species” is a tribute song. Like all tributes, its words are laced with admiration. Like all tributes, it tries to redefine something’s worth so that it’s easier to see how valuable something is. What does it feel like to hear such a tribute song? Could God utter such tributes to humanity? Do we deserve them? Could we ever live into them? Take the time in the coming weeks to notice the theological anthropologies (pictures of human nature) inherent in the songs, objects, and other things you interact with. If you’re in doubt, think of any adjectives that describe humanity and the reasons those adjectives are used. There’s a theological anthropology in there somewhere. Here are some of the key phrases for noticing them:
weak, finite, fallen, compulsive, ‘only human,’ limited, destructive, ‘be more than you can be,’ strong, resilient, creative, resourceful
These words are extremes that we often mix and match when describing what it means to be human. “Come on now show your soul / You’ve been keeping your love under control.”
Other Resources
Here’s an interview Rolling Stone did with Bono back in 2005. The written article is at http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/8651280/bono But if you’re extra-curious with some time to listen to the man himself, they did audio recordings (available through iTunes for free at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=83282454)
Peace and Blessings,
Adam
A Priest and Her Communion Kit
I’m WAY LATE in posting this entry; I think I’ve been sitting on these pictures for three weeks. :/
One thing Episcopal parishes do better than most Disciples congregations is their emphasis on communion being for the whole church. Most Disciples reading this probably scoff and guffaw at such a claim, but in my experience, it’s true! They build it into the end of the worship service: lay members of the parish come forward and receive the bread and wine to go do home communion ministry to the “shut-in” and hospitalized members of the church. The whole church knows and proclaims “We who are many are one body because we all share one bread, one cup.” In fact, that exclamation is usually heartier and louder than the opening call and response in the services. Any Eucharistic theology that doesn’t include this practice is automatically impaired in its ecclesiology — if the only people who can receive communion are those who can physically get inside the sanctuary, then the sanctuary is protecting those who least need it and the church’s self-portrait will always have someone missing. (Ed Foley, my CTU professor, would have added that ALL churches suffer from this – and that we’ll never have a perfect Eucharist until the eschaton!)
Even though Episcopal churches capture the mission of home communion ministry so well in their worship services, sometimes the emphasis is excessive in other areas: like sinfully expensive “communion kits.” There’s a fine line between the dignity of the ministry and the grotesque financial stewardship equipping that ministry. Take, for example, the sterling silver home communion kit for $1069. RIDICULOUS!!!
Church of the Holy Nativity has some nice, home assembled kits graciously supplied each week by the volunteer members in our Altar Guild.
When Heidi first got to St. Benedict’s, they didn’t have a home communion kit. The ministry was dormant. Luckily, at her ordination in December, the offering was split and given to all the new priests for their discretionary funds. Since Heidi didn’t have a discretionary fund – and since it’d be so wrong to spend that money on herself – she got the communion kit for St. Benedict’s to use. (She also got the Rite Song software that makes it easy to print the music in their bulletin each week!) The problem was: with communion kits being so expensive, she didn’t have many options … until she found Altar Calling, a group in Colorado who do this for affordable prices as their ministry. How cool is that?!?
(Heidi also blogged about this, if you want to read her thoughts and see more pictures!)
U2Charist: Miracle Drug
I plan to do these weekly/bi-weekly devotionals using U2 songs as we lead up to the May 16th U2Charist. For this first week, we’re using the song Miracle Drug, the second track on U2’s recent (2004) album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. If you don’t already have the CD or song, here are two electronic outlets. Through iTunes, you can buy and download the track through the iTunes Store. Or you can order the full CD through Amazon.
Miracle Drug
When U2 came to Chicago in May 2005 on the Vertigo Tour, Bono introduced Miracle Drug by telling the story of how U2 fell in love with Chicago when they played in small bars 25 years ago. But Bono avoided resting in the nostalgia:
“We don’t really look back that much in our music. We don’t look at the past. The best bits of the past, we try to bring with us. There are songs – songs like Pride (in the Name of Love), songs like Sunday Bloody Sunday, songs like Where the Streets Have No Name. They’re the best bits of the past and we’ll take that with us. Because we’re interested, and we’re excited and we have faith in the future. That’s where we’re headed. So for a city of the future, this is our music. This is our … the thing that we’re strung out on. This is our drug. Miracle Drug.”
We all have these crutches that carry us into the future. Our families, our friends, our sometimes simple hope — we all have these touchstones that tell us who we are and why we work to change the world while we’re in it.
Miracle Drug is often lifted up as a “medical care anthem.” And indeed, it works for that. The bridge in the song has a surreal mixture of three voices singing different lyrics all at the same time.
Beneath the noise
Below the din
I hear a voice
It’s whispering
In science and in medicine
“I was a stranger
You took me in”
At the same time, “God I need …” and “Oh, yeah, ohhhhhhhh, yeaaaahhhhh” are layered on top of the soft, steady lyrics. Researchers, doctors, nurses, and all caretakers know these words in their hearts — it’s probably one of the most accurate voicings of their vocations. Their medical ministry reflects the care and persistence others have shown them in their lives. Even though Jesus didn’t mention that type of care in Matthew 25, it’s still that same hospitality that the doctors and nurses share.
But this song reflects a wider Christian truth as well. It acknowledges God’s ongoing revelation to the world. God didn’t stop speaking once the books of the Bible were set. Through the small miracles of medical breakthroughs to the bending of the long arc of history towards justice — Christians correctly pray for God’s knowledge to be ours. We don’t want to have to learn about God’s knowledge through narratives and recountings like we do in school and sermons. Such descriptions are imperfect. We want our knowledge to literally be God’s knowledge – with no intermediary.
I want to trip inside your head
Spend the day there …
To hear the things you haven’t said
And see what you might seeI want to hear you when you call
Do you feel anything at all?
I want to see your thoughts take shape
And walk right out
H. Richard Niebuhr, a 20th century American theologian, wrote in The Meaning of Revelation, about God’s action and the way we relate to it:
We acknowledge revelation by no third person proposition, such as that there is a God, but only in the direct confession of the heart, “Thou art my God.” We can state the convincement given in the revelatory moment only in a prayer saying, “Our Father.” Revelation as the self-disclosure of the infinite person is realized in us only through the faith which is a personal act of commitment, of confidence and trust, not a belief about the nature of things. (p81)
We don’t have to be able to describe God’s thoughts or order for a perfect world in order to work toward it. We should want to, but we don’t have to be able to.
What is your miracle drug? How will the world be better by the time you leave? If you could see one thing through God’s eyes, what would it be?
Other Resources
Each week I’ll also include other resources. These will be videos such as excerpts for Bono’s speeches, documentaries led by Bono on the MDGs, or music videos from U2 and other artists.
This week, check out the video from Bono’s speech (sermon!) at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 2, 2006.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUdrYDk8rVA]
I’m a highly functional addict!
In Practicum last week we talked about a bizarre pastoral situation where one of our classmates had a congregation member make one of his addictions obvious to the entire congregation. I can’t go into specifics, but it brought up the discussion in class of “how should churches practice radical hospitality? Can it ever be completely open and accepting?” As a class, we didn’t come up with many universal statements; for most of us, this case study was a nightmare we were thankful to dodge in our field placements.
It brought the class to full discussion on what to do with people we know are alcoholics. Most of the time it’s not possible to tell when the people sitting in the back seats of the sanctuary are drunk – but sometimes it is. What’s the best pastoral move? Do you confront the person then? Do you let them know you know and then plan a different conversation to help care for them long-term? Do you ignore it as long as you know they’re not causing problems for other people? What, especially, do you do when they’re highly functional alcoholics?
That discussion made me think about how most people have addictions of many kinds. There’s a fine line on whether something is an addiction or just a habit. Will Ferrell’s morning ritual in Stranger than Fiction is a great example; addiction or habit depends on perspective. The Practicum discussion made me re-examine some of my own addictions. One of my newest is coffee. I can certainly go for days without it … but ever since this summer when I started drinking, mornings never seem as good without it.
This really isn’t anything new for me. I’ve been a caffeine addict much of my life. But now the drug has shifted from gallonous gulps of Diet Pepsi to quick sips of coffee. I’m not even that picky about my coffee. McDonald’s is just as good as Seattle’s Best for me. But at what point does my addiction become destructive? I can tell when my body has had too much caffeine; it’s usually with three cups of coffee within two hours. My hands twitch, my muscles ache (I think from dehydration), and I can no longer concentrate.
This Thursday I had one of my most productive days in memory. And I give all the credit to the coffee … so I guess I’m a highly functional addict! The whole day was full of productions. I made it out to Church of the Holy Nativity for a super two hours of work. I was so efficient. I was setting dates for the Eucharist course I’m teaching at three Episcopal churches. Aimée and I set our goals and timeline for the U2Charist service at CHN in May. I did some more work on our MDG curriculum for the CHN Adult Eduction series. It seemed like I couldn’t get any more efficient, even though I had to if I was to make it through the rest of the day.
That evening we had our Ministry Banquet at the Divinity School. 
Once I drove back to Hyde Park, I had to create a costume transforming me into David Tracy (and digitally film scenes and practice with my group). The mysterious trip to Joliet on Tuesday was for those costume materials. For our annual night of hilarity, each of the MDiv classes and our professors create skits parodying our life at the Divinity School. Last year my class caught a bunch of flack for making fun of students in our skit. Apparently we were too mean and self-absorbed for the class older than us. So this year, we decided to intensify the unofficial competition by doing a full-out musical instead of a just a normal skit.
Professor Margaret Mitchell (played by Vince Amlin) used her time-traveling Harper Collins Study Bible to take three students (Ben, Beau and Bethany) back in time to find the “Historical Jesus Christ Superstar”. It hadn’t been fully tested, so they ended up in a bizarro creation story where God (David Tracy, played by me) sang a version of “Razzle Dazzle” before the students and Mitchell 
transported again, only this time to the 16th century with Susan Schreiner (played by Lindsey Braun) singing a version of “One” trying to court Martin Luther (played by Alex Kindred).
After learning that Schreiner had discovered the time-traveling secret by torturing Rick Rosengarten, the students and Mitchell try to rush back to their own time. However, they end up at Wednesday Lunch at the Divinity School in 2003. 
In this alternate history, Kathryn Tanner (played by John Edgerton) explains to Kevin Boyd (played by himself) and the rest of the audience how to make a ham and cheese sandwich! Clark Gilpin (played by Matthew Robinson) proclaims that this is way too boring and so he breaks into a self-adulating rap with background music from the Nintendo Mario Brothers game.
The students and Mitchell find a KJV Bible under the table and try once again to return to their own time. They instead transport to a finale worthy of the Wizard of Oz. David Tracy (as a movie on a laptop) commands them to stay away. After they pull him out from behind the laptop, he admits he can’t let them go back in time to find his Historical Son. They still want to return home, however, and so he gives them the book they need — his recently finished autobiography on “God.” He then breaks into the tune adapted from Annie, “My book will come out Tomorrow.” Once the Pope (played by Adriene Zedick) joins him at the end of the song and the students and Mitchell transport back to their own time, the entire cast returns to sing “Oh the Div School!” based on the iconic “Oklahoma!” anthem. Through the entire musical, the second-years were led by piano player Erin Bouman.
The entire day and night were awesome!
MDG 1: Extreme Hunger and Poverty
I swear: one of these adult education MDG sessions at Church of the Holy Nativity, I’M NOT GOING TO FORGET MY CAMERA!!! The scene is set for the perfect lifelong-learner shot: the lighting’s decent in the morning, the faces are bright and anxious. I just keep forgetting the second-most important piece of equipment. (The most important, after all, is the photographer’s brain — NOT the camera!).
This Sunday the Youth of the church led the session and taught about extreme poverty and hunger. They did a great job of mixing up the story (in a good way!) by alternating between their own reflections of post-hurricane work in New Orleans, the global and local stats on poverty, and testimonials and advertisements for their annual 30-hour famine. (They’re fasting on March 7th and 8th; it’s coming right up, CHN!)
Probably my biggest “wake-up!” moment in the session was Eve Lebaron’s description of Six Flags. She painted a verbal picture of the amusement park in New Orleans as an abandoned mess – the roller coasters have moss and grass growing on them. What a tragic image of the death of fun! But it illustrates the point: for the systematically hungry and impoverished, fun isn’t even an issue … it’s an impossibility.
Here are the labels for our journals. The first is an insert for the back inside cover (or wherever you choose to put it!) with some great ways to engage. Even though they’re mostly monetary options, they’re still great causes:
- Episcopal Relief and Development – http://www.er-d.org – the Church’s outreach organization, focused on immediate disaster response and long-term sustainability.
- World Community Grid – http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org – Donate your computer’s idle time to aid in socially-conscious scientific research.
- End of Poverty book site – http://www.earth.columbia.edu/pages/endofpoverty/index/ – A website with research, practical tips, and a hopeful outlook on the future from Jeffery Sachs, an economic adviser to Kofi Annan in the formulation of the MDGs.
- Kiva – http://www.kiva.org – A micro-lending network loaning money only to those poor enough; similar to the work of 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank.
Healthy Snacks
I’m behind in my queue of blog entries (I even have the titles and pictures ready!), which means that this site will get updated more frequently in the coming week.
Heidi and my teaching pastor have been giving me a hard time about what counts as a “healthy snack.” It started at CHN when Rich Birch was getting the goldfish cracker snacks out for the kids before Godly Play (the pre-Sunday School activity time). The container was missing and there weren’t snacks. Luckily, the week before, I’d stocked a cupboard at CHN with my stash of Diet Pepsi and Baked Cheetos. So when Rich was needing a quick fix, I said “Hey, don’t worry, I have some healthy snacks in the cupboard. I have a bag of Baked Cheetos.”
Aimée immediately chided me, saying “Adam, cheetos ARE NOT healthy!”
“Why not? It has that green circle with a check mark that says Smart Choice on it!”
“Come on, Adam, it really means smarter choice …”
Heidi unfortunately agreed with Aimée on that one. Which is why, in January, Heidi introduced me to an incredible new snack at Trader Joe’s. For the first two bags I devoured, I couldn’t believe these things were real vegetables. They’re actual snap peas that are baked through and covered with a salty flavoring. Even though they’re veggies, they have the texture of crackers. That company is brilliant!
I’m on the look-out for more healthy snacks (besides the traditional salads/fruit options). If you have any recommendations, leave them in the comments on this blog entry!
Oh! And I included the picture above because I’m getting into the hands-on projects from Strobist (this one’s the DIY Macro Studio) . Here’s the setup shot with my two Speedlites; underneath the bag I had a glass pane my parents were going to throw out over Christmas break).
Bishop Consecration and Ordination
I’d spent ten days looking forward to Saturday. Two months ago the call went out across the Chicago Episcopal Diocese for volunteer photographers. As an “amateur” photographer and seminarian, I quickly volunteered. It didn’t require much: an afternoon meeting at the House of Hope to scout locations and then showing up early the day of the ordination/consecration. The event went off well, and Jeffrey D. Lee is now the 12th Bishop of Chicago for the Episcopal Church. Here are my four thoughts on the event:
I really don’t like incense. I was the roaming photographer for this event and I was the one kneeling in front of the processionals getting the close-up pictures. With such close locations, I couldn’t avoid the incense. The FIVE processions of priests/laity/bishops let out a big one (in terms of incense!).
Aimée was insistent in terminology: “This isn’t just a Consecration, it’s an Ordination!!!” For her, the terms mattered. And technically, she’s correct. In the Book of Common Prayer, it’s an Ordination service. I didn’t understand the difference until this past week; and I think, because of it, I (as a Disciple) want to disagree with Aimée. To insist that it’s an ordination means that the person is being ordained to a different level than the rest of the priests. To only call it a consecration implies that it’s a person still ordained to the same level of priesthood, but set apart for ministry as a bishop. Using the language of consecration starts to flatten oppressive interpretations of the hierarchy while still maintaining the functionality. Then again, who am I to talk? I’m committed to the “priesthood of all believers” and the humility of my ordination will probably get in the way of that special event. (By the way, this picture is Aimée with Bishop Benito, the bishop of Southeast Mexico).
I love that Jeff Lee “preached to the choir.” He didn’t literally preach, but the people to whom he made his vows included the choir. How do I know? He made a conscious effort to rotate and look at everyone – including the choir behind him – as he made his vows as Bishop. It was a dramatic move in every sense of the word!
My favorite moment of the service was the prayer the entire assembly (~5000 people) prayed as the bishops gathered around Jeff Lee and laid hands on him. The prayer was a simple chant that added new layers of harmony with each repetition. Veni Sancte Spiritus. It was a moment when all photography was inappropriate; the common prayer was one of yearning to encounter instead of yearning to “capture” (as we do with photographs). Come Holy Spirit. Our eyes saw stillness, but our ears heard pulsing movement.
Worship services like Saturday’s made me glad I’m a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but also glad to be marrying an Episcopal priest. Both she’s (Heidi and the church) are awesome. 😉
