A Priest and Her Communion Kit

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Mar 11 1
  • Church of the Holy Nativity, Clarendon Hills, IL
  • Eucharist

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!)

Wedding Date, Photo Play, and more

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Mar 2 0
  • Life

Wedding Date
Six weeks ago Heidi and I announced our engagement. So many of you responded with congrats, and I know I didn’t do nearly enough personal replies, so here’s a collective THANK YOU!!!

Heidi and I set our wedding date for August 30th, 2008. It’ll be on the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend. We’re having it at St. Paul and the Redeemer Episcopal Church in Hyde Park. (This was Heidi’s local church in Chicago after she became Episcopalian and during her time in seminary.) Heidi and I will finalize many more of the details in the upcoming months, but here’s what we’re currently excited about:

  • Because it’s going to be a Saturday morning wedding, many of our clergy friends, including out-of-Chicago ones can hopefully make it back to their churches for Sunday worship services.
  • I originally planned to do CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) in a hospital this summer, but those plans switched and I’ll be doing it this coming fall. That lets me be more available for planning details and preparing for our marriage.
  • SP-R is a beautiful church that has GREAT natural lighting through the windows on the sides. Our wedding pictures will be amazing! (And no, several of you have told me this, but I’m not crazy enough to think I can photograph my own wedding).
  • We’re wanting to have a simple and inexpensive wedding. So the reception will probably be at the church and my extended family will hopefully help with the food. It’ll be a nice, end-of-summer barbecue theme.
  • Because both of our denominations insist on regular Communion, our service will definitely have a Eucharist part. We haven’t decided yet whether the Episcopal priest or the Disciples minister will do that portion. (We’ll make that decision once I finally decide which Disciples minister to ask!)

Photo Play
My Divinity School curriculum has never been my sole area of study while at Chicago. The Div. School’s Ministry Program has had the ingenuity (and funds) to start recording students’ sermons to DVDs so they can watch and critique themselves visually instead of just audibly. I’ve created most of those DVDs and each time I make one, I learn something new in the software. Having a constant source of good content lets me learn the programs without the boring and pointless tutorials the software manufacturers always include. This work is important – and it seems to make learning more enjoyable as well.

Besides the video learning, I’ve also grown addicted to a blog called Strobist. The addiction started when I moved to Chicago a year and a half ago. The author is a photographer on-leave from his Baltimore paper and he’s written a full series teaching how to do off-camera lighting for photography. In addition to the accompanying flickr community (with >86000 pictures with lighting set-up descriptions and diagrams), I absolutely love the DIY (do-it-yourself) projects for good lighting.

Many of my church members do woodworking as their creative, hands-on activity. Some of them are managers at companies and work in offices all day — but they still feel the need to create something physical. Living in a communal house in the city, I don’t have the space/equipment/money to have such a hobby. This is why Strobist is so perfect. I can create small light modifiers and scratch that metaphorical itch. For instance, this past month I created a Macro Studio (for taking detailed, zoomed-in pictures of objects) and a grid-snoot (that focuses a flash beam into a tight circle):

Other Blog Entries
Heidi was giving me a hard time about my snack habits, and then introduced me to a delicious healthy snack: baked snap peas. In addition to finding healthier habits for my hunger, I’m working with my church on helping fight global extreme poverty and hunger (1, 2). All the fun of my field parish works in tandem with the fun I have at the Divinity School; last Tuesday we had our annual Ministry Banquet with catered food and great parodies of life at the Div. School (read through to the end of the post for the accounts and pictures — the beginning is more of my rambling). It’s even better when the hilarity of the school isn’t strictly confined to our skits. Take, for example, our Lilly program’s Music conference in January: speakers, music presentations, and … a fire alarm! — it was hilarious watching the intellectual hierarchy instantly flattened by seeing many of the smartest people I know debating whether they should go directly outside or go up to their offices to get their coats. I love the funny ways we can remember the great gift of life and all the funny illusions we read into it.  Oh, and in addition too all those activities, I also photographed the Installation and Ordination of Chicago’s new Episcopal Bishop.  (I wrote about it, and posted a gallery!)

Thanks for reading – and remember, the wedding is on August 30th!

Healthy Snacks

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Feb 18 2
  • Church of the Holy Nativity, Clarendon Hills, IL

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

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Feb 5 0
  • Church of the Holy Nativity, Clarendon Hills, IL
  • Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

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. 😉

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Jan 22 3
  • Life

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Breath of Fresh Air

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Oct 28 0

What do you do when you find yourself in a rural town without access to the internet and without an open library or coffee shop?  You call the only person who likes small rural towns more than yourself!

Adam: “Beau, I’m standing in Dixon, IL between the Disciples Church, the Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the Baptist Church, and the Library.”
Beau’s response: “Wait, I know exactly where you are.  What the hell are you doing in Dixon, IL?”

It was a great question – and what I’m doing is really enjoying it.  Heidi was on the search committee for the Bishop of Chicago that created a slate of candidates.  At the Diocesan convention in two weeks, the assembly will vote on which of the candidates is the new Bishop.  To prepare for the process, the candidates travel around the diocese and meet with Episcopalians in various churches.  Heidi is a “shepherd,” which means she travels with the candidates and helps them at the locations.  So we drove over to Dixon, IL after our church services.

This town reminds me so much of my time in Keokuk, IA.  The Library is always closed on Sundays; people you’ve never seen before ask you how your day is going – and they ask it right next to the stores that have handwritten “No Loitering” signs in their windows; storefronts list their numbers knowing that no one needs the missing area code in front of the seven digit phone number; spiders lazily let their tethers dangle across the sidewalk in hopes of latching onto the grand prize (a truck’s antennae).  I have a crush on this town’s charming simplicity.

My life has been very good recently.  I enjoy working in my teaching parish.  My relationship with my girlfriend is amazing.  I have three of my closest friends constantly giving and receiving feedback.  My family’s healthy and I’m anxious to make it home for Thanksgiving.  School is a steady throb of major assignments/sermons due … so it’s manageable.  Life is very good.