Monthly Archives: April 2003

Resurrection Festivities

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CHRIST IS RISEN!!!!!!!
The Lord is Risen indeed! Alleluia

For my reflections on the Triduum, see my blogs4God spiel on it.

Holy Week is a *BIG* week for liturgically-minded Christians and is part of the reason why I love Lent so much. I missed Palm Sunday worship and actually regret this because it’s an ecumenical procession at St. Paul’s and (like everything else worship-related) is a HUGE deal. I thankfully did make it to Maundy Thursday though I didn’t go up for the foot-washing. My evil cold was awful that night and I did spend quite a bit of time in the sacristy coughing up a lung, but thankfully we had stations for communion and intinction was an option. Our choir anthem was fantastic and I made it through our practice afterward.

Good Friday was the Tres Oras service at noon and my choir had the first four “words”. (You do a hymn, a reading, a part of LBW Hymn 112 [“Jesus in Thy Dying Woes”], a sermon, an anthem, and a prayer for each of the 7 last “words” of Jesus. A “word” is a saying from the Cross. Each segment is 25 minutes and the service is 3 hours long.) I made it through the words for the most part, though I did have to leave and cough up a lung occasionally. The Episcopal rector co-presided and preached the first sermon which was GOOD. The fourth one was the UCC pastor in town and he also did well because his sermon was personable and down to earth. Our music was fabulous and really captured the whole “mourning” theme. I was also exposed to some of the Easter lilies which added nasal congestion on to what I was suffering. I cam home and went to sleep as the Coridicin HBP I’d taken was making me dopey, and I slept through the Tenebrae service (in this case, a dramatic reading of John’s Gospel) that night.

We had nothing for Holy Saturday (mostly because we have a Sunrise Service and full music for the 8:00 service); but Sunday morning was glorious. I was still dealing with my cold (though doing better) and I made it through each service OK as I had my inhaler, a SlugMug of water, and cough drops with me in the pew. The music went well and we had organ with full brass for most of it. After the 8:00 service, the choir people got the remnants of Easter Breakfast and I had some time to chill. We went and spent lunch and most of the afternoon with a family from the church who had also adopted us for Thanksgiving.

You’ve also probably noticed the new layout which is a sunrise one for Easter. The layout is called “Christos aneste!” and the sunrise is because the resurrection was discovered at sunrise on the third day.

Reaching Out to YAT’s

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Richard of looking back… looking forward… has posed the following questions:

Some of the YATs (Young Adults in Transition) in London Conference have been having a conversation about how congregations can keep connected with their young adults, and help them to find supportive congregations when they’ve moved to another city to go to post-secondary education… or work, for that matter… What do you think? For you YAT types out there… what kind of information would be helpful (eg. Would you like to know what bus routes to take to get from the campus to the church?)

My answer (as a YAT) is this: bus route information would be helpful and for those communities surrounding universities that have no public transit, numbers of people who could give rides to church would be incredibly beneficial. Some colleges don’t give their students bus passes (like my ID card was) and taking the bus can get expensive.

Demographics would be helpful as well. I know I’d like to have certain kinds of information about a church such as its worshipping membership numbers vs. its “baptized/active/on the rolls” membership because that says quite a bit about the church. I’d also like to know what programs are offered so that if I want to get involved with a ministry to make blankets for children in Uzbekistan, I can easily do it. Information about the pastor would also be good because I know people who choose a church based on how liberal or conservative the pastor is.

The most helpful thing would be to know which churches *want* to let YAT’s get involved and which ones have the programs to do it or are open to YAT-involvement and are willing to work with us. One thing my candidacy committee suggested for me was getting more involved as a lay person and maybe teaching an adult Sunday School class or leading a Bible Study. And what ELCA church lets a 23 year-old (who isn’t doing their fieldwork for seminary) do that??? One reason I stopped attending Sunday School at my home congregation was that any time I opened my mouth, they’d yell at me for even *daring* to suggest that I might know what YAT’s want. (Keep in mind that I was *21* when this happened.) My churches in college were more than willing to let me be involved in Bible Studies, worship team, and they even had a college group for us. People in my college group helped with the youth, were allowed to get involved in the men/women’s small groups, and even help with the service.

Perhaps a “Mystery Worshipper” section might be helpful so that YAT’s know what other YAT’s think of a church. How many of us try out a church in a new city based on the recommendations of other people?

60th Anniversaries and 80th Birthdays

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Greetings from Mount Vernon, Washington: the tulip capital of the world! Considering how weepy and devastated I was on Thursday, I have to say that being with my family was the best medicine. My flights on Friday were really good and I spent my layover in Chicago drinking Starbucks and reading Memories of God by Roberta Bondi. On the leg from Chicago to Seattle, I got a letter (en francais) written to a friend in Luxembourg and realized that if I was going to be lucid while around my family, I needed to pray. So I spent the last hour (of four!) praying to work through this all OK. When I landed, my aunt met me and the trip up to Redmond allowed me to talk a lot out with her.

We drove from Redmond to Mt. Vernon with my little cousins and oogled cars on the way up. When we got there, my cousin Steve, his wife Andrea, their sons Benjamin and Nathaniel, and my aunt Dori, were up there. I got to hold Nathaniel (4 months) for the first time! Shortly after, my parents arrived with my uncle David. My great-aunt Jean, her daughter Carol (my mom’s cousin), and Carol’s kids Kira and Cord were there as well. Dinner was Chinese food that night. Happy Jen. Sari (9) and I cuddled and watched The Cosby Show that night after everyone left. Oh yes… I also found out that I still (at age almost 23) can still do cartwheels.

The next morning, I went into town withmy grandparents and we got the cake for my aunt Jean’s 80th birthday. That afternoon, we went to visit the tulip fields for the tulip festival. I got some good pictures and tromping around in the muddy fields was therapeutic for battling the “you’re not good enough” feelings I was dealing with from Thursday. (I’ll blog on this stuff when I get back to Ohio on Tuesday.) We then went to Fred Meyer (while I made a $tarbuck$ run) and headed back to my grandparents’ house. We had some more playtime with Nathaniel and Benjamin before we had to clean up and go to dinner at the airport restaurant. Dinner was great (as all dinners are in my family with 20+ people). Aunt Jean was totally surprised by her cake and my dad toasted my grandparents in Irish, forgetting the last line of the toast which my brother and I *graciously* reminded him off. 🙂 (We’ve only heard it about… 1500 times to recent memory.) We came back and did family pictures: the 4 generations of Cooley men, mixed pics, all the men, and all the women (who outnumbered the men). We then said our good-byes to Steve and company. I watched Animal Planet with Sean (my twin) and Sari before falling asleep and having Sari poke me to get off her bed (a couch) and go to my own bed.

It’s a grey, windy, yucky morning for Palm Sunday, so church isn’t happening. Jon has his hands full this morning with the ecumenical procession and I hope that has gone well. Meanwhile, I’m going to head upstairs and grab breakfast. 🙂

Colors

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My boys don’t think I have enough peach and orange in my wardrobe and have set out to rectify this. Any ideas on getting cat fur off of clothes quickly?