Thoughts on the beginning of the fall term

Every September for nearly half my life, I have gone to the store to buy pencils, paper, notebooks and binders, then, more recently, printer paper and ink, diskettes, and, every four years or so, a new laptop. From 2003-06 I was in seminary in Evanston, IL, the first northern suburb of Chicago, and learned very quickly how much the prices of books had risen since I was last in graduate school.

Why do all this expensive schooling? I know my dad, a very down-to-earth farmer (pun intended), was very skeptical of any schooling that did not have a direct bearing on your ability to get a good, steady job. He grew up during the Great Depression, not having the opportunity for higher education, except for one quarter, before finances kept him from continuing. I think he would have been an accountant had he been able to continue, but instead, he took up the work on his father's farm, where days were long, and work was physical and tiring. Where the weather and the farm markets controlled his life in many ways.

But I have expended lots of money for my several degrees (bachelors, two terminal masters degrees and a doctorate), and spent half my life, counting elementary and secondary schools, in educational institutions. In many ways, the preparation to be a priest was the least mentally challenging, but certainly the most emotionally and spiritually challenging. My dad would have understood this education in the sense that it prepared me for a new career, but he would have been baffled why I chose to leave a lucrative career in health policy scholarship to prepare for a profession that pays much less.

If my dad were here, I could only say this to him: God led me to this profession. The priesthood is a calling and vocation, not a program of job training that you necessarily choose out of a list at the career counselor's office.

In fact, if your choice of career is more about money and ego, it probably has little to do with God. God calls us to vocation, while we call ourselves into a career. That doesn't mean we can't be in a lucrative career that is also our calling. I think of any of the human services professions as vocations. And many other professions can be vocations, depending on how we approach them, what we are hoping to do with our life.

Vocation can be hard, for several reasons. Vocation requires listening closely to where God is calling. Our listening can be assisted, however, with the help of close friends, confidantes, counselors, and spiritual advisors. Marriage can be a vocation. Being a lay person is a vocation just as much as being a priest. Both vocations are called to specific ways to be a minister for the gospel and the spread of the word of God. Vocation is responding to where God is calling you to be, using your desires, your positive qualitites, your talents, your very being.

May God's call to you be your heart's desire this day and for the rest of your life.

May this fall term be all that you are seeking.

What's happening this week

For the week of August 26 in YA and campus ministry:

• Check out the link to MSU every week, to keep up to date on the Wednesday night activities.
• Noon eucharist starts at St. Augustine's on the UK campus this week. We will be contemplative, using some silence, instead of the usual homily.

Sunday August 26 two activities will be happening--

• 6:00 PM cook out for Georgetown College students at Holy Trinity church on Broadway in Georgetown
• 7:00 PM U2Charist at St. John's Versailles, check the link on the right for directions to St. John's

And keep watching this blog as well as the Lexington Young Adult facebook group to learn more about the Vocare weekend coming up from Friday night January 4, through Sunday January 6 (Epiphany), 2008. It costs $90, but we will not let anyone miss out because of money! Lots of young adults from the diocese have gone, if you want to talk to someone who has, let me know, and I will put you in touch with the Vocare Committee.

Fall is Coming!

Many activities about to begin--
MSU on Sundays and Wednesdays. Dinner on Sunday at 6 followed by a meeting. Wednesdays meeting at 8 followed by contemplative worship experiences at 9:15. Click on the link to keep up with the current calendar.

On Tuesday mornings I will be at KSU having coffee at a table for "chat with the chaplain", open to anyone who wants to stop by in the student center.

On Thursdays there will be a noon contemporary eucharist at St. Augustine's on the UK campus, primarily for faculty and staff to be able to attend, but open to all.

On August 26, I will be at Holy Trinity Georgetown to have a eucharist and barbecue with Georgetown College students and parishioners from the church there. That is the same night that there will be a U2Charist in Versailles.

Hope to see you at one or more of these opportunities for young adults and college students in our diocese.

Blessings on your school year!

Liturgy and belief

Episcopalians subscribe to a way of thinking about liturgy:
"lex orandi, lex credendi." This Latin phrase means, in short, that we believe as we pray. Our prayer book therefore contains much theology in it.

Did you ever really listen to the words of the Eucharistic Prayer (any of them)? Have you heard a sermon on the baptismal covenant we repeat when first baptized, and thereafter, whenever others are baptized in worship? Do you know any collects (the prayers at the beginning of the eucharist that change every week)?

• What is the priest's role in eucharist and why can't priests say mass by themselves?
• Why do priests, deacons and bishops wear those weird clothes and stoles? Where does it say that these vestments are required?
• Where did Easter Vigil come from?
• When did the church first start blessing marriages?
• Can anybody be buried from the church?
• What does it mean to be ex-communicated, and why does the church do this?
• What do we believe about personal confession?
• Can a deacon perform a wedding? When can lay people perform baptisms?
• What does High Church and Low Church mean? When were candles banned from altars?

What are your questions about liturgy and Episcopal beliefs?

The Rev. Elise Johnstone will lead the discussion on liturgy and Episcopal belief at "Canterbury Pub," held at Azur restaurant's patio this Tuesday night at 6:30. Have an age-appropriate beverage, try to stump the priest!

July Doldrums

Well it's nearly vacation time, and I'm bored. I have put together brochures for MSU and all the parishes in the Diocese for their campus ministries. Theology on Tap, aka "Canterbury Pub", the third night, is tonight, and it ends next Tuesday.

I will begin having group meetings for students at Morehead on Wednesdays starting Wed. Aug. 8, and will also have services at St. Alban's at 6 pm on Wednesdays. I will be putting up a MSU link on this blog so students can keep abreast of what's happening there.

KSU is stalled a little for lack of contacts there. Ideally we would have an Episcopal faculty member who could help us get a student group going. We won't be doing that as early as this fall, probably, but I hope to begin something sometime this next year.

At UK I will be beginning a Thursday Holy Eucharist at noon. I would like it to be a little different, perhaps with contemplative music (Taize or something similar). I will need to find a musician to help with that. A flute, celtic harp, hammered dulcimer, etc. would be wonderful.

Things start up mid-August, so this vacation will be the last days off until Christmas break. Nothing big planned for this vacation, as I am hoping to go to France next May and will be saving up for that trip.