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We watched a movie, today, in IS I (the class that's supposed to be about practical issues in congregations). The movie was about a Menonite community in 1939-1941, and a dispute within the community and with the bishop that led to the pastor leaving the Menonites altogether. We'll be discussing what we got out of it next week. "So," Seth said, as we walked back to the dorm, "if you have a dispute with your bishop, just leave the Church? Is that what we're supposed to get out of it?"
"Well," I replied, "Lutherans do like schisms. And, you know, he did say he wasn't going to stop preaching, just that he was looking for somewhere else to do it. That implies mergers in the future. We like mergers almost as much."
Somehow, I doubt that's what the discussion will be on.
I'm still getting settled into classes; I have one more class this semester than last, which means more homework. Joy. I'm taking my laptop to my Greek classes (Gospels and Advanced Greek) because BibleWorks is such a help; not to Isaiah, though, because although it is also an exegetical course (using the Hebrew text), Schramm doesn't really use BibleWorks and I kind of like taking notes by hand.
What happened in J-term besides the class for which I wrote the hymn? Not much. The few of us in Aberly watched all six Star Wars movies over three days; although they agreed with me that philosophically, the ideal order to watch the movies is IV-V-I-II-III-VI (see Greedo's rationale), we watched them II-III IV-V VI-I. Don't ask. Since I wasn't required to be in my Teaching Parish, I went to a different church each week. One Lutheran, one Orthodox, one Menonite.
St. Mary's Orthodox Church was nice; lots of incense. Their liturgy was stuctured similarly to that of the Lutheran Church, not surprisingly because they both derive from the same basic form, which hasn't changed all that much since the beginnings of Christianity. And they had nice books printed out with the liturgy so that visitors could follow along and sing with the choir and congregation, which was nice (Orthodox churches don't generally have hymnals; the congregation traditionally doesn't participate much). And they had a bulletin for the day, with a weekly church calendar and information like that in it. However, it would have been nice if they had put information about the service in the bulletin, for example, noting places where the choir would be singing an alternate version of what was in the printed liturgy. But, aside from a few problems with that sort of thing, it was a very nice service. They have "coffee" afterwards, but it's actually a meal. They fast before eucharist, and the whole worship experience lasts for around three hours (Matins flows right into the Divine Liturgy (what we woud consider the 'regular worship service'); we only came for the Divine Liturgy). The meal was good, but we noticed that the kitchen was tiny compared to what you'd find in a Lutheran church of the same size; everything had to be prepared elsewhere and just warmed up when it was time for the meal. Anyway, they were very friendly.
The Menonite service was really boring. There were three hymns, and the rest of the service consisted of the sermon. I'm sure there was a point in it somewhere. We were there a bit early, so we caught the tail end of the Bible study that preceded the worship service; the women and men sat apart and the leader of the Bible study didn't look at the women's side once in the fifteen minutes we were sitting there. They were very friendly after church, though, and we got two separate invitations to dinner, one of which we accepted (the food was great!). Nice people. We were very polite, and for the most part they were easy to talk to. When theological matters came up (I think one of the younger women had visions of Converting the Decadent Heathens), I tried to be as courteous as possible about explaining why I didn't agree.
We have a Eucharist service in the seminary chapel every Wednesday; last week was the first of the semester. Pastor-President was presiding. When he came to the part of the Great Thanksgiving where it talks about Jesus breaking the bread and saying 'this is my body,' he broke the bread on cue. Now, the Dean of the Chapel (he also teaches a few classes such as the Church's Worship) is in choir, and as such he was sitting right behind me. I could hear his intake of breath, and I was not the only one. See, he's pretty easy-going about the shape and form the service takes. If you've got a solid theological argument and a practical plan behind whatever it is you want to do, you can do just about anything. The breaking of the bread on cue during that line of the Great Thanksgiving? Is one of the handful of things that does not apply to. In his opinion, since the bread is the body of Christ, breaking it at that particular line implies that Christ's body was broken. It wasn't--the criminals who were crucified with him had their legs broken, but Christ was speared in the side instead. And performing the action at the same time as the words are spoken also implies that the rememberance/reenactment of the historical meal is the primary thing the Eucharist gives us. Which, for Lutherans, should not be the case; for us, the focus is on Christ present in the bread and wine in the here-and-now. It's one of his pet peeves.
"Well," I replied, "Lutherans do like schisms. And, you know, he did say he wasn't going to stop preaching, just that he was looking for somewhere else to do it. That implies mergers in the future. We like mergers almost as much."
Somehow, I doubt that's what the discussion will be on.
I'm still getting settled into classes; I have one more class this semester than last, which means more homework. Joy. I'm taking my laptop to my Greek classes (Gospels and Advanced Greek) because BibleWorks is such a help; not to Isaiah, though, because although it is also an exegetical course (using the Hebrew text), Schramm doesn't really use BibleWorks and I kind of like taking notes by hand.
What happened in J-term besides the class for which I wrote the hymn? Not much. The few of us in Aberly watched all six Star Wars movies over three days; although they agreed with me that philosophically, the ideal order to watch the movies is IV-V-I-II-III-VI (see Greedo's rationale), we watched them II-III IV-V VI-I. Don't ask. Since I wasn't required to be in my Teaching Parish, I went to a different church each week. One Lutheran, one Orthodox, one Menonite.
St. Mary's Orthodox Church was nice; lots of incense. Their liturgy was stuctured similarly to that of the Lutheran Church, not surprisingly because they both derive from the same basic form, which hasn't changed all that much since the beginnings of Christianity. And they had nice books printed out with the liturgy so that visitors could follow along and sing with the choir and congregation, which was nice (Orthodox churches don't generally have hymnals; the congregation traditionally doesn't participate much). And they had a bulletin for the day, with a weekly church calendar and information like that in it. However, it would have been nice if they had put information about the service in the bulletin, for example, noting places where the choir would be singing an alternate version of what was in the printed liturgy. But, aside from a few problems with that sort of thing, it was a very nice service. They have "coffee" afterwards, but it's actually a meal. They fast before eucharist, and the whole worship experience lasts for around three hours (Matins flows right into the Divine Liturgy (what we woud consider the 'regular worship service'); we only came for the Divine Liturgy). The meal was good, but we noticed that the kitchen was tiny compared to what you'd find in a Lutheran church of the same size; everything had to be prepared elsewhere and just warmed up when it was time for the meal. Anyway, they were very friendly.
The Menonite service was really boring. There were three hymns, and the rest of the service consisted of the sermon. I'm sure there was a point in it somewhere. We were there a bit early, so we caught the tail end of the Bible study that preceded the worship service; the women and men sat apart and the leader of the Bible study didn't look at the women's side once in the fifteen minutes we were sitting there. They were very friendly after church, though, and we got two separate invitations to dinner, one of which we accepted (the food was great!). Nice people. We were very polite, and for the most part they were easy to talk to. When theological matters came up (I think one of the younger women had visions of Converting the Decadent Heathens), I tried to be as courteous as possible about explaining why I didn't agree.
We have a Eucharist service in the seminary chapel every Wednesday; last week was the first of the semester. Pastor-President was presiding. When he came to the part of the Great Thanksgiving where it talks about Jesus breaking the bread and saying 'this is my body,' he broke the bread on cue. Now, the Dean of the Chapel (he also teaches a few classes such as the Church's Worship) is in choir, and as such he was sitting right behind me. I could hear his intake of breath, and I was not the only one. See, he's pretty easy-going about the shape and form the service takes. If you've got a solid theological argument and a practical plan behind whatever it is you want to do, you can do just about anything. The breaking of the bread on cue during that line of the Great Thanksgiving? Is one of the handful of things that does not apply to. In his opinion, since the bread is the body of Christ, breaking it at that particular line implies that Christ's body was broken. It wasn't--the criminals who were crucified with him had their legs broken, but Christ was speared in the side instead. And performing the action at the same time as the words are spoken also implies that the rememberance/reenactment of the historical meal is the primary thing the Eucharist gives us. Which, for Lutherans, should not be the case; for us, the focus is on Christ present in the bread and wine in the here-and-now. It's one of his pet peeves.
