[Magdalen] Catching up

[Jay Weigel]

An old friend of mine was ordained to the priesthood yesterday evening,
along with his wife, at my former parish in Tennessee. I was sad not to be
able to be there, but so it is. I sang in the choir when he was ordained to
the diaconate 19 years ago. At that time he had intended to be a vocational
deacon. It's been a long strange road for him, but probably the making of
him too. He did Adam's funeral and burial last winter, and I couldn't think
of anyone I'd rather have had do it; he'd known Adam since he was a little
guy running around the church.

On Wed, Dec 14, 2016 at 2:28 PM, Eleanor Braun <eleanor.braun at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Looking for the Like button!
>
> Eleanor
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 14, 2016 at 1:13 PM Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > I'm sitting in the rather weak sun on my porch, trying to decide if it's
> > too cold to stay out here. It's supposed to turn bitterly cold tomorrow,
> so
> > I'm making the most of this respite.
> >
> >
> >
> > This past weekend was a whirlwind. I drove to Philly on Friday for the
> > ordination Saturday of a former directee at the Philadelphia Cathedral,
> > spent Saturday afternoon with Carol and Andre Trevathan for some birding
> at
> > a wildlife refuge, a driving tour of the city and the obligatory Philly
> > cheesesteak at Abner's.
> >
> > Sunday I attended the church where my directee celebrated his first Mass
> > and then drove to Tom's River, NJ, to see friends I hadn't seen in 37
> > years--since our kids were little.
> >
> > Drove home Monday  and got here just in time for the quarterly meeting of
> > our Master Naturalist chapter.
> >
> > Crashed on Tuesday...
> >
> >
> >
> > The ordination service at the Cathedral made me realize that I need to
> get
> > out of the Diocese of Virginia more often! It wasn't just the higher
> > liturgy--which I expected--but the whole tone of the occasion and some of
> > the nuts and bolts of it.
> >
> > The presentation of the ordinands and the initial questions put to them
> > took place at the baptismal font, which is on one side of the cathedral
> and
> > has a baptismal pool as well as the regular smaller font, from which
> water
> > flows into the pool.
> >
> > Then the entire party processed to the front, and the liturgy continued.
> > Somewhere in there we were all asperged (Is that a verb?) by the Bishop.
> >
> > The Cathedral itself is beautiful and arranged unlike any I've ever
> > seen--too complicated to describe here. You can probably find some
> pictures
> > on their website.
> >
> > There were two ordinands, both male, and during the singing of the
> > Veni...Spiritus they prostrated themselves in front of the bishop. I
> > understand the symbolism, but I'm REALLY glad I didn't have to do
> > that--especially on a concrete floor.
> >
> > The Nicene Creed and Eucharistic Prayer were from Enriching Our Worship.
> >
> > After the service the two new priests remained up front to offer
> blessings
> > to those who wanted to come forward. I've only seen that done once in our
> > diocese, and it didn't take place inside the church, but on the way out.
> > My directee's (Jordan,) congregation was there in force, all dressed in
> > red, and they all went forward for a blessing.
> >
> > The Sunday service at Jordan's church was equally moving--and as long!
> The
> > liturgy was straight BCP with Eucharistic Prayer B, and Jordan had eight
> of
> > us listed as con-celebrants, and we all joined him at the altar for the
> > Great Thanksgiving. Seven of us were Episcopal priests from a number of
> > places, and one was a UU minister from Atlanta! All were African-American
> > except me. In fact, the organist and one person in the congregation were
> > the only other white people in attendance. The parish has a mixture of
> > African-Americans and people from the Caribbean. Quite a few young people
> > and children, and Jordan has already revitalized a youth group. He went
> > there in July, was given the title of rector, even though he was just a
> > deacon, because the bishop felt that was important for the congregation,
> > which had basically been neglected by the diocese for years. They hadn't
> > had a bishop's visit for three years. (Bishop Gutierrez is also new.).
> >
> > All in all, it was a wonderful day, and it was touching to see how the
> > congregation has embraced Jordan and is enthusiastic about working with
> > him. They've already had a vestry retreat up at Pendle Hill, led by Lloyd
> > Casson, who used to head up the desk at 815 that had to do with ethnic
> > minorities. He was there on Sunday--what a delightful man!
> >
> > Enough--probably way more than you wanted to know!!
>