I can't believe I'm moving to Houston

I got my first real full time job!

In case you haven't heard the news. 

Here are the details:

I'm going to be a curate at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in Houston TX. 

That's right, this Northerner is going South again!
(I am so going to miss the snow.)

I am moving next week and I have been learning first hand all the frustrations Sonic learned three years ago about moving to a new city by myself. Luckily I do have a few friends in the area and I have been, and continue to be, so very grateful for their help. 

Also, this is a great time for me to announce a new blog. Sonic and I have discussed this, so she has signed off on the deal. I am going to start a blog on which to put my sermons, religious adventures, and religious reflections on so that she does not get yoked into my religious views. Thus, this blog will still remain a place for personal adventures and scientific ideas, but my religious activities will move to: A Curious Curate (with credit to my father for the name). I have already put some old sermons and Allergy Friendly Church items there. (Wait for the campaign... its coming!)

I look forward to exploring Houston and starting my first full time job!

The Rocks of Israel

I finally made it to Israel.
(And I'm finally making it around to writing about Israel...)

Despite all the road blocks and the frustrations, it was totally worth it. The trip was amazing to say the least. There is something about visiting a land that you have read about for decades and finally seeing and feeling it. 

The mountains are steeper than I imagined. 

The landscape changes faster than I could have thought possible.

Despite so much tension, people are still people and daily life must go on. 

The group I was with was from across the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and England. I learned just as much from the group of people I was with as from the course director about the land of Israel. I probably could have learned more from the director of the course, however there is only so much information I can retain after eight hours in the hot sun looking at tan stones. And pretty much everything was made of tan stones. Houses, churches, synagogues, graves, walls, mosaics, they were all made of tan stones.

The Dome of the Rock

The Garden of Gethsemane 

Tan and olive. The olive trees looked exactly like I had always been told and I ate a lot of olives. I almost like olives after the trip. 

Not surprisingly, I gathered a lot of rocks from Israel. I also brought back broken pottery and some souvenirs naturally. The rock collection comes from the Jordan River, the Judean wilderness, Masada, Qumran, the Sea of Galilee, and lots of other places that touched my heart in ways I cannot fully describe.

The Church of All Nations

 This trip will enrich my spirituality for years to come. My understanding of the bible has shifted, not dramatically, but enough to be noticeable and enough to change my understanding of humanity.  

I will pray for everyone in Israel and Palestine for the rest of my life.

Summer Bliss

Well, I'm not quite in the throes of summer bliss, but it has been quite the wonderful summer nevertheless.

I also haven't made any more Jewish food. I have gathered some good recipes that I can make, but I haven't managed to make any of them yet. But with the help of some great donors, I have made it past my halfway mark on fundraising! (which you can see: http://www.gofundme.com/to-the-Holy-Land)

I have also been retweeted by Episcopal Cafe which made my day recently.

And I am very grateful for my coach and love, Latro, for helping me run in the heat. We ran a 10K last Sunday, so now I have been in a 5K, 10K, and 15K. I am almost able to say that I have run 365 miles in 365 days (I have 26 miles in 26 days left to go). Latro and his parents have given me running clothes, running shoes, a hat, a belt, and loads of encouragement. Its almost like being sponsored! ;) I never would have been able to start running regularly without Latro and despite its pain and frustration (and the days that I hate it), I am very glad that I have been running. It has been very helpful for my lungs, my thinking, and my prayer life. It has refocused and energized me many days when I have been carrying too much around.

And some days there is certainly plenty to carry around. But, I must go study Greek... γ ι v ω σ κ ε ι ς ;

Shalom!

Structure? Which structure?

I entered a conversation today about the upcoming Episcopal General Convention.

If you don't know what that is supposed to mean, this post isn't for you. It would be better for you to wander away into happier blogs or posts... like my favorite post of this blog: http://oldenoughtooyoungtocare.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-dont-sheep-shrink-when-it-rains.html
Or get off the computer all together. Its a nice day outside... go out and breathe fresh air.

If you are already scared about what might be coming next, you might have a bit of sense.
If you got all excited, you have serious issues.
Perhaps you should call your nearest Episcopal Bishop and talk about your options.

The conversation went something like this:
     "The General Convention is going to be talking about Structure. The structure of the national church."

     "The national church? Why not the local church? That's where the real issues are."

     "I know. We really need to be having discussions about how to change and make the local churches more sustainable within communities, yet the want to start those kind of conversations is lacking. We have just been experimenting with different models for a generation without any systematic change." etc, etc.

[Musical Interlude of a couple of hours]

Then (in my head):

Say you come upon an eighteen wheeler on the side of the road. It is stopped and the driver says that there is something obviously wrong with it because it hasn't been working properly. You think you are a stand up person, someone who would really like to help the world out, so you take a survey look at the truck and realize the tires are gridlocked. So you decide that you will try to fix the engine. You start tinkering with the engine and finally you think, there! I have it! It must be fixed now. But when the driver starts the truck up, it doesn't go anywhere. The tires are still all grid locked and aren't moving. Sadly, all your fixing of the engine doesn't help at all. The truck still won't go anywhere.

I realize this analogy is not that great. And the national church does need some help, but it would be good if some helpful work was done on reorganizing the local, regional church was done as well.

If you have made it this far, perhaps you want to leave some feedback. What do you think?