So once again, today started off with another amazing worship service featuring the wonderful David Ruffin as well as the AMAZING Rev. Thandeka, who gave a BEAUTIFUL, heartfelt, passionate homily. That was just part one of the two-part "Gathered Here In the Mystery of Love" workshop. Part two was the actual workshop portion but there was also a lot of interpersonal sharing. One of the most powerful things we discussed was times when worship "fell short" for us and why and how we can make it so that it doesn't happen in our congregations. Rev. Thandeka spoke passionately about the three elements that are crucial to any worship service: 1. Music, 2. Spoken Words, and 3. Synchronicity between the Music and Words. And of course, we ended by singing. :)
Then it was time for Plenary...er..."General Session." Nothing particularly exciting except that we DID choose a new Congregational Study/Action Issue for 2014-2018: "Escalating Inequality." SO happy that these folks dusted themselves off after "Exploring Class Barriers" lost a very close run-off to "Reproductive Justice" in 2012 and reframed and tried again. This is going to begin a great many conversations that BADLY need to happen in our faith right now and I'm incredibly excited to be part of what happens next!
General Session went quite a bit over time and pretty much everyone was really hungry at that point, so I went to get some [lunch? dinner? whatever] with my lovely new friend Katherine whom I had the pleasure of walking back to the dorms with from Trinity last night. We were soon joined by Bart and his lovely partner Amelia for some good food and wonderful conversation. After we ate, Katherine, Amelia, and I ran to catch the end of the short Young Adult vespers service which was lively and lovely and then Katherine and I got our seats for the Service of the Living Tradition.
Service of the Living Tradition was very cool even though it's kinda not really my thing. The sermon by Rev. Rebekah A. Montgomery was phenomenal. She shared some fascinating stories of her time as a military chaplain in Afghanistan. It was great but I was so exhausted and it wasn't really my style in terms of worship, especially after all the incredibly vibrant, heartfelt worship I've experienced this week. After the service, I walked on back to my dorm and now here I am typing this.
Tomorrow is the big day with WATERFIRE which will also be preceded by what I can only assume will be an AMAZING worship service put together by none other than The Sanctuary Boston. Definitely need to get some rest for that so with that I bid you all adieu until tomorrow!
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