Received in the Episcopal Church

Today I was formally received into the Episcopal Church. I can’t tell you the theological or doctrinal significance of this. But I can tell you how it makes me feel. Today I was received into a church that embraces radical hospitality manifested by an unbridled sense of inclusion. I like that!

Before the Eucharist this morning, the bishop who presided at the service had a short chat with me and the other four newly received. He said something that blew my mind and made me KNOW that I had made the right decision for me. I’m paraphrasing, but the bishop said essentially this: “Being received into the Episcopal Church has nothing to do with conversion. Everything that led you to this point in your life is worthy and good. If you were baptized and confirmed in the Presbyterian Church or the Baptist Church or the Roman Catholic Church, that’s a part of who you are. That’s a part of what led you to be where you are today. We celebrate everything about you, including the religious traditions you have embraced up to this point. When I made my confirmation as a Presbyterian at age 12, I meant it. There was nothing wrong or in error about the commitment I made at age 12 even though I went on to become a bishop in the Episcopal Church. The same is true for you. You’re not packing up and leaving your house. You’re simply moving to a different room in the same house. And I believe someday God will break down all those walls that separate the rooms in this house. When all is said and done, I don’t think God cares one wit about denominations.”

So there you have it. Thanks to my good friend, Leslie Hortum, for being my sponsor; to John Hortum for preparing me; to Bishop David Jones for blowing my mind and making me feel so welcome today; and everyone at St. Clement in Alexandria. Thanks to you for all the support and encouragement you have given me over more than 51 years of my life. Today I made a choice that’s right for me and celebrates all of the faithfulness of my life. I want to celebrate that in all of you and everyone I meet. One day when my son or daughter comes to me and says, “Dad, I’m a gay Buddhist werewolf,” I pray that I will have the grace (and the good sense God gave gravel) to say, “Amen, child. I love you and embrace you and the journey you’re on. I will help you and support you in every way I can.” That’s what I pray I will do. I think I can. Hallelujah!

Peace,

Pat

Blog Action Day

I thought you would be interested in this upcoming event. Here is a short description of the event from the Blog Action Day Website:

First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue. Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action. In 2007 on the theme of the Environment, we saw bloggers running environmental experiments, detailing innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices, and focusing their audience's attention on organizations and companies promoting green agendas. In 2008 we covered the theme of Poverty, and similarly focused the blogging community's energies around discussing the wide breadth of the issue from many perspectives and identifying innovative and unexpected solutions. This year we aim to do the same for Climate Change, an issue that threatens us all.

-- Pat Jones

Mile Long Yard Sale

The "West End" of Alexandria has the traditional Mile Long Yard sale along Taney Avenue and adjacent streets during one of the final Saturdays of September. Today was the day. This year we were lucky the rains held off and neighbors and friends were able to enjoy a good bargain in cool and dry -- if not sunny -- weather. Everyone seemed to have a good time. From food and furniture, to lawn implements and old videotapes, electronic devices that were cutting-edge at one time, well loved toys, musical instruments, shoes, and jackets, the yard sale this year was the bargain hunters heaven.

Returning home, I started thinking about the wonderful community building aspects of our own St. Clement yard sale when, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we invite the extended family over to our place to purchase one of 600 or so beautiful Christmas trees. Ah, you can smell the aroma of Douglass firs wafting out from the branches, sticky, pungent sap on your hands, and needles in your socks and hair. The air is cooler then -- the hot coffee or cocoa between your hands serves a useful purpose -- and I have an even warmer feeling when I see old acquaintances, friends who perhaps I see only once a year...in pursuit of the perfect tree.

The Mile Long Yard Sale is like that. It happens a couple of months earlier. And it's a wonderful harbinger of the colder months and the warm thoughts to come.

-- Pat Jones

ALIVE...Marching Captains!

Three volunteers from ALIVE (Alexandrians Involved Ecumenically) came to our house today and took away the bunk beds that had occupied the girls' room for a number of years. Now another Alexandria family will be able to enjoy the bunk beds, thanks to the great volunteers at ALIVE. Katie is enjoying her freshman year at Christopher Newport University (CMU), so Maria has a new bed and room to herself. Maria (left) and Katie posed for this picture during our recent "Family Weekend" at CNU. Katie, an active member of the music program, is festooned in the silver and blue of the CNU Marching Captains. Go Katie!

-- Pat Jones

Back to school..."a closer walk."

I began the day in my car running some errands at the height of the post-Labor Day back to school and back to work pandemonium, slowly passing many buses, crossing guards, carpools, parents, and children. Sam and Maria went back to school today, too. After the errands, I went for a long walk in the rain, confronting much of the bustle I encountered before, just in a different place. I walked past an elementary school, a middle school, Alexandria hospital, and Foxchase Shopping Center. Then, in Holmes Run Park, the scene above magically appeared before me. O peace and serenity. O manna from heaven. O quiet desolation in a day filled with words and noise. It's nice to find an oasis in a desert of distraction.

-- Pat Jones

Morning Prayer, Brokenness, and Wholeness

Well, Rev. Cynthia Park did it again. She led the 10:00 a.m. congregation in a stunningly beautiful morning prayer service last Sunday, with only two day’s notice that the rent-a-priest who was to have presided over Sunday Eucharist would not be able to do it after all.

The first reading was about David and Bathsheba. You know the story: lust, betrayal, adultery, directed killings, etc. Old Testament stuff. Somehow, in spite of David’s many character flaws, meanness, sins, and what my children would call “epic fail,” God chose David to lead his people. In Cynthia’s exegesis, God chose David not because of the universally horrible attributes we see David display in this particular reading. Instead, God chose David because of the God inspired ability – I guess we call it grace – which David exhibits at the end of his life when he acknowledges his moral bankruptcy before God and asks for mercy. Wow, that’s heavy!

Somehow, Cynthia connected this story to the 900-mile journey on which she was about to embark to spend a week in the woods leading her young grandchildren in an artsy “Granny Camp” at the request of her own children. Cynthia emphasized that “Granny Camp” was not high on her list of favorite things to do, but that her children expected her to love doing it because their grandmother (Cynthia’s mother) seemed to love doing it when they were youngsters. Long story short: I think there’s probably some kind of grace that enables Cynthia to immerse herself in a hellish chore with her grandchildren (sorry kids!). And in truth, Cynthia’s mom probably hated doing it too, but did it anyway with grace – both the human-elegance kind and the godly-theological kind.

I don’t really know what else to say about this except that I wish I had written about it five days ago when it was still fresh in my mind. I hope that God’s grace will overcome my memory lapse and feeble attempt to tell the story of one wonderful hour in the St. Clement worship space. Peace be with you.

-- Pat Jones

Let’s get over the excessive umbrage

We've all done it. Everyone on the planet has done it. We overreact. We say something or do something we wish we hadn’t done. We assume the worst about another person’s actions and lash out in a less than civil way. It happens to everyone. And we regret it.

The clear message of President Obama’s Thursday night sit down in the Rose Garden with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cambridge, Massachusetts police sergeant James Crowley is this: “Let’s get over the excessive umbrage, sit down, and get to know each other.” Michael Kinsley wrote eloquently about this sentiment in a July 31 Washington Post op-ed article.

It’s hard to hate another person when you walk side by side with that person and his family on a presidentially guided tour of the White House, then join that person, the president, and vice president for a cold beer in the Rose Garden. As for President Obama’s own hastily chosen words about someone acting “stupidly,” he’s human too, just like his companions in the garden.

-- Pat Jones

8:00 a.m.

The quiet. The thing that struck me most about attending the 8:00 a.m. Sunday Eucharist for the first time was the quiet. It was enveloping. Inviting. Nourishing. It made me want to begin a silent retreat right then. To be alone with the Lord. Silent, attentive and observant. Apart.

Then the service began. A short walk from the sacristy to the foot of the altar. The lectionary held aloft. A few words of greeting. All of the gestures and movements were smaller, more subdued than those of the 10:00 a.m. service. There were 18 souls present at 8:00 a.m. The typical 10:00 a.m. congregation numbers 50. So the volume was dialed back. The movements were sparer. An economy of sound and movement appropriate to the situation.

The Lord finds us where we are. In the quiet and stillness of the 8 or the music and movement of the 10.

-- Pat Jones