Category: Faith

Visit to Dura Europos

Dura Europos, a backwater town inhabited by various empires from 300 BCE to 256 CE, is special because it was mostly preserved after it was sacked. Along the western wall, which was buried with sand to reinforce it during the battle, many relatively complete houses and buildings were found. Included in that was three religious houses, with one being a synagogue and the other a Christian church. The Christian church dates to ca. 240 and its baptistry is located in Yale University (due to how archaeology worked in the 1920s/30s). Pieces from the baptistry are located in Yale’s art gallery. You should go. They are just beautiful. Below are a few pictures from today. You can see more images here.

Former Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson Came to Advent

He seriously is a great preacher. At the end of his sermon, we laid hands on our neighbors and prayed together. He’s one of two people I know who could get away with this. This is one of my favorite images from the day.

Mark Hanson at Advent Lutheran Church

Another bonus is that he remembered meeting me. I met him first at an ELCA Fund for Leaders banquet in 2010 and then I kept going up to the microphone at the ELCA churchwide assembly in 2013. He either has an awesome memory or I just make a great impression on people.

The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from innumerable creations of culture.

Tweet Tarshish This quote, in some ways, describes why I am doing my thesis. I want to know what space & place meant in the first century hellenized world. There is meaning there – a meaning I’d like to be grafted onto. Then, I’ll be able to take my supposed placeless/spaceless world of “new media” and just see what it brings to a contemporary interpretation of Scripture.

“Writers do not magically create texts out of nothing, and readers must bring a stock of other texts and cultural codes to bear upon a writing in order to read it. In Barthes words, “The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable creations of culture.”

From A Re-Reading of Romans: Justice, Jews, and Gentiles by Stanley K. Stowers (page 9).

Name Change

Please Stand UpI thought the ELCA changed my name on my candidacy documents. I was wrong. Yesterday, I received an email from the head of the candidacy committee connecting me with the staff person at the ELCA in charge of such things. When I married and took my wife’s last name over three years ago, I was already entranced into candidacy. At the time, I was told not to worry about it and that my paperwork will be resubmitted under my new name. It seems that didn’t happen. However, I’m impressed with how the ELCA handled my name change. They didn’t need my marriage certificate, a copy of my new passport, or a social security card. They just needed my wife’s name and date of birth. I know that I have (what feels like) dozens of forms at the churchwide offices with that information but they wanted it in email form. A few seconds of typing, a quick send, and I believe that my name change is officially taken care of at the churchwide level. That only leaves my Library Card as the last piece document in my old name. However, I was told that the NYPL doesn’t do name changes so I’ll just sit on that for awhile.

Approval Decision in a One Page Form

ELCA A few weeks ago, I received written confirmation of my approval for ordination in the ELCA. It felt rather anti-climatic. The envelope was your standard business envelope, pre-printed with the MNYS logo in the left corner, and an American Flag forever stamp in the right. My name was spelled right (thankfully) and the address field was solid. The envelope contained two pieces of paper. One was, a lovely cover letter from the head of the candidacy committee and, the other, a one page form with the committee’s decision. That final form was just one side of the page, printed in color, and using a very boring template from Formatta Filler (which, for some reason, is still around). It is a template that, sadly, sucks the life away from its viewer. Document templates don’t need to be exciting but they shouldn’t be a blackhole for energy and feeling.

But I digress.

So, with paper in hand, I’m currently in the process of awaiting assignment. This process has been a little unnerving so far and I’m not quite sure what to write about it mostly because I don’t know yet how to wrap my head around it. The anxiety of the approval process is now matched by the anxiety of waiting for assignment after my restriction request was denied. I sit, not worried, but just anxious about what the future will bring. I trust God that it’ll work out and I will end up where I am to go but a little direction would be nice.

Introducing The Vine NYC

Friends and citizens of the internet, I give you my current project: The Vine NYC.

thevine-logo-350x74Right before Christmas, Lutheran Ministries of Higher Education in NYC (LMHE) approached me, seeking help. After a short conversation, I agreed to serve as their temporary communications consultant as they launch a new model for ministry in NYC. The idea is pretty awesome. University and College ministries in NYC are shifting away from being campus-centric. Instead of focusing on on, say, Columbia University, they’re broadening their model to include multiple leaders covering the entire city. At the church I serve, Advent Lutheran, we have a dozen students from Barnard, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, CCNY, Fordham, etc. A ministry for them can’t be focused on only one campus. LMHE is creating a new movement called The Vine NYC. The first event, What’s Love Got to Do With It? is February 7 at Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church in Manhattan. I’m excited about this but I need your help.

Are you on Instgram? Follow us. On Facebook? like us. Know a college student in New York City? Tell them about The Vine and tell me who they are. Even though LMHE has been around for over 100 years, we’re starting this movement from scratch. I think this can really be an awesome resource for college kids in NYC. Help if you can!