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Showing posts from April, 2011

On Materiality in Worship

     If you had asked me, oh, even ten years ago if I could adore a rug or a piece of wood, I'd probably given you one of my looks through squinty eyes conveying suspicion.  So, tonight, when I kissed a tapestry, bearing the likeness of a deposed Jesus, I wondered--Wow!  Have I come a long way from where I was.      I'm on the verge of preparing for entrance in the ancient church, and while there are some things I'll miss from  Protestant worship, there are some things I'd never dreamt of.  Incense, like prayers; icons and the iconostasis, a reminder of worship in Heaven, of the great cloud of witnesses, of the human form, of stories, of something to look at and focus, of something to handle with hands, to kiss, to reverence; of water splashing at Theophany/Epiphany, of the burial procession of Holy Friday and Saturday Matins; the bowing, the signing, the whole body and senses involved.  Not yet, but now.  Not the whole, but only in part.  Glimpses, nothing clear.    

Spring Scouting Report 2

Out at the Hollow today to discuss a sexy driveway excavation.  While there a pair of sandhill cranes flew south(?).  I suffered hearing loss in the back pond from a barking Canada goose couple and a vibrant battle between wood frogs and chorus frogs.  Insects are out; the ice is gone; spring, she is here.