Familiar but different

Today is a day long-awaited by the people of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia SC. After two and a half years of worshipping on the basketball court (a very nice court, mind you) in the Trinity Center and after a restoration of the cathedral in advance of its bicentennial in 2012, the space reopened this morning. The music was magnificent, the processions long; the prayers were heartfelt, the sermon inviting.

Those present for worship at each of the four services -- three in the morning and one in the afternoon -- celebrated the end of a long project and enjoyed a feast not only for their souls and bodies, but for their eyes as well. The cathedral is still the cathedral. And, when the dean at the beginning of the liturgy welcomed everyone home, enthusiastic applause was the only possible response. But, that very familiar space is also quite different -- more polished than before, a little rearranged in places. There was an exuberance I cannot quite explain, but perhaps this photograph looking up into the apse will illustrate. The sea of Trinity crosses in the red ceiling is a wonderful, new feature.

Our day after the 11:15 service included a delicious and leisurely lunch date while still in Columbia and a long walk once back at home and in comfortable clothes.

It's been a day of Sabbath time for the two of us. It's been a treasure of a day -- for us and for the people of Trinity Cathedral.

An entire day outside

And, I earned it! Yesterday was all about house cleaning. Even the fringe on the rugs was combed out straight before I went to bed.

Today's event was Women in the Outdoors, a division of the National Wild Turkey Federation (headquartered in Edgefield). The weather was perfect -- crisp and sunny -- and about half way through the day I came to understand a wonderful and welcome feeling. I was breathing deeply and thriving!

Four classes: Dutch oven cooking (over a fire), an introduction to fly fishing (all equipment provided), survival skills (no reality TV scenarios) and air rifle (aka BB gun). What great fun. And, of the 50 or so people in attendance, I only knew one. So, new, interesting, people -- most of whom with talents I do not possess.

I actually went because of the fly fishing class. It was taught by Molly Semenik, master casting instructor, Montana outfitter and owner of Tie the Knot Fly Fishing in Livingston MT. Oh, what a teacher. I cannot say enough.

Tal's pleased with my new fishing knowledge and survival skills. And, he cannot believe his wife hit the target with a BB from an air rifle. But, imagine his bewildered surprise the day I build a fire in the backyard when it's time to start supper!

An answer for VTS

Photo by B. Cayce Ramey, VTS Class of 2012

Over this week following the devastating fire which destroyed Immanuel Chapel at Virginia Theological Seminary, the school's the Dean and President, the Very Rev'd Ian Markham, has led a worldwide community through their surprise and sadness over the lose of that long-prayed-in space. Today he announced that officials of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) along with members of the Alexandria Fire Department during their six-day investigation determined the fire which began in the sacristy to have been accidental.

I appreciate his clear, concise, compassionate words taken in part from his daily commentary posted on the seminary's website.

We have learned the cause of the fire. It was an accident; no one is to blame. So we take a breath and offer the entire tragedy to God. There are some moments which are transforming. This is one of those moments.

Now we start the hard work of moving on. Last night we gathered in Scott Lounge for worship. Scripture was read with passion; we sang praises to the Lord God; and we bowed our heads in prayer. God was present in that place.

Everyone who has been associated with VTS since that building was built in 1881 has memories. And, most certainly, those who watched it burn last week will have what they saw imprinted on their memories forever.

But, he's exactly right. We now know what we need to know.

Amen.

Best laid plans

We went so far as programming the GPS this morning. Our intention was to visit the Audubon sanctuary in lower Aiken County today. That is, if the weather got no worse. It was only overcast; the rain of the past few days seemed to have ended. Seemed to have ...

It was during a particularly intense downpour that the telephone rang. It was the person coordinating the work in our backyard. His message? Had he known pouring concrete for us would cause a week of rain he'd have pushed our project to the top of his list long ago.

No hiking for us today. But, the Garmin's ready.

Clean sleeping bags

We arrived home from our trip to Utah on Monday afternoon, over a week ago. By the end of the week the house was clean, the pantry and refrigerator had been replenished, Whitby and Belle were used to being with us again after their two and a half weeks at All God's Creatures, the accumulated mail was sorted and handled and the laundry was all done. Well, almost ...

When we returned from canoeing on the Allagash in mid-September, we went through every task listed above. The major thing left undone before heading west was dealing with our sleeping bags. They had provided warmth and comfort for our nine nights of camping. They had been damp. They had hit the ground more than once. We'd crawled into them not always as clean as we would have liked. And, morning after morning -- including our last morning on the river -- we stuffed them tightly into their compression sacks, where they remained during the ten days we were home between trips and while we were in Utah.

Yesterday was the day for taking care of those bags, a project requiring commercial machines. After breakfast I made my way to Ridge Spring to the new laundromat where the washing and drying got done -- and my eyes were opened.

Commercial machines -- both front-loading -- are wonderful and fast! I wonder ... could I get a set in our laundry room?

Let's all celebrate!

Two weeks ago at the John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River UT I bought a copy of John McPhee's "Basin and Range" (1980 Farrar, Straus and Giroux), which focuses on the area of the continent we know as eastern Utah to eastern California -- a portion of which we were traversing with our Road Scholar group. Although McPhee handles geological science, the impact of plate-tectonics on the study of the earth, the strata and time scale of geologic evidence in a way even I can follow (but, heaven help me if I were to have to repeat any of it in a coherent way), it was something else entirely that I would give the prize of "Most Memorable" between the softback covers of his book.

In the late 18th century a quiet revolution, based on the observance of layers of rocks, was beginning. Following is the paragraph that startled me so:

According to conventional wisdom at the time, the earth was between five and six thousand years old. An Irish archbishop (James Ussher), counting generations in his favorite book, figured this out in the century before. Ussher actually dated the earth, saying that it was created in 4004BC. The Irish, as any Oxbridge don would know, are imprecise, and shortly after the publication of Ussher's Annales Veteris et Vovi Testamenti the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University bestirred himself to refine the calculations. He confirmed the year. The Holy Trinity had indeed created the earth in 4004BC -- and they had done so, reported the Vice Chancellor, on October 26th, at 9AM. His name was Lightfoot. (95-6)

Now, I recognize that paragraph to be flippant, even impertinent. And, I have to admit that I looked up Ussher and Lightfoot. McPhee doesn't get the story's details quite right. But, he captured the gist. The resistance to geologic scientific discovery some one hundred years after these gentlemen completed their calculations was fierce and bombastic and authoritative and long-lasting.

In some ways not much has changed. We resist what threatens the who, what, when, why of our daily lives, the stuff on which we've built our world view. And, there's really no reason to expect human response to ideas which frighten to start being different.

There's nothing keeping us from celebrating, though. After all, it seems today's the 6014th anniversary of our earth's blessed event ... Enjoy!

It's only a building

Spent a few damp minutes mid-morning today as I struggled to take in the news of the chapel at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria -- lost yesterday afternoon in a catastrophic fire. No one was in the building at the time, blessedly, and none of the other buildings on campus were affected, thanks to the determined efforts of Alexandria firefighters.

The photographs here are all borrowed, the one of the chapel's interior (immediately below) from a photograher identified only as Ronnie R on flickr and those of the building as it burned from the online album of an individual who witnessed the scene, known on Facebook as bcramey.









The most stark view, however, and what brought the building's loss into deep reality for me is from the iPhone of Dr Stephen L Cook, professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. His steady, silent movement from the vicinity of the library toward the chapel, the only commentary footsteps through the dry fall leaves and the wail of approaching emergency vehicles, chilled my blood and brought on the relief of tears.

Click here for Dr Cook's video (it's a safe link): Biblische Ausbildung: Fire at Virginia Seminary!#links#links

While it is only a building, it was a place of refuge, of comfort, of challenge, of inspiration, indeed, a memory-maker for many thousands. Everyone of us will grieve the trauma of its destruction.