This is my first blog entry in nearly an entire year. I
never thought I’d be the type to keep a blog at all, and so it shocked me that
I’d even want to write any more than I was absolutely required to do. Stranger
still that I’d find myself missing it, wishing to find something worth saying,
worth sharing with the certainly paltry sum of sleep-deprived narcoleptics whom
I could only imagine were hoping my various ramblings would help them find
their way off to dreamland at last. After I stepped off that airplane jetway in
August 2016 once again on American shores, closing the book on my amazing,
exotic year as a missionary in Italy, I could not imagine that whatever lay
ahead for me on this side of the ocean would be nearly worth dedicating to
paper (or digital media for that matter). After all, who would be waiting to
read with rapt attention of my daily goings-on in Southwest Ohio with the same
“ooh la la” as befits a new life in one of the world’s most famously beautiful
and historic cities?
 |
| Canoeing during Brendan's Crossing orientation, September 2016 |
So I returned to Cincinnati after a month’s vacation – and
somewhat by surprise - I leapt at my bishop’s invitation to join Brendan’s
Crossing, a small community of young adult believers in ten months of service,
discernment, and in my case final preparations to take on the Holy Orders that
I had been seeking for years. I’d expected, honestly to find a job either in
the Episcopal Church world nearby or at worst take up a secular post somewhere
while staying constantly tied and involved with my churchwork nonetheless. This
“intentional community” thing was pretty new to me, even though I’d been
invited to join a similar group years before as I was starting to discern God’s
call to ministry in the first place. I found that my year in the Collegio in Rome (the dorm-style apartments
that I shared with Carter, Paola, Maiga, Julia and Margaret at St. Paul’s as we
learned about God and ourselves while serving in the church) was basically an
intentional community in all but name! And I’d lived a similar life as a
residential seminarian for three years before, never once realizing that I
could’ve well been a member of the Episcopal Service Corps with the lifestyle I
was leading!
 |
| Brendan's Crossing fellows on retreat in Kentucky, April 2017 |
Within three quick days I
learned that I would be joining the program, called Brendan’s Crossing &
based out of a large white house just blocks from the University of Cincinnati,
talked on the phone with their director Aaron, whom I would soon come to adore
as an incredible friend and supervisor, and unexpectedly secured a service
placement at Christ Church Cathedral where I had already been a member for
nearly eight years. All of a sudden, my whole life would seem to revolve around
the Cathedral, as it was my sponsoring parish for ordination, my ministry site,
the home of my church membership, the nearest church to home, and even my
polling place all at once! Soon it was arranged – I would help with the
Cathedral’s Tuesday homeless ministry, take part in a “café” that I didn’t
quite fully understand, and practice my Spanish skills with the Diocesan Latino
ministry twice a week on the West Side of town. I didn’t know what any of that
would mean, but I knew that a sacred and unusual journey was about to begin,
and I had no idea what to expect next.
No comments:
Post a Comment