The Adventures of Mo. Lauren and Fr. Kenny

Hello Friends!

You may or may not know, that Fr. Kenny and I work at two, yes, TWO churches.  I’m the Priest in Charge of Emmanuel in Great River, but also the Curate (basically an assistant priest) at St. Mark’s in Islip.  So, most Sundays I am at Emmanuel, but on the last Sunday of the month I head over to St. Mark’s and Fr. Rick (the Rector at St. Mark’s) heads over to Emmanuel for a “pulpit swap.”  Of course, priests don’t only work Sundays, as some people think, so I am out and about during the week going between the parishes doing all sorts of other things.  Hey I can’t give too much away, or I won’t have any future posts, haha.

This is a popular style of ministry these days, because often smaller parishes cannot afford to have a full time Rector, but most priests can’t afford to only be half time.  So it is a win-win!  And we get to have more joint events and work together as Christ’s body in the world, which is way more important than anything else.

Anyway, on March 30th, I brought Fr. Kenny along to St. Mark’s and took some pictures. Pictures of Emmanuel will be up soon, along with a discussion of east vs. west facing altars.

St. Mark’s is larger than Emmanuel, built in Norwegian Gothic style.  It has microphones (sadly on the fritz right now) and two altars.  The older, east-facing altar is against the back wall (behind me in the picture below-priest facing away from congregation) and then the west facing altar (priest facing the congregation) that we use for Eucharist.

Looking over Rite I before the 8:00am service….

Here is Fr. Kenny standing at the east facing altar to get the reserve sacrament out.

I don’t think he will be able to open that door…

There are also many great helpers at both churches, here is Pat with Fr. Kenny in the pulpit, making sure everything is all set.

testing, 1, 2, 3….

Finally, we have Fr. Kenny practicing his orans position (how he holds his hands during the service) while Dave lights the candles.  You can see our little viking ship up there in the middle.

We had a great adventure at St. Mark’s, and look forward to the next Sunday there, April 27th, when there will be an Easter bonnet parade.  Fr. Kenny has been working on his for weeks!

Hello Friends!

Here is my sermon from April 6, 2014, John 11:1-45.  Yes, it is when Jesus brings Lazarus back from the dead after 4 days in the tomb!  This is another long Gospel reading from John, but worth reading.  In today’s sermon you get to hear how God is like physical therapy sometimes, and about how the resurrection is NOW, not someday in the future.  How is Jesus helping us in our lives now, and what are we doing for Him?

Here is the link: Sermon, Lent 5, April 6, 2014

Palm Sunday is next, then Holy Week begins.  There are many more adventures to come!

Hello Friends!

This past weekend, besides our adventure on retreat, I was the celebrant and preacher at St. Mark’s in Islip, NY.  Below is the link to my sermon from Sunday.  It was another long reading (John 9:1-41), in which Jesus makes the man blind from birth, see.  Jesus only makes a short appearance in the narrative, with the man’s testimony as the main focus.  I talk about human beings’ need to label and categorize things, and how we, like Jesus, need to look past those manufactured labels to the child of God beneath!

John 9:1-41 – Sermon Lent 4- March 30, 2014

Stay tuned for more pictures and fun!

Hello folks!

Last weekend Fr. Kenny and I attended a Transitioning Clergy retreat at Little Portion Friary (a Franciscan community in Mt. Sinai, NY here is their website).  The Transitioning Clergy group here in Long Island is called other things in other Dioceses, like Fresh Start, or Head Start, but what it is is a group of new clergy that meet monthly for the first year to learn about the Diocese and ministry.  When I say new, I don’t mean only the newly ordained like me, but also people new to the Diocese.  So our group is quite diverse.  Some of us are brand new, some have been priests for many years, and some are new to the Episcopal Church.  It is a great way to bounce ideas off each other.  I especially like to gain insight and wisdom from the more experienced members of the group.  I have enjoyed all of our get togethers and I will miss them.

Anyway, we had an overnight retreat with the Bishop at the Friary, and it was a great time.

Fr. Kenny chillin’ with the Bishop and Fr. John.

One of the great things at Little Portion (besides the awesome bread they sell, and the incredibly kind and hospitable brothers) is the labyrinth!  They have a great labyrinth on the grounds.

Kenny ponders in the Labyrinth

Now, contrary to popular thought, and an awesome 80s movie starring David Bowie, labyrinths are NOT mazes.  Mazes tend to be a test of some sort and have dead ends or traps in them.  You often make wrong turns in mazes and can end up lost in them (like people do every October in those corn mazes).  Labyrinths on the other hand, have no dead ends.  They only have twists and turns.  This way, the labyrinth represents our spiritual/life journey.  Life has twists and turns, but no dead ends, you keep going, working through those turns until you reach the center.

Many people walk in large labyrinths (like at Little Portion) to meditate on their own spiritual journey.  There are also smaller ones that can be traced with your finger, or a small stylus, kind of like when people have a zen rock garden on their desk.  My friend, Mother Kim, has a labyrinth tattoo on her foot, and she has kindly allowed me to post the picture here:

done by Andy at Gotham City Tattoo in Reading, PA

I love this tattoo, I know Mo. Kim does too, and I’m sure it reminds her of her spiritual journey in life thus far, and her future journey as well.

So the retreat was great, and I had fun (even though I had a hard time sleeping).  I will miss hanging out with all my “transitioning” friends after our year of meetings is over.  Here are some more pictures from the weekend.  Stay tuned for more sermons and adventures!

Fr. Kenny was very excited to go on retreat

Little Portion’s main building.

Saturday morning, FK laments the lack of coffee

Fr. Kenny tries to get St. Francis’ attention.

Fr. Kenny likes that there is chocolate AND peanut butter in this bread

As promised, Fr. Kenny and I had an adventure today!

We decided to do a few minor repairs (glue down the decorative piece on top of the tabernacle, replace the lock on the desk) and we decided to hang up some lovely icons.

Fr. Kenny figures out which order to put them in….

I met my predecessor, Fr. Domenic, once.  He showed me these lovely icons and said he always had wanted to hang them up, but never got around to it.  There is no better time than now, right?  I love these, they are Orthodox icons, which means they are more of a Middle Eastern style, very similar to some I saw while I was in Turkey last year.  Orthodox icons always appeal to me, I’m not really sure why, but I find them lovely.  Emmanuel has a beautiful replica of the Ghent altarpiece (click here to read about that), so I thought it would be great to put them around it.

Kenny wanted to hammer the nails, but the hammer was a bit too heavy for him, so he delegated instead.

    Where is Jean Valjean when you need him?

A little to the left, Mo. Lauren…

It turns out that the 1970s wood paneling is super hard to drive nails into, but we got it done!  I hope the parishioners enjoy some new art and that it inspires them in their lives as they inspire me. I also hope I put them in the right order, ha!

Greetings!

I know I’m been heavy on sermons and light on adventures in the last few posts, but I promise that Fr. Kenny and I are having some great adventures this week!  To tide you over is my sermon from yesterday:

John 4:5-42, 3rd Sunday in Lent, March 23, 2014

This is a long text about Jesus having a conversation with a Samaritan woman by a well.  This woman has gotten a bad rap in the past, there isn’t anything in the text that says she is a prostitute, which is a popular reading.  So, in this sermon I defend the honor of the woman, and talk about how life with Christ is a conversation, a life long conversion!

Enjoy!!!

Hello Friends!

I a minor victory, I figured out how to post my sermons on YouTube, whooo!  So here are the 3 that I have posted thus far.

1. March 2, 2014- The Transfiguration, Matthew 17:1-9 – This one was popular at St. Mark’s and Emmanuel.  I talk about being transformed, and about how trying to capture the moment takes us away from the moment.  As my hubby pointed out, it is ironic that I recorded the sermon after taking about how recording devices can’t capture God’s glory.

2. March 9, 2014 – Lent 1, Matthew 4:1-11 – The first Sunday of Lent is the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness.  I talk about what “Son of God” means and how Jesus will use his power to become a new type of king.

3. March 16, 2014 – Lent 2, John 3:1-17 – This second Sunday of Lent jumps into John.  It is the story when Nicodemus comes to Jesus to ask questions.  Jesus explains that the Spirit is like the wind, you don’t know where it came from or where it is going, but it will guide you along.

There will be more to come, I’m sure they won’t be everyone’s taste, but hey, give it a shot!  Since Lent has my favorite liturgical color (purple!), here are some pictures of me in my Lenten finery.  You already saw Fr. Kenny’s purple:

Greetings all and happy St. Patrick’s Day.  Today we celebrate a man who was kidnapped from Britain into slavery at age 16 and taken to Ireland, later escaped back to Britain, then went back to Ireland as a priest to convert the locals.  Talk about loving your enemies and forgiveness.  What better way to celebrate than wearing green, eating corned beef, and drinking beer?  Well, on Saturday, Emmanuel had a St. Patrick’s Day dinner and I was there, so was Fr. Kenny.  So, here is a photo of the good Father getting his party on:

Even a green beer, sort of….

Here is a picture of me too, enjoying the festivities:

A great time was had by all, remember to celebrate today, but also be safe!

Part of the fun of working at a new place is exploring the closets, drawers, files cabinets, etc.  You can always find some interesting things that have been stashed away for many years awaiting discovery!  Something things are puzzling, like this:

Yup, it is a “3D” movement picture.

You can’t see it, but Fr. Kenny is shaking his head.  I can only say, at least this isn’t hanging up.  The mourners move as you turn the picture side to side and of course Jesus is super caucasian, which is not accurate at all.  But it is good for a laugh.  There is a market out there for terrible religious kitsch, some people collect the stuff.

Other things you find make you happy with nostalgia, like this:

Kenny remembers his break dancing days.

I love finding old technology.  I took a bunch of old VCRs to be recycled, but I couldn’t part with these.  I haven’t tested them to see if they work, but if they do, I’ll be rocking out to my Neneh Cherry “Buffalo Stance” single faster than you can say 4th grade nostalgia.

Other things you find are so bad, so theologically terrible, that you can only lay down in despair, facing away from the thing, a la Stuart Wellington from The Flop House Podcast (“Oogieloves” episode-check out that podcast, it is great).

ugh, just, ugh

This one is so terrible, it isn’t really funny, well I guess it is a little funny.  I won’t throw it out though, I think I’ll keep it as reminder to never say anything so cliched and simplistic.

Greetings on the first Sunday of Lent, aka the season with my favorite color, PURPLE!  I love purple, it is just a wonderful color.  Anyway, Fr. Kenny and I suited up to get ready for the service.  We switched a lot of things up, using the crystal chalice, adding the Penitential Rite, Prayers of the People Form II (instead of IV) and Eucharistic Prayer D.

The reading for today is usually called “Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness,” but it is much for than that.  It is about power, its source, and its use.  Jesus must decide which kingly identity he wants to have…..lucky for us, he chose right!

Fr. Kenny, brushing up on prayer D before service.