Orientation, new blog, you name it
Things are going well but very busily here in Toronto. They've kept us busy being pumped full of information since we started, and during our rare downtime I'm usually to tired to post. Today, however, after we finished a more or less useless session (about what blogging is, and how to do it) we finished a bit early, so I thought I'd drop in and let the rellies know what's what.
The orientation hasn't really been a lot of new information, but has been good to talk about. As I suspected, a lot of stuff about encountering new cultures (hint: let them speak for themselves!). We've done some great field trips: one day we went to a Jewish Temple in the morning and a mosque in the afternoon. The temple was a bit awkward - some people in the orientation are going to Palestine to work as what are called "ecumenical accompieners". This is a group from different churchs (the program is run by the World Council of Churches)who basically live with Palestinians and observe how the Israili soldiers treat them. They will tell you that they are there for both Israilis and Palestinians, but I question that - to hear them talk, they are not in favour of Israel at all. Anyway, we went to the Temple, and of course one of the loudmouth EAs told the fellow giving us the tour what they were doing - and the temple had a Israel flag up at the front! He got quite shirty about it- the Temple strongly supports Israel. It was interesting to see his reaction, but I felt bad about us coming into his space and telling him how much we disapproved of what he holds dear.
The next day we went to the Six Nations. This is a reserve near Scarbourough - it's the group that has been blocking roads in Caledonia. It was a great day - we went through a museum, heard their side of the land claims (the government gave them the land for helping the British during the American Revolution) and toured three churches. At one of the churches (Her Majesty's Royal Chapel to the Mohawk), we had a great presentation and history by a native woman who was every inch an Anglican. She was the very stereotype of a sweet old Anglican church lady. At the end of the day her and her friends (each more Anglican than the last)gave us a nice potluck supper. I got to sit next to Leona, the woman who gave us the talk at supper, and she is as interesting in person as she is in public! She told me all about the time her and her husband were invited on the British HMS Chieftan, and the parties they went to - apparently the noncommisioned officers party was better than the captain`s party!
On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and that was an adventure. Alice, who runs the orientation, had given us a list of Anglican churches to choose from - ones with multicultural congregations. Well, Robert, Kerri (the other two interns) and I chose one downtown, and headed there. It was supposed to start at 10, and we were a bit late, thanks to transit, and got there about 10:20. We snuck in to find that they were in the middle of a sermon, and the sermon was being given by this young guy in jeans and a sweater! This is very unusual for the Anglican church, but we were willing to go with it. Then after the sermon another guy stood up, said "ok, It's time for communion". Then he casually told the story of the last supper, and invited us to come up "as we felt led". This is NOT the way we do communion in the Anglican church, and the three of us had a collective heart attack. The service ended shortly thereafter, and we were talking to the preacher- who told us they were a nondenominational church ("The Free Church") who rent the building. The Anglican service didn't start till 11!
We stayed for that service, and it was much closer to what we were used to. There was an old woman from the West Indies sitting behind us who sang with lots of gusto very badly, which was nice for me- I felt that no matter how loud or bad I was, I could never compete with her!
I spent the afternoon wandering around Toronto, and that evening went to an ordination at one of the Anglican seminaries here. It was a woman being ordained to work in my diocese, but who is going to school here. It was a lovely service, and my bishop and his wife were there, and we met lots of other bishops (to the almost uncontainable exciemtent of us three interns). We met the former head of the Anglican Church of Canada, Michael Peers, as well as the National Indiginous Bishop, Mark MacDonald.
There has been lots more going on, but I'll stop for now. The last thing to mention is that I have a new blog - loneandlevel.blogspot.com. I'll try and change the link on the side. This is specifically for my trip (it was confirmed this week that I'm going to Sri Lanka).
The orientation hasn't really been a lot of new information, but has been good to talk about. As I suspected, a lot of stuff about encountering new cultures (hint: let them speak for themselves!). We've done some great field trips: one day we went to a Jewish Temple in the morning and a mosque in the afternoon. The temple was a bit awkward - some people in the orientation are going to Palestine to work as what are called "ecumenical accompieners". This is a group from different churchs (the program is run by the World Council of Churches)who basically live with Palestinians and observe how the Israili soldiers treat them. They will tell you that they are there for both Israilis and Palestinians, but I question that - to hear them talk, they are not in favour of Israel at all. Anyway, we went to the Temple, and of course one of the loudmouth EAs told the fellow giving us the tour what they were doing - and the temple had a Israel flag up at the front! He got quite shirty about it- the Temple strongly supports Israel. It was interesting to see his reaction, but I felt bad about us coming into his space and telling him how much we disapproved of what he holds dear.
The next day we went to the Six Nations. This is a reserve near Scarbourough - it's the group that has been blocking roads in Caledonia. It was a great day - we went through a museum, heard their side of the land claims (the government gave them the land for helping the British during the American Revolution) and toured three churches. At one of the churches (Her Majesty's Royal Chapel to the Mohawk), we had a great presentation and history by a native woman who was every inch an Anglican. She was the very stereotype of a sweet old Anglican church lady. At the end of the day her and her friends (each more Anglican than the last)gave us a nice potluck supper. I got to sit next to Leona, the woman who gave us the talk at supper, and she is as interesting in person as she is in public! She told me all about the time her and her husband were invited on the British HMS Chieftan, and the parties they went to - apparently the noncommisioned officers party was better than the captain`s party!
On Sunday we went to church in the morning, and that was an adventure. Alice, who runs the orientation, had given us a list of Anglican churches to choose from - ones with multicultural congregations. Well, Robert, Kerri (the other two interns) and I chose one downtown, and headed there. It was supposed to start at 10, and we were a bit late, thanks to transit, and got there about 10:20. We snuck in to find that they were in the middle of a sermon, and the sermon was being given by this young guy in jeans and a sweater! This is very unusual for the Anglican church, but we were willing to go with it. Then after the sermon another guy stood up, said "ok, It's time for communion". Then he casually told the story of the last supper, and invited us to come up "as we felt led". This is NOT the way we do communion in the Anglican church, and the three of us had a collective heart attack. The service ended shortly thereafter, and we were talking to the preacher- who told us they were a nondenominational church ("The Free Church") who rent the building. The Anglican service didn't start till 11!
We stayed for that service, and it was much closer to what we were used to. There was an old woman from the West Indies sitting behind us who sang with lots of gusto very badly, which was nice for me- I felt that no matter how loud or bad I was, I could never compete with her!
I spent the afternoon wandering around Toronto, and that evening went to an ordination at one of the Anglican seminaries here. It was a woman being ordained to work in my diocese, but who is going to school here. It was a lovely service, and my bishop and his wife were there, and we met lots of other bishops (to the almost uncontainable exciemtent of us three interns). We met the former head of the Anglican Church of Canada, Michael Peers, as well as the National Indiginous Bishop, Mark MacDonald.
There has been lots more going on, but I'll stop for now. The last thing to mention is that I have a new blog - loneandlevel.blogspot.com. I'll try and change the link on the side. This is specifically for my trip (it was confirmed this week that I'm going to Sri Lanka).
Labels: orientation, sri lanka, travel
posted by Will at 2:02 PM
5 Comments:
Meeting bishops is old hat to you. "Ho-hum, another bishop."
No, no. I hope I never get that blase about bishop. They're like catnip to theological students!
Catnip? Does that mean you're chasing the purple shirt?!
Sounds like you are doing some great "networking" while you are in TO. Is the purple shirt what bishops wear?
Yes, the colour purple is reserved for bishops - a hold over from when they thought they were royalty! I'm not chasing the purple shirt as much as overcome with the need to whisper to my neighbours who the bishop is and why he or she is famous/interesting/known to me. The nice thing about the orientation is that the other two students were doing it back. And they were impressed when I knew my bishop's wife!
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