Winter Wilburland

Greetings from our Wilbur winter wonderland. As I sit and type it is snowing outside and the Peanuts Christmas album is playing. I can't remember a Holiday season that I have enjoyed this much.

Lars and I had a wonderful but short trip to the Bay Area for Thanksgiving. We had time to stop by the seminary, say "hi", and get a much needed burrito fix at Mi Pueblo. We also had a short visit with Elizabeth. It was nice to see family and friends again.

Things are in full swing at the church. There is a busy holiday schedule and I am so happy to have a place to work and worship during advent. This Sunday is the children's christmas program which happens during worship. Then caroling at 4pm and a chili feed afterwards. Next Sunday I am doing a sermon with my harp believe it or not. I am going to play a medley and preach in between the pieces. I think it is going to be really neat.

Lars is still looking for a job. There is not much out here but I am confident that something will come up sooner or later.

I got a new robe. The super cool skirt kind that we all said we would get when we get ordained. It just came last week so this is my first Sunday with it. Hopefully it goes over well. It is really feminine and flattering, cut to fit me, and has shiny inserts that show when I walk. Princess!

Finally, Santa brought Lars and I an early gift this year. A new puppy named Milo! He is a mini dauschaund and is very sweet and cute. The cats are still getting used to him and everyone is working on boundaries but he is sure the cutest thing I've seen in awhile.

Hope all is well with everyone, miss you, love you, CONGRATS JAMES!!!!!!!

Love - Heather

God Says Yes to Me

Behold I am Doing a New Thing

Found this poem in a Theology of Ministry paper this afternoon...love it! Hope you'll enjoy it too! Maybe you're already familiar with it - in that case, my apologies for repeating.



God Says Yes to Me
Kaylin Haught

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
And she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
And she said it sure was
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
Or not wear nail polish
And she said honey
She calls me that sometimes
She said you can do just exactly
What you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it okay if I don't paragraph
My letters
Sweetcakes God said
Who knows where she picked that up
What I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

Lessons and Carols - The season has begun!

Not only did the manage to have L&C without us - they did it bigger! It was beautiful and wonderful and great to see Cheryl and Elizabeth and James - also Steve and Elenor Whitney, Will and Becky McGarvey and Deborah Johnston, Joy Church, and... everybody!

The new thundering herd of students has swelled the choir to the point where they sat in chairs in the chancel surrounding the strings (strings!). The choir did almost all the oldies/goodies. James said he couldn't look at Elizabeth during O Magnum Mysterium because she was mouthing the words and weeping. Cheryl and I were further back - but I closed my eyes just to hear/feel that rich lift. My hands were dancing. The choir has tenors this year!!!! It was fun to hear O Holy Night rather than sing it although I'd rather be singing all of it... It might be sappy but its still fun. (and if you can't be sappy during Christmas then what is the point?

.... Stephanie did great with This Little Babe. I think it might have been challenging to have the choir so deep in the chancel but it went well. As fabulous as Stephanie did - and she did very well - my memory brought Heather's harp back into the room. And speaking of memory, as we finished singing the hymn, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, with its power soprano descant, Cheryl and I turned to each other and instantly agreed that we missed Amy Moiso very much.

Inspired I am sure by the work done previous years, Lisa Wraith put some some very color intense banners.

Dan, bless his heart, does indeed invite the alumni to come forward for the full on heart string: Still of the Nightfall. We had to stop hugging each other so we could sing.



Greg and Clair Love and Cheryl Finch:













Clair on her way home.



Mid-way through the program I figured out why I was having a problem accepting that Advent was under way: I haven't been singing Christmas songs in prepartion this year!




Program Summary (Anthem):
Lesson 1 - Lo How a Rose E'er Blooming
Lesson 2 - Prepare Ye
Lesson 4 - O Magnum Mysterium
Lesson 5 - Candlelight Carol (Rutter)
Lesson 6 - Calypso Noel
Lesson 7 - This Little Babe
Lesson 8 - O Holy Night & Chill of the Nightfall

If you go on Saturday - please post news of who you saw & what they are up to. Elizabeth is doing well in her CPE but as we all know, its very consuming.

James Has a Call

Yes, it's true....
On November 18-19, I had my Candidating Weekend at Elk Grove (CA) Congregational Church. Everything went really well, despite having 'near laryngitis'. With thanks to God, the congregation voted unanimously to call me as their next settled pastor. Today, Dec. 1 is my first official day - although I've been working on the service most of the week. Since Mary and I are singing in L&C tonight and tomorrow night, I had to get a good head-start on Sunday.

This is a very sweet congregation of just over 100 folks. I'd call it "High UCC" as Cheryl can attest, they stand for the Gospel reading, and have other very nice touches to their service. The search committee has been working for 18 months and reviewed 106 profiles. They did an absolutely fantastic job. So...yeah...I'm starting on Advent 1, Year C with communion. (I'll have ordained folks help with that until my own -- hopefully in February or so. Stay tuned!)

There is a fairly large parsonage right next door (for better or for worse) into which one could fit many Hunter Hall apartments. We are looking forward to life there and being able to make it our home. The web address for the church is http://www.elkgroveucc.org/links.html

Friends ask if I'm excited about this and I wish it were that simple. There are about 20 emotions flying around inside my head and heart about this...Excitement is only one of them. Mostly, though, I'm just looking forward to engaging this congregation with all its challenges and bringing everything I've got to my call there. It will be great!

I'll send my new address and phone number in e-mail. In the mean time, I'll still be using the Yahoo account I've had forever. Do drop me a line when you are able.
Blessings to you all,
James

Growing things

While the garden may be coming to an end, there are lots of growing things that can still be cultured in this world.

We decided to make beer for Christmas. This is a honey ale that Bill is working on. He is de-racking the first fermentation.






We live near a place that sells and rents beer, wine, and cheese making stuff. You can buy all the ingredients for various beers in a kit or pull it out of these really interesting smelling bins and kegs.

The first step - after sanatizing the equipment of course - is to boil up the barley on the stove and to boil up and some water in a large pot on a gas burner (the kind that Harold uses to cook his turkeys) outside. Then we add the honey, dextrin and dry malt extract; the barley tea, and bittering hops.

Then the wort (great names for this stuff) is chilled with a chiller thingy which is a coil of copper tubing that runs cold water through the tube inserted into the wort which does that physics thing and takes the heat off the wort quickly. Then we pour it into the gigantic bottle (called a carboy) and stick it in the corner of the living room for a week while the yeast has a minor riot with all the good sugars in the whole mess.

After a week, the goo is syphoned off into a second carboy for a quieter round of fermentation and settling. In another week or so we will syphon off the clear beer and bottle and let that store for a while. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

In the meantime I have started to get serious about making cheese - which was aided and abetted by the discovery of this local store and the tip that Trader Joe's sells pastorized (not ultra-pastorized - that won't form curd) goat milk. We had amazingly firm feta in time for Thanksgiving. I also used some goat milk for the yogurt I've been making for months and decided I like the sweeter taste. On the day we started the beer I was in the kitchen starting the feta, a couple of loafs of bread and a round of yogurt. I'll post pictures of cheese making sometime.

Dana and Audrey joined me for Thanksgiving this year. I took Audrey on a tour of all our growing things. She turned to me and said, "So... got some time on your hands now that you're not doing papers any more?"

Lessons and Carols

December 1-2
7 pm
Stewart Chapel

It would be odd to be there without being a part of the inside - but I think it harder to stay away.

Anyone else?

6 Months Later

OK Friends...this was only 6 months ago. God continues to work in our lives in oh, so many ways. And, certainly, the only constant is change.

Any prayers you might raise for my candidating weekend will be felt and appreciated. I'll be at Elk Grove Community Church -- just about 20 minutes south of Cheryl's and hope to start there on Dec. 1.

I'll let you know how things turn out shortly afterward. Blessings to you all!

Hangin' with Francis

Last weekend I was invited (along with three other Bossey students) to represent the World Council of Churches at an "Interreligious Youth Gathering on Peace" in Assisi, Italy, sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church. The event was in commemoration of a peace-focused gathering of religious leaders invited to Assisi by Pope John Paul II in 1986. There were about 100 young adults between the ages of 20 and 35 ("youth" is broadly understood in Europe) who attended, and although there was not much substance to the meeting, we had a good time. Some photos, for your viewing pleasure:

First stop, Rome. Above, I'm standing in front of St. Peter's Cathedral with my friend Eva from Slovakia, who is studying at Bossey with me. Below, the all important Italian gelato - even though it was cold outside.



Below is me standing outside the gorgeous Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, where Francis is both commemorated and buried. I highly recommend a pilgrimage to Assisi if you ever get the chance - it's preserved almost as it was in the middle ages, with winding cobblestone streets carved into the side of a hill.

Moving

Dear Friends,
I have just about cleared my office of all "stephanie" stuff -- no pictures, no pottery, no books! It feels very strange, to say the very least. Lots of teasing about cold weather and encouragement to soak up all the warm November sun that we're experiencing just now.

Today I rolled up my big "cloud of witnesses" bulletin board to take with me; it has most of your smiling faces and others' from graduations that I have celebrated in my 6 years here.

Jim and I will close on our brand new house next week and the movers will be here on Monday to pack us up and move us out(although we won't actually go to Michigan until the end of the semester). If you're interested, I can send you an email with our contact information and timeline. We'll actually be hanging out in one of the sabbatical apts in Hunter while all our worldly possessions travel ahead of us to Michigan. Our realtor knows someone who will make sure the stuff gets placed in the appropriate rooms; when we arrive (around Dec. 20/21, Lord willing & the snow don't fall) we'll begin the fun of finding ourselves in a new house, a new state, a whole new life! YIKES!

Lots of mixed feelings -- mostly good, mostly exciting -- some trepdiation and no little amount of sleepless nights figuring out where the piano will go and if our new family room will hold the old sofa and chair. What kind of fridge and washer dryer to get? Long coat? Boots? Ice scraper and shovel?!! How's Sammy (our self-righteous cat) going to deal with this? He'll have to be a totally indoor kitty now and fortunately for us, he has no real say in the matter although he has taken to yowling as only Siamese self-righteous kitties can do...

Anyway...these are the thoughts for now. I think about you often, hold you close in my heart and miss you soooooooo much!

78 degrees on November 6th

Forcasters are calling for flooding in all the usual places in Portland by the end of the day today. Here in Santa Rosa we experiencing yet another warm afternoon - sunlight filling up all the rooms, front and back doors open to catch a breeze. I'm in shorts and a t-shirt and I'm restless. All this sunlight is just not right. How does anyone get any work done around here?













Well, November it is and 78 degrees as well - so here are some updates on the garden:

First - a picture from mid-summer. I had just put in some beans in the middle - notice the little teepee frame thing. I thought it was going to be a wonderful structure...













Well... it turns out that whoever it was that dreamed up a beanstock large enough for Jack and the giant didn't stretch their imagination much. That massive green thing in the middle are the beans that ate the garden.





















and one more thing: I went up to watch Audrey (my youngest daughter) be a drum major and conduct a marching band field show at her high school homecoming.

Send news!

Anitra

snow

Hello Friends - So here we are not even to November yet and it snowed today. Lars and I are in for something a little different than the California rain. Things are going great in Wilbur. Today was the 5th Sunday of the month so it was Tub Band Sunday - man did we have a fun time! Everyone was up front singing or playing guitar and there is a washtub bass and even a washboard to play. What a zoo I work in. Above you will see a picture of the snow out my office window at home. Also you can see my pastor appreciation gift - our own wheelbarrow! Lars and I have been busy in the yard! Anyway, we are loving country folk and life out here. We have been blessed with many gifts on our doorstep from fresh potatoes to carrots right out of the ground and walnuts off the tree. We are looking forward to Halloween and are hoping for Trick or Treaters. Miss you and sunny California for those who are there. - Heather

Worth 4000 words

As promised, here are some pictures of life in Switzerland.

This is one end of the building where I live; my window is the bottom corner on the right.



The entrance to our chapel is through this little tower, once owned by an Abbey and dating back to the 13th or 14th century.



Here is our group of students standing in front of Calvin and other Reformers in Geneva (Calvin is second from the left).



And this is the inside of the Church of Scotland, where I attend. If you look closely, behind the communion table you can see extra wooden legs - the legs of a chair on which Calvin once sat.

At home in Wilbur

Hello Friends -

Lars and I are finally getting settled here in Wilbur. With the help of the church we have bought a small house. Most of our furniture arrived last week. We were heartbroken at what was lost and what was broken. I did not choose a moving company well and the whole thing was a disaster. But we are thankful for everything that did make it. Lars and I have been busy painting and unpacking boxes and the house is finally looking like our own. It feels like it has been years since we had our own place.

Things at the church are going well. The ordination service on the 24th was wonderful and very moving. I looked at Bitty when I was giving the benediction and she was crying which made me cry and I totally messed it up. Oh well. The church provided a lovely dinner afterwards. They had decorated the tables and men in red vests served. It was great. With people there from my lives in Kennewick, Moscow, and San Anselmo it was quite the event for me.

My first Sunday was a communion service. Everything went well (no spilling of juice) until I said "will the servers please come forward" and no one stood up! There was a bit of miscommunication. But you know me, I shrugged it off and made some joke and before long I had some servers at the front.

This is my third weekend of worship and tomorrow is my first funeral. I am really jumping right in. Tragic death of a young mother in town and they were not church goers. At this point I feel good about my prep but we will see how things go tomorrow.

I am loving small town life, the cool air, and the fall colors. Lars is still looking for a place but I am confident God has something for him here.

Miss you all . . . love and blessings . . . Pastor Heather : )

Rising from his deathbed

Dan sent out an email to the SFTS Singers claiming that "barring unforseen circumstances" rehersal will take place next Monday.


Good to hear he is feeling better.

Greetings from the future

As the sun has set here in Switzerland, I bring you greetings from the future - Tuesday evening. I'm now settled into the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey outside of Geneva, and am working my way through the busy two-week orientation. We officially begin classes on Monday, October 16 - at which time I will have been in Geneva almost two months!

This year, the graduate school of ecumenical studies has about 35 students, of which 10 are masters students here through June 2007 (I fall into this category). The rest of the folks are just here until February, but for now we're all in the mix together. There is one other American, a woman from (in her own words) "Texas and Oklahoma," from the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, finishing her last semester at Philips Seminary. The rest of the student body is made up of people from all over the world. We interestingly seem to have a divide between gender and geography: about one third of the students are women, and all of them are from the U.S. and Europe (including former Soviet states), except for one woman from Korea. There are no men at all from North America or Western Europe; all are from former Soviet states/Eastern Europe and Africa, save one Korean, one Egyptian, and one Haitian. We are still waiting to see if two other students show up - a woman from Nigeria and a man from Cuba. We come from all kinds of traditions - Reformed, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Evangelical. Today the Presbyterians led afternoon worship: me, the two Koreans and the Egyptian. At the request of the Korean students, we put together a service centered around peace (given the recent nuclear tests in North Korea), and it was something else to hear Matthew 5:9, "Blessed are the peacemakers," read in Korean and Arabic and then recited by the congregation in English. We've fallen into a pattern of saying the Lord's Prayer, each in our own languages, at every chapel service (currently twice a day). There is nothing like hearing that prayer offered in many tongues - it washes like waves of water over the gathered community.

This post is getting long, but I should also mention my other big adventure this week: attending the meeting of the Presbytery of Europe last weekend. The Presbytery of Europe, which is comprised of all the Church of Scotland churches in mainland Europe, meets twice a year and rotates around to various cities. The last time they met in Geneva was six years ago, so I figured this was my big chance to attend since it might be another six years before they make it back to Switzerland. The big difference between presbyteries in the Church of Scotland and the PC(USA)? To approve motions (called "deliverances") by consensus, they stamp their feet on the floor instead of voting.

I hope that in coming weeks I can post some photos of life at Bossey, as it is an absolutely beautiful fall. From the yard we can look across the huge lake to the Alps on the other side. But fear not - soon enough, winter will kick in and I'll be writing you about icy Swiss mornings.

I miss you all!

More news on Dan

From Jana:

Dear Friends,

Over the weekend, Dr. Daniel Hoggatt was released from the hospital and allowed to go home. Since Dan is still being treated for a pulmonary embolism, it is important that he continue to rest and that we maintain as much of a “quiet zone” around him as we can manage. While it is difficult to restrain ourselves, it is still important for Dan to receive no calls or visits.

As was announced last week, Dan’s classes will be cancelled through the 13th and will resume a regular schedule on the 16th. Thank you for your concern. Dan very much appreciates your prayers and your cards. We will keep you posted on what we hope will be a speedy recovery.

Jana Childers
Dean of the Seminary

Dan Hoggart is Ill

This from an email written and sent out from Jana Childers today:

Dear Friends,

This morning I visited Professor Dan Hoggatt in the hospital where he is being treated for a pulmonary embolism. He is resting comfortably and being well supported by friends and family. Testing is going on to determine the best course of treatment, but we hope that Dan will be allowed to go home in the next few days. Dr. Hoggatt is very grateful for the community’s concern and prayers, however he has been advised that visitors and phone calls are not appropriate at this time. If you would like to send a note or card to his home address, he will, of course, be very glad to receive them there. But please do resist the (understandable) temptation to pick up the phone or stop by. As you can imagine, if all of us who love Dan did that, he would get no rest at all.

Dan is now on campus - call or email me or anyone else for his address. I deleted it from the note - afterall, this is still a public web page...

Dr. Charles Marks and Dr. Greg Love will be keeping in close touch with Dr. Hoggatt. Those who would like to receive updates on Dan’s condition are welcome to contact Charles or Greg – or, of course, the Dean’s Office.

For many of us the news of Dan’s illness is very disturbing. The illness he is struggling with is a serious one. However, Dan has asked me to reassure you that he is in good spirits, has confidence in his doctors and is buoyed by your prayers.

We will let you know how things progress as we get further news.
Meanwhile, thank you very much for your concern.
Jana Childers
Dean of the Seminary

More observations from where I am

There is a field between the subdivision where we live and the freeway. It lies fallow. I've seen pictures taken from the air of this neighborhood back in the 50's - when the freeway was still being built. We live atop a former orchard and next to the field and us are the remains of that place. Now, the land grows whatever each of us places in it and the field lies fallow - but I don't know why. I don't know who owns it but I'm told the county comes and plows it to knock the grasses back down.

Yesterday I decided to go out and walk it. The land is clay and my steps have to be uneaven in order to negotiate the large clods of ex-mud turned over by the infertile plow. It didn't take long, five or ten minutes and then I was at the other end looking back toward the corner of the houses where I had walked out and away from suburbia groomed. It seemed small and far away. Below my own shoe prints in the dust I saw deer and rabbit tracks and perhaps a mountain lion or perhaps just a dog. There are mountain lions near by. Then, a couple more steps and I'm back out on Fulton Road - another farming place becoming something else but still remembering what it was. Cars speed by me on their way to and from that river of travelers called 101 and as I walk it, I think what it must have been like when this road was just a country lane. I pass an old farmhouse that looks like it is being used to house farmworkers. There is a kitchen garden and on the edge of it, a distance from the house, someone - perhaps homesick - planted a now well established cacti. Are they still here to see it?

Last week I was in Chicago but no leaves had yet turned. I remarked on this to a mid-westerner who thought the whole thing too early. Perhaps it is.

In the meantime, I've been learning something new about home-grown tomatoes. Their taste changes - it becomes less bright, less "good" and more old, more wet, as the garden turns away from summer. This is ironic as the majority of the tomatoes are starting to finally ripen. I now cut them up, boil them down, and freeze for future use in mid-winter sauces and soups when we will have a deep longing for the taste of August.

What are you noticing?

Examination Process

Like the 60’s Dylan song, “the times they are a’ changing.” Since GA and the PUP report, all presbyteries must take steps to clarify their standards for examining candidates and ordinands and their standards for clergy transferring into their boundaries. Some presbyteries have already taken this step: an example is the document “Essential Tenets” put together by San Diego Presbytery. They adopted this in 2003. Several presbyteries, usually those leaning toward a more conservative theology and politics, have adopted or “co-opted” this document as a standard. This 30 page document includes six pages of recommended questions for candidates, and is quite clear about theological positions that it does not affirm. Here’s a link to that document: http://www.presbyterysd.org/reports/etrdmaster.pdf

In Cascades Presbytery, Presbytery Council held a brief hearing on September 16, inviting comments and viewpoints on a motion made at June presbytery changing the process of how candidates and incoming clergy should be examined. Following the hearing, the council will begin work on preparing its recommendation to be presented to presbytery in November. I expect that this same process is going on in most presbyteries. The process, in Cascades and elsewhere, is very political, and there are several competing agendas at work. The hearing itself went very well, with good dialog and input from several points of view.

Since a lot of us reading this blog are PCUSA candidates, we need to know about these changing processes and standards, both in our own presbytery and in presbyteries we’re seeking calls in. The field has become more complicated to navigate (read that “dancing in a minefield”). Just because we’ve passed ords doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet. Congratulations to Heather, along with bandaids and an icepack for the bumps and bruises she picked up this weekend in her trials.

A couple of weeks ago I met with a subcommittee of COM in a presbytery in which I was interviewing. The examination was based on the San Diego “Essential Tenets” document—they’d told me to expect that about two weeks before the interview and emailed me a copy of the document (first time I’d seen it). The interview lasted about two hours, almost all taken up with theological questions from that document, plus additional questions that came out of the Trinity and PUP reports to GA. It was a hard session. Those of you who took Greg’s oral exams (I didn’t) may have had good practice for something like this.

Does anybody have updates on what’s happening on this in other presbyteries?
Peace and Blessings,
Bob


“If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane”, Jimmy Buffett
“Let’s make the best of the situation” Eric Clapton

Aaron Retuns

Okay West Wing Fans - Aaron Sorkin is back and while Studio 60 is no West Wing its still pretty interesting - at least on the first viewing. I taped it (Aimee - do you need me to save these tapes?) and watched the opening with the mute/slow down and repeat controls in my hand.

Sorkin likes to keep using characters from show to show to movie and back again (Martin Sheen as Chief of Staff in American President? Nahh, didn't work) so its a little odd to see Danny the Reporter now the director in the booth (like right, he was going to get fired?). Josh is still Josh even if they changed his name and his hair a bit, and hes not so manic but I kept thinking - where is Donna? And I watched friends for way too long to be able to accept Matthew Perry as a different person but hey, time will ease these confusions. *

Okay - the fact that I'm writing about this clearly means I have just a little too much time on my hands this morning but under the theory that if we only posted to the blog when something big is happening we'll hardly ever post I'm going to prattle on a bit more.

Opening scene has the director of studio 60 doing a Network rant - interrupting a comedy sketch ala Saturday Night Live that was set in the Oval Office - ummmm, any references to West Wing here? Any rants a certain producer who was fired for caring too much about scripts and writing might have wanted to get off his chest? Poooleease - setting this rant with the white house oval office as the backdrop was just a little bit obvious – and amusing.


*speaking of crossing TV worlds, the good guy Secret Service head dude on WW played a corrupted evil congress person on Gena Davis's Presidential show and that was just wrong.