Quiet Day

Today is Quiet Day on the VTS campus. Nobody is speaking from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

As I wander around the campus prayerfully, I'm also revisiting things I've written in the past. Here are two poems I wrote many years ago that speak to me today.

August 26, 1996

How do I focus on you, Lord?
How do I drop the statistics and snippets of songs,
Regretted past actions and various wrongs
And point my face upward to you?

Right now, I feel only like kneeling.
But if I look down, I’ll see footprints to follow,
Reminding me that my intentions are hollow,
Well-thought, but devoid of you.
After all, you see through.

But if I raise my face to the overcast sky
And await your grace, I’ll just wish I could cry
For my frivolous habits and self-centered goals,
And I’ll doubt once again in refillable holes.
I’ll retreat to routine and accomplish so little!
Only you know how I can get.
I’ll look up and feel further regret.

So all that remains is inside.
Whether it’s strict meditation (no hope of success)
Or more rumination (redundant, I guess),
In myself I will find no peace.
I’m helpless, to say the least.
So focus me, Lord! Remind me whom I serve
And promise me more than I truly deserve.
You’ve done it before, as I’m finding.
Sometimes, I just need some reminding.

September 14, 1999

And God wove a melody line,
A simple, seven-note theme
Which He proceeded to sing
As He weeded His garden.

And Satan came along
And loused up the melody
And sang four clashing notes
And thus created dissonance.

And God said, “Hey!
That could really be beautiful.”
And He allowed the dissonance
And created resolution.

Greetings from the Hoslers ... an update

Dear friends at St. Thomas, and other friends and family as well:

A few days ago I received in the mail a copy of the St. Thomas Skagit Valley pilgrims’ stockholder report. I’ve been bursting with pride ever since; I’ve carried the report around with me to show to all my seminary friends, especially those who have been youth group leaders in the past. Not only was the booklet beautiful, but the words the pilgrims wrote leave me feeling great about Brian’s ministry among y’all at St. Thomas. (I’m in the South now, so I’m allowed to say “y’all.” Actually, that term comes in very handy when I’m trying to conjugate verbs in Hebrew.)

It seems like ages since we embarked on our 11-day road trip from Seattle. Most of the story is chronicled on my blog, http://episcopop.blogspot.com/, and I hope most of you will continue to follow the Hoslers’ adventures there.

Even before we left Seattle, I had begun to meet some of my classmates through Facebook. And my overall impression of them is that I am humbled by their accomplishments. From the young, dedicated political campaign worker, the evangelical missionary to Mongolia, the D.C. medical examiner, the Iraq War vet and army hospice chaplain, the outspoken priest from Liberia, and many others, I continue to hear stories that remind me that my own accomplishments, while not meager, are part of a much larger tapestry of Christian witness and sacrifice.

We are getting settled. Sarah is in first grade now, and she enjoys spending time with the children of some of my classmates, especially 8-year-old Neeley, 7-year-old Brynn, and 5-year-old twins Robert and Jacob, whom she calls “the boys.” VTS works very hard to support families, and we families work hard to support each other. Those of us in the Braddock Lee Apartments make up the critical mass, along with a bunch of couples without children. We’re a mere 16-minute walk from campus, which makes for good morning and afternoon exercise.

In addition to my classes, I am working on campus ten hours per week on a Lilly-funded project for the seminary: an extensive study that follows clergy from a number of denominations in their first few years out of seminary, especially tracking whether they took part in a transition-into-ministry program of some sort and trying to assess how successful these programs are. So far most of my efforts have gone into forcing spreadsheets to submit to my will, something I enjoy doing very much. I may also become part of the process of coding some of the qualitative data we collect.

While Christy has enjoyed her several months of unemployment, she’s ready to get back to work too. Christy will begin a job at the Cokesbury book store on campus this Monday. She believes (and I concur) that it will help her become more enmeshed in the seminary community on her own terms, rather than as my appendage. Plus, we’ll get to eat lunch together sometimes!

I love the rhythm of my day and of my week. Now that school has started for Sarah, we get her up at 6:00 a.m. so she can eat and catch the bus on time. Most of her seminary friends wait at the same bus stop. After she gets on the bus, I walk to campus and spend twenty minutes in prayer in a small oratory in the academic building. Depending on my day, I may attend Morning Prayer after that, or I may work or study and attend Noon Eucharist instead. I am taking Hebrew, Church History, and Introduction to the Theology and Practice of Ministry, and I am also in the seminary choir. So far, this is enough; I fended off several people’s invitations to run for elected student office.

We have visited a different church nearly every week since June, but for two weeks in a row we attended Eucharist at Church of the Holy Cross in Dunn Loring, home parish of the Hoskins family, formerly of St. Thomas! Christy and Sarah may decide to settle there; they have a children’s choir and Godly Play, both great attractions. As for me, I am scouting out potential field education sites, so this Sunday I plan to take the Metro to some church or other. We sold our second car when we moved here, but I imagine we’ll have to get another one somehow when I do Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) next summer and begin field education in the fall.

For my Theology and Practice of Ministry class (TPM), I am doing some volunteer work with a hospice called Capital Caring. Visiting people in the final stages of life is a really is a new field for me. It requires a real “ministry of presence”: not worrying about what to say or what to do, but simply to be there. It’s teaching me that there is real value in listening more and speaking less. I’m also learning a lot about the fact that “being brought up short” is the way we learn just about everything in life.

We miss you all so much. How I wish we could have been in attendance at the Skagit pilgrimage dinner! But we are where we need to be right now, “being brought up short,” learning, and growing.

In Christ,

Josh Hosler

Some thoughts on science and religion

The conflict between science and religion, in a nutshell:

1)      Historical facts happened.

2)      A profound reality resulted.

3)      The historical facts were forgotten.

4)      Over time, the people realized that the profound reality was even more profound than they had realized.

5)      Profound realities can only be understood through stories.

6)      The historical facts were no longer available to the storytellers.

7)      Over time, new stories developed to help people understand the old, profound realities, which are themselves far more important than the historical facts.

8)      The new stories gradually became old stories.

9)      Because the stories continued to help people understand the profound realities, the stories became sacred and indispensable.

10)  Some important historical facts were recovered, and others were understood for the first time. They didn’t match the sacred stories.

11)  Some people concluded that since the sacred stories didn’t match the historical facts, the sacred stories must be worthless.

12)  Other people concluded that since the historical facts didn’t illuminate the profound reality in a way they could recognize, the historical facts must be incorrect.

13)  Most people forgot that neither the historical facts nor the sacred stories are as important as the profound realities, which arose from mostly forgotten historical facts, but which can be best understood through the sacred stories.

Comments?

Lunch with Old Friends

When we first began looking at seminaries, we thought we knew nobody in the D.C. area. As our decision-making process continued, however, we discovered more and more connections around here, so that by the time we were ready to go, we knew there were a number of friends waiting for us out here. Chief among them are the Hoskinses, a family who were also part of St. Thomas in our time there.

We visited their church this weekend and went out to lunch afterward. In all the rush of getting settled in a new place and meeting many, many new people, it's great to find very familiar faces and talk about old times.

First Day of School!

It's the first day of school! Well, I'm just transitioning from August term to fall semester, but it's Sarah's first day of first grade. So we got our picture taken together!

Between Terms

Our August term ended on Thursday, just before Labor Day weekend. On Friday eight other new students and I participated in a training to become hospice volunteers for a place called Capital Caring. But first came our August term finals in Greek and Hebrew (I'm studying Hebrew after having taken some Greek at Seattle University). In addition, the international students, working to overcome a language barrier as they have come to study with us, were preparing a final paper for their August term.

To help relieve the stress of getting ready for these finals, our three groups got together one morning last week to serenade each other in the rotunda of the academic building. Pictured are the Greek students singing to us; you can hear their song here.

We Hebrew students listened from below. We also had our turn, and we sang two songs: "Shalom Chaverim" and "Kol HaN'shamah." I think we should call our singing group Hag'Goyim [The Gentiles]!

The international students also sang us a song.

The fall semester begins tomorrow morning ... and so does Sarah's first day of first grade! Here are the texts I'm studying up on tonight. Not everyone out there might want to tackle Hebrew, but I do highly recommend Diarmaid McCullouch's Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. Its scope looks daunting, but it's a very enjoyable read.

Stormy Weather

Hurricane Irene swept through Alexandria Saturday night and Sunday morning. We were prepared for the worst; thankfully, it only felt to us like a severe Seattle windstorm (plus lots more rain). A few trees around the apartments and on campus came down, but there was no severe damage. And we only lost power for about five hours. After the storm, a few of us wandered over to campus to play frisbee and hang out a bit. The kids decided to build a fort out of storm debris.

On Sunday evening, Christy, Sarah and I attended church at St. Paul’s in Alexandria (having missed church in the morning due to the hurricane). St. Paul’s is a beautiful old church, complete with those weird box pews that people used to pay for, plus a balcony all across the top for the regular rabble like us. Luckily, they don’t do it that way anymore, so we got to sit in a box. It was a tiny congregation that day; we may visit again on a Sunday morning when we can expect to encounter a lot more people.

After that we returned to the apartments for an impromptu cookout with our friends. The kids built another storm debris fort! Too bad I didn’t get a picture of that one, because it was much more impressive than the first.

Then Monday came, and I launched into my final week of August term classes. I’m getting much faster at pronouncing and translating Hebrew sentences; our first quiz will be this Thursday. In our writing workshop, I’ve been writing a précis to an academic paper, identifying the problem and thesis, and crafting a response to the paper. Also, I’m interviewing for several on-campus jobs.

Monday evening, we saw some St. Thomas folks! Cecilia and Renee Buss were visiting relatives in McLean, only about 20 minutes from here. We had dinner, and to my surprise, two of the guests at the party are future priests as well: Laura Cochran, who is a senior at VTS this year; and Elyse Gustafson, whom I’ve already connected with on Facebook through a common friend, Mike Demmon. To add another layer, Elyse’s home diocese is Chicago, where the former St. Thomas rector, Jeff Lee, is now the bishop! It’s a small church after all.

But the event that really solidified the evening as a memorable occasion came just as we were walking out the door: Sarah’s second tooth popped out! Yes, changes happen fast around here.

Christy poses at Episcopal High School's
Ummel Bowl ... er, Hummel Bowl.

Sunday was Christy’s and my 12^th anniversary, and today is Christy’s birthday. Sarah will get to play with a friend tonight while Christy and I finally get out to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2.

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

I’ve missed some photo opportunities of late, not least of which was the sight of my class crouching under our desks during yesterday’s 5.8-magnitude earthquake! No harm done, apparently, except to the National Cathedral, where we had just been to church on Sunday.

While my writing workshop class waited out the shaking and then calmly evacuated, Christy and Sarah were at home. Over lunch they’d been putting up with the noise and rumble of workers remodeling the apartment above us. That’s when the quake began.

CHRISTY: Are those the workers upstairs, or is that an earthquake?

SARAH: Well, it had better be an earthquake, because if it isn’t, I don’t think they know what they’re doing!

On top of all that, they say Hurricane Irene will slam into Virginia this weekend. I’ve never been in a hurricane before, nor do I have any idea what to expect this far inland. Sunday is Christy’s and my twelfth anniversary, so I sincerely hope it won’t disrupt our date night!

In other news, Sarah wanted to be sure I shared with all of you that her first grown-up tooth is coming in, and the tooth next to it is wigglier than ever.

Last Saturday we visited the Washington Monument (which, contrary to early quake reports from FOX News, is not leaning). We went with a large group from the seminary, including the families of the two girls closest to Sarah’s age. The three have them have been hanging out a lot.

On Sunday night the seminarians in our apartment complex had a cookout. We had brought our hammock all the way from Seattle, and now I’m glad we did: it was a hit with the kids! Midway through the party, out came a cake celebrating Christy's upcoming birthday (and other August birthday people who happened to be present as well).

I have registered for fall classes, which begin after Labor Day. I will be taking:

‎

1) Hebrew (continuing from August term)
2) Church History
3) Theology & Practice of Ministry (including a volunteer component at a hospice - 1st quarter only)
4) Seminary Choir (for fun!)
5) Old Testament (begins 2nd quarter)

6) Revisioning Parish Ministry (basically, introduction to next year’s Field Education)

Christy is busily job-hunting and hoping for the best. And Sarah is spending her mornings this week at a Star Wars-themed art camp! I haven’t been able to pull much information out of her yet about what must be sheer awesomeness, but I’ll keep you posted.

Catching up on life in VA

I can’t believe a week and a half has slipped by since my last update. In that time I’ve been through orientation and begun classes, and we’ve also had some great fun along the way as a family.

A week ago Sunday was Sarah’s sixth birthday. We had already been invited to a party at the home of a returning student who allowed us to include our own special occasion in the proceedings.

Then began a week in which we all met many, many more people. My class (“juniors” in seminary lingo) consists of 45 M.Div. students and a bunch of MA and other types of students besides. Apparently, it’s a larger class than they were expecting. I’m working hard to memorize names of students, spouses, children, faculty, staff, etc. I spent Wednesday through Friday of that week in a variety of orientation sessions.

This past Sunday, we took a bus and a train into D.C. and visited the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Sarah even got to ride the merry-go-round on the Mall.

During the August term, most of us juniors are taking two main courses: a language in the morning (Hebrew in my case) and a writing workshop in the afternoon. I felt a little overwhelmed by Hebrew at first, but now that I’m getting the alphabet down, I anticipate that it will get easier.

The aim of the writing workshop is to get us all writing in many different styles: formal and informal, devotional, academic, homiletic, etc. Christy has been hired as an editor for this class; she will coach a number of my classmates on their writing as the term goes on.

At this point, we are two days into both of these classes; today we will break from our regular classes to take the required workshop for preventing sexual misconduct in church settings.

Yesterday afternoon, a friendly soccer game took place on campus, and both Sarah and I played, along with some really amazing players and a couple players even younger than Sarah.

In this time, we’ve visited two churches: Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill and St. Luke’s, both in Alexandria. Sarah participated in a Vacation Bible Camp at St. Luke’s called Island Odyssey and had great fun. We’re also slowly unpacking our apartment; we’ve reached the phase where most of the boxed-up things are at least in our closets, out of sight.

Sometimes I still feel a little like my family has come with me to a long retreat or something, and that one day it’ll be time to pack up and go home again. I’m sure this feeling will fade in the coming weeks. We really are having a fabulous time and are making good friends.

Internet service is back ...

... so no more having to go to campus or to Starbucks to post something. We're getting settled into our new place. We went for a major Target run yesterday and bought a small computer desk, a TV stand, and a TV! We had been using the 1982 TV Christy inherited from her grandmother. But it wasn't a "boat anchor" -- it still worked fine -- and I'm not accustomed to ditching things that still work. However, it was so huge and unwieldy it almost would have been more expensive to move it than to buy a new one. So we did: our first flatscreen.

At the time I bought my laptop for school, the Microsoft Store threw in a free Xbox 360! Now that we have a new TV, we can actually use it. It will be a challenge to monitor Sarah's time on it, of course ... or perhaps we have found more incentive for her to behave well.

Our living space is small, but we have quite a bit of storage, so things are working out well. Here are a few shots of the apartment in its current, still-cluttered-with-boxes state.

Christy and Sarah playing Xbox 360

Sarah's room is huge; no more storing toys in the family room!

Henry adjusting to his new life

The bathroom (not much to say about it)

Someday we'll start unpacking all the books in our bedroom.

The kitchen is small but totally functional; we are storing dishes all over the apartment, though!

It's a living room, office, and dining room all in one!