FINITO!

Finito! Finished! Klaar! Kaput!

Yes, you heard it! I'm done! Final paper turned in, thesis printed and approved, house for rent, bills paid... now all that is left is graduation.

Finished!
I can't wait to be home, but i don't want to leave.
Bitter-sweet is life.

big names

One of the cool things about studying here is that Columbia has some rather big names. Today I got the chance to interact with two of the biggest - Brian Wren and Walter Brueggemann.

First off, Brian Wren is retiring, and today he preached his last sermon in chapel. He had a stroke last year, and that has forced him to take things slowly. The sermon was pretty much on death, but said far more beautifully and eloquently than i will ever manage. For Brian, God has not chosen to give him the gift of certainty and full assurance about life (and death). Some people he knows are so certain of their faith. But, if God had gifted him in that way, then the only hymn he would ever be able to write is
"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
Oh what a foretaste of glory divine."
before he would have to shut the book and put down his pen. However, without this faith, his gift is to question, and think, and search, and lament. He has this become one of the most published and prolific of modern hymn writers, with his work published in hymnals all over the world. It was a moving, honest and hopeful sermon, and i saw him at coffee hour and thanked him for it. He also made an interesting remark about resurrection. Whatever the next world is to be, it won't be full of 'individualistic North Americans walking in the heavenly mall looking for fashion accessories.' He is who he is because of so many people, and in the resurrected life people will be just as intertwined and connected as they are today. I like that!

Community Softball and picnic on the seminary fields

I saw Walter Brueggemann (or 'Wally' as some students affectionately call him) at the community softball game last week, and asked him if i could come by and chat. He agreed, and today i popped into his office armed with a bunch of questions. I can't remember all that i asked, or all that he answered. A lot of it was over my head, and with no shared stories it felt a bit like an interview. Anyway, I liked what i understood, and think it will be a good idea to read some of his 55 books (correction: the count is up to 80 books now!), especially considering he is widely regarded as the foremost Old Testament theologian in the world! His name is more widely known than Columbia TS itself.

So, what did he say?
I asked him about where he sees the church going, and, after saying it's direction has to change, he directed me to his latest book on the contemporary church. A burning question of mine was how (and why) he reads the Bible. Social-historical criticism reading of the Bible has made it very tasteless for me, to the point that i hardly read anymore. Walter rather uses rhetorical criticism, and situates the text in our experiences. The really neat switch is that he sees God as a developing character in the text. When i brought up the problem of violence in the Old Testament, his reply is that God is a 'recovering violent-person' (as in 'recovering alcoholic.') This means that God did sanction violence in the past, but is 'recovering' and becoming more fully God. The 'fully-God' characteristics are the words we often see in the Bible such as mercy, steadfast love, grace etc. Those then are the attributes we are to try live into too, as we (also characters in the story) become more fully human. As to why he reads the Bible? It is the only text of its kind that explicitly speaks of the Divine. And it is our text. Finally, to answer 'What is the point of this all?' he used a Jewish phrase and says we are to 'mend the world'. Hooray for old, clever professors!

You're invited!

This time it is for real! I handed in the FINAL DRAFT of my thesis on Friday! There were times when i didn't think it was possible, but, 70 pages later, it's done. Woohoo! If all else goes according to plan (i.e. it passes), I should be out of here with a Masters in a month's time. It feels strange to be leaving so soon, and i'm really not looking forward to the goodbyes. For now i still have two classes to do some work for, but most things are beginning to wind down as the academic year comes to an end and everyone disappears for the summer. Unless of course you are me, and happen to be disappearing for another winter! that is three winters in a row. Somebody please get me some sunshine here! ;)
So... I have 15 invites, and no-one to give them to! Anyone happen to be flying through Atl you are welcome to join the seminary party ;) (Justin is the only SA friend nearby and his employers won't let him off work)

Richmond VA

This weekend is the long awaited 'inter-seminary ultimate frisbee tournament'. At times it has also been known by the title 'The Calvin Bowl'. There will be four or five Presby seminaries meeting at Union PCSE in Richmond for this monumental encounter. CTS hopes to overthrow Princeton Seminary, the current champions. Maybe my loosing streak (0 and 12 last time i checked) will stop, and we will be victorious. Update to follow on Sunday!

Here's a great apt quote that i quite enjoy:

"We used to say that Frisbee is really a religion-'Frisbeeterians,' we'd call ourselves. When we die, we don't go to purgatory, we just land up on the roof and lie there."

Ed Headrick, inventor of the Frisbee

justice in the making

My theories of justice class has been going really well. Stimulating readings, and great discussion. We started class yesterday with this poem from Judy Chicago. We were talking about tradition, gender and religion as sources for theorising about justice. Marcia's term is 'leaning into justice' - it is a place we will never really arrive at, but we need to lean into it without quick reconciliation that hurries over the many differences and injustices. The poem has Isaiah-type languages, and is filled with seemingly irreconcilable opposites.

“Untitled Poem from ‘The Dinner Party’”
Judy Chicago

And then all that has divided us will merge
And then compassion will be wedded to power
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind
And then both men and women will be gentle
And then both women and men will be strong
And then no person will be subject to another’s will
And then all will be rich and free and varied
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many
And then all will share equally in the Earth’s abundance
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old
And then all will nourish the young
And then all will cherish life’s creatures
And then all will live in harmony with each other and the Earth
And then everywhere will be called Eden once again

As reprinted in Cries of the Spirit edited by Marilyn Sewell
Beacon Press (1991)

home or away?

I guess with all this travelling, home just gets bigger and bigger. I have a sticker from 'Keath your Handyman - helping you love your home' on my laptop that says "If you lived in your heart, you'd be home by now". Rather profound for something i picked up in a coffee store. It is true i suppose.

I need to recant some of my words earlier when i said that i wasn't looking forward to going back to Atlanta. I was paradoxically heartbroken to leave SA (home?), but also excited about coming back (home?) to Decatur. Now I'm back and it is good to be back. South Africa is still home, but there are some habits, places and people that are beginning to feel homely here. It was neat to see all my friends on campus and greet them again. Student life activities are up and running. Junk food abounds, and the frisbee scene is still light years ahead of SA! Classes have started and there is also the minor item of a thesis to address. Before i know it, it will be May and this will all be over.

My classes this semester should be great:

• P652 The Theatre in the Text
  Using plays, films, homiletical writings, and theatre texts, students focus on the book of Exodus, considering the performative arts as resources for preaching in the postmodern world.

• HD671 Theories of Justice and Social Policy
  Analyzes theories of justice and their implications for social policy regarding such issues as affirmative action, AIDS and drug testing, healthcare, and welfare reform.

indiana et al

A quick update:
Class: My liturgical theology class with Martha Moore-Keish is going really well - interesting readings, ideas and students. I realised i'm more liturgical than i thought!
Health:Elizabeth and I went to see Justin 'Dr Ducky' 'Smokin'-hot-husband' Glass last night for a check up. He is the husband of a fellow student, and says to visit him if we aren't feeling well. He said i must have had a double viral throat infection but that it was on its way out. So - it wasn't anything to be worried about, and i'm almost back to 100%!
Indiana: I'm going with Chris up to Bloomington, Indiana after class today to Kathy's lakehouse. We are going to meet some fellow students there (David, Bryan, Kathy, Maggie, Bekah and Amy) and have a relaxing Martin Luther King Jnr weekend by the lake. Should be good.
NM diaries: #2 and 3 (the monk and the conference) still to come - watch this space...

friends

Maggie Leonard is a good friend of mine, who just so happens to have been giving me serious uphill about who and what I blog about. So, to appease her anger, and rescue our friendship, this post will have absolutely NO mention of Ultimate Frisbee, Frisbees, Flying discs, Atlanta Flying Disc Club, Jo'burg Ultimate or anything associated with that sport. The frisbee one. A sport she rather enjoys actually!
To show where my allegiance lies, and that i actually have a life and friends and stuff, this post will also have NO mention of 'silly Christmas lights in bottles', artistic flair, ambient lighting, photographs, the decor of my room etc. No mention whatsoever. Not even a little description of how the lights make cool shadows on the wall next to my bed, or give the room a pretty glow, or bring a smile to my heart when i turn them on. Not even a tiny footnote mention.
Instead - I will fill this post with recollections of the wonderful Christmas banquet we had at CTS on Friday, the game of Battleships at Thinking Man's afterwards, and the plans to go booty dancing this Friday. So, now that the ground rules have been set, here is the post:

Maggie Leonard is a wonderful person, who has a mom and a dad, and a brother and a sister. They all lived in Wilmington. Now she lives here. She is very good at putting petrol in her car, and drives around Atlanta in the 3am traffic very well. She was at this banquet on Friday. So was I, and all the CTS students, because it was the CTS Christmas banquet. There was dancing - mainly with Kendall (my date for the evening), and Maggie danced too. There were no frisbee games or cool christmas lights at the dance though. I'm sure of that. Afterward many students went to Thinking Man's tavern and drank Miller lite, and i played Battleships with Cathy (who i learnt actually prefers the name Catherine) and we beat Kendall and Kathy (another one). Then i spoke some to Csaba from Hungary, to Kyle (from California and Florida) and then I went home. To my room with a frisbee on the wall, and these cool light installations in a bottle that i can't mention. Oh, and we made plans to go dancing on Friday - not clubbing though, only booty dancing - it's different. The only similarity is that there are no frisbees involved. Though there may be christmas lights this time of year, and there certainly are bottles.

All in all, it was great fun, and neat to see everyone dressed up. And dancing and eating and being merry. So, this proves that i have a life and friends and do blog about things other than frisbee and lights. Tadaah!

(oh yes, for pics of the banquet, go here. Taken by resident photo champ Adam again.)

the thesis

Friday was the deadline for the thesis proposals to be in. I was almost swayed by Barry at the last minute to change the theologians - with good arguments - but chose to stick with my original focus. Here then is my Thesis title and statement:

Toward a new South African ecclesiology:
conversations with Moltmann and Berger.

In the changing and increasingly secular South African society, historically white mainline churches need to ask the question “how can we ‘be’ church in the new South Africa?” Within the wider mainline theological tradition, Jurgen Moltmann’s challenging rethinking of ecclesiology and Peter Berger’s secularisation thesis provide interesting conversation partners for sketching this new contextual ecclesiology.

You can read the two paragraph description and motivation over here. Any comments? Now to actually get it written. Next deadline is 4th Friday in January - finish all the reading.

men are back

This weekend's Men in Ministry manly mountain retreat was great! There was food, football, poker, hiking, sunsets, mountains, cigars, afternoon siestas, laughs, beer, friends and rest. I'm sure there were some other things that I've forgotten too. I learnt Texas hold'em poker, walked in a forest and built friendships. For some reason my nickname is now 'Happy'. I guess it's better than Nancy, Slappy or Squeaks. All in all, a wonderful break. Now back to the grind...

The last men standing:
Adam/nancy, G/happy, Keith/squeaks, James/tina, Jeff/slappy & Tom/moose.

Adam took some great pictures of the weekend, to see the album, click here. Look out for my poker skill picture, huge burgers, and a great sunset.
While you are there, you may want to actually explore his blog pomomusings - it is rather well known, especially in the emerging church/alt worship circles, and makes for good reading. He said there have been some South African hits on his site already. For even more reading, other bloggers on campus are his wife Sarah, and my friend Whitney. All worthwhile! Meet my friends!

boundary leadership

Here are some great quotes from the book Boundary Leadership by Gunderson that I had to read for Men in Ministry class on Thursday:

• becoming who you are is less like performing others tricks, and more like waking up
  
• all brokenness is connected
• discrimination is real, race is not (!!)
• 90% of everything is showing up
• boundary zones create leaders who are able to risk asking open-ended questions of the whole system, and then are able to imagine responses that are consistent with those answers
• who are these people drawn to where the future can be envisioned?

It was a neat little book, challenging me to unorthodox, non-conformist boundary leadership. His descriptions of 'boundary leaders' reminded me of people I've met in South Africa - special people doing faithful and innovative things. Hopefully I can hang around similar folks here and learn from them.

break the silence

Tomorrow is World Aids Day, but this post isn't about AIDS just yet
This silence is due to the fact that tomorrow is also Thesis Proposal Deadline Day - so that has been keeping me rather busy this last week. It is almost finished, so watch this space, I'll post it up soon. For now, to fill in the week's silence, here are some updates:
Thanksgiving was great - it was neat to get away from the seminary for a bit and just relax in Huntsville. I ate turkey, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie with baby marshmallows on top, cranberry sauce and a whole bunch more things that i can't remember. Thanksgiving is about eating! ... and shopping evidently! I went at FIVE in the morning on Friday to the Mall for the black Friday shopping experience. Crazy! I made sure to visit the Space and Rocket Centre, watch a Huntsville Havoc ice hockey game, and even eat barbecue, fried squash and turnip greens at a very Southern restaurant - with a live gospel/barber shop quartet! Fun times! Thank you to the Rasses.
Tuesday was one of my best days here yet, mainly because i went for lunch with one of my professors - David Bartlett. We went to the Brickstore Pub and had a sarmie and a beer. It was great to sit down and hear his story, and to share mine. I need to do more lunches like that! It was very inspiring and energising. I had a meeting with my advisor and managed to fine-tune my proposal, did some work in the library, and finished the day off by jumping on Anna Carter Florence's trampoline at night. What a wonderful day!
This weekend I'm off on my Men in Ministry Man Mountain retreat at at a retreat centre in the North Georgia mountains. Apparently there are bears there, but i'm sure confronting elephants and lions daily in Africa has prepared me well for these cute furry animals. Famous last words? We will have to see.
I have also signed up for a conference over New Years with Richard Rohr in Albuquerque. I'm still waiting to hear from the monks about my new Mexico monastery visit hopes.

scheduling

Prompted by a question from Julie two weeks ago about my schedule, here is a break down of my weekly life at CTS:

Monday: 1-2:30 Jesus&NT; 3-4:30 Preaching Paul; 4:30-5:30 Disc Golf!! Tuesday: No class. sleep late, read, fiddle around on the pc; 9:30-late Brickstore Pub with friends... Wednesday: 1-2:30 Jesus&NT; 3-4:30 Preaching Paul; 4:30-6 Ultimate!! Thursday: 1-4 Men in Ministry (movies, food, chats etc! great); 4-6 American Football (the touch version mom) Friday: 11-1 Research Seminar; 4-6 Theology discussion/Wiffle Ball Saturday: Fall League Ultimate - 40 minute cycle, takes up most of the day; College Football on TV. Sunday: Church hopping and lunch

There is also Chapel each week day at 10, but i haven't seemed to get there in time for that ;) I will try better this week. Evenings often get filled up with stuff, and in between the classes there is alot of reading to do. All in all, a great time!

So, With the time change last week, i am now 7 hours behind SA. If you can't seem to ever find me on Skype or MSN, check the schedule - maybe I'm in class.

Male Spirituality

Classes are going along very well. There is a whole bunch more reading here than at Tuks, and if I don't keep up with the work each day, then it gets too overwhelming. I mentioned the course i'm doing on Men in Ministry (all the lady students are jealous), here is the great reading list:

• Confessions - Augustine
• From Wild Man to Wise Man - Rohr and Martos
• The Moviegoer - Walker Percy
• The River Why - Duncan
• Boundary Leaders - Gunderson
• Redeeming Men - Boyd and et. al.
• Calling and Character - Willimon
• Brother to a Dragonfly - Campbell
• The Spirituality of Men - Culbertson
• Jayber Crow - Wendell Berry
• Wherever you go, there you are - Jon Kabat-Zinn

I had a paper due yesterday entitled 'Man Enough? What it meant to be a man.' It was okay. Tomorrow I'm playing Ultimate for the fall league team i'm on (no name for us yet). Some seminary folks are coming over to the house to watch college football as well. Sunday I'm going church hopping. Elizabeth and I may try the Society of Friends (Quakers) and see what they do.

Here are some hot quotes that I read last night in The Spirituality of Men. For some reason they appeal to me.

Discernment is a way of life. To live a discerned life is a commitment to a way of being. It is to stand before God and other persons somehow holding what I value most from what I have learned from life in such a firm and gentle grasp that it does its work for me; yet I can let it go to be fashioned further. Discernment is not something to be turned on and off- to be pulled out at decision time and then filed away again. Commitment to discernment is fidelity to a way of life in which I sift through the movements I feel within myself. Through this process I gradually experience a congruity which I recognise.

Rosemary Roner, Discernment.

There is a truth within the self which yearns to be known, and the expression of this truth makes a person exist, be real, in her own eyes, ultimately in the eyes of others. The collective wisdom of [hu]mankind holds a deep and abiding belief in the idea that there is, within each person, some substantive truth waiting to be known, waiting to be expressed. When psychologists speak about someone as having an 'authentic personality,' they mean that the individual has managed to express what is genuine, truthful and real about himself to others.

Marsha Sinetar, Ordinary People as Monks and Mystics

Lecture Time

Here are the three classes i'm signed up for this semester at Columbia:

• I620 Narrative, Self, and Other: Men in Ministry
  Explores the relationship between physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being in men and the ways in which men care for themselves, even as they care for others. Focuses on personal theological narrative, spirituality, ethics, systems theory, and pastoral care, as well as readings, film, and fiction. Participants engage in the construction of a religious autobiography and attend an overnight mountain retreat.
• I602 Preaching the Pauline Epistles
  Explores Paul`s theology of preaching and seeks to help students develop skills for preaching from the Pauline epistles. In addition to exegeting Pauline texts, students will preach two sermons in class.
• I630 - Jesus, Christology and the New Testament
  This course will look at a variety of Christological claims and narratives in the New Testament and at interpretations of these claims by several contemporary theologians.

I have class on Monday 1-4:30, Wed 1-4:30, Thurs 1-4 and a Thesis writing seminar thing on Friday mornings. The next trick is to wake up early (something i struggle with) and go to the campus to get work done. Like today. So i'm going!

My first class (for real now)

Today classes officially started! We had the 187th Convocation (opening service thingy) of Columbia TS with pomp, ceremony, academic dress and a nice meal. All the new students were introduced to the rest of the school and then we got down to work.

I have the BEST CLASS EVER! it is called Men in Ministry and we met today. There are 15 guys and a great prof. I have a paper to write for next week on "Real men! What it means to be male". We will look at spiritual, physical, emotional aspects of manhood through film, fiction and setwork books. We have snacks in class and end with a 2 day mountain RETREAT in Decmember!

I need to embellish a bit more, but just to say for now that i am thankful for this class, it will be very helpful for me personally, and working in a church where the mojority of people will be female.

I also played touch American Football, and mowed the lawn.

First Day at School

So, today was my first day at school and my caring, maternal housemates Sarah and Elizabeth took me to school. They even made me a poster. Here is me at our house, and then on Campus. Thanks E&S, i felt very safe going to school.

There were no lectures, but orientation for the international students. I already feel rather oriented, but it was nice to meet everyone. We have (from r to l): Rohilio (25 from Panama), Me, Kamau (Kenya), Shirley (UK), Grace (and Li-Hyuck, South Korea), Csaba (30? Hungary) and Claudia (Mexico). It is a nice group and i've enjoyed hearing their stories. I'ma bit tired of having to retell mine, but everyone is new.

As for real class, that comes later - we have more orientation on Tues and Wed, and classes finally on Thurs. Then i start to work.