Saturday in the Second Week of Lent


120 Minutes (more or less)...from 8:00 - 8:45 a.m.....and from 9:30 - 10:45 a.m. The two regular Sunday liturgies are the weekly times when most of the parish is gathered in one place. The major differences between the two liturgies are:


1. Attendance (the 8:00 a.m. has fewer people in the pews).

2. Music is a significant aspect of the second liturgy.


The allottment of time for the sermon is the same at both services -- somewhere between 12 and 15 minutes. Another 4 -6 minutes may be used for information purposes during the portion of the liturgy known as "announcements". What will I do with all of that time??? (Facetiously speaking of course!)


I could use some of it to highlight the happenings in the Episcopal Church this week. A cursory reading of some of the various media outlets around the Episcopal Church revealed that:


1. One seminary (Seabury-Western) will suspend the offering of a three year, residential M.Div. degree with the graduation of its current group of seniors. A second seminary, Bexley Hall, will cease its residential M.Div. program in its Rochester, NY location (Bexley Hall will continue to offer a resdential M.Div. at its Columbus, Ohio location -- at Trinity Lutheran Seminary). Both seminaries in their press releases noted the expense of the residential seminary model, the changing methodologies of priestly formation in the church and the demographic realities of today's "typical" seminarian as factors in their decisions. Currently less than one-half of those ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church attend a three year residential program.


2. The Consortium of the Endowed Episcopal Parishes met earlier this week in St. Louis, Missouri. Only 112 parishes nationwide are members of this organization. Trinity, Wauwatotsa meets one of the standards of membership in this organization by virtue of the value of its endowment. The Presiding Bishop was the keynote speaker at this gathering...addressing the group on issues of mission, cooperative relationships with other parts of the Anglican Communion and the progress being made toward fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG's). She also announced a summit on domestic poverty that she will host in Scottsdale, AZ in May.


3. The ongoing difficulties in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion show little sign of abating as preparations are being made for the Lambeth Conference -- the once-a-decade meeting of Anglican bishops from all over the world in London later this year.



I could reflect on a few world events -- a new nation (Kosovo), the end of an era in Cuba, a military incursion by Turkey into Iraq where the U.S. is still an occupying force, and a change in ruling parties in Pakistan.


Or maybe I could throw caution to the wind and talk politics (probably not!)...Here in Wisconsin, Obama and McCain were the big winners in our presidential primary earlier this week.


With just those few things swirling in my head, the Revised Common Lectionary gives me some chunks of Scripture to contend with. Actually, I've been living with and listening to these readings for the better part of two weeks now. (I hope tomorrow's homily will give evidence to that contending!)


Tomorrow morning a few scores of people will opt to use an alarm clock on a weekend morning, leave their coffee and unread Sunday papers, perhaps wrestle with their kids and hurry out the door to come to worship at Trinity Church. This action puts them in the minority of the American population. I wonder what they would like to receive in exchange for their investment of time and energy?


Would they prefer worship to explicitly engage the issues that occupy the world that they live in the rest of the week? Or do they need worship to be a time of respite and quiet in the midst of the life they're living? I can't pretend to know. But I'm glad they make the sacrifice of time and energy to show up.



Now it's time for me to make some final decisions about my few minutes of air time!