Notre Dame, Paris!
I got an unexpected sidetrip into the city for a few hours. Not a bad way to spend a bit of extra time in France.
(uploaded from the phone… free McDonalds wifi… probably the first time in 5years I have voluntarily gone to McDonalds)
I’m sitting in the International Departures area of YVR. Would you believe that there are no televisions showing the World Cup here? What is up with that?! On the plus side, YVR has free wireless Internet so I am “doing homework”. Which means I am sitting here, looking at the giant aquarium of fishes and sea anemones, with my computer open, alternating between educational tasks and pure time wasters. All going well, I should be done next weeks discussion work before I land in Paris in 12 hours time. Before then, I’ll have touched down in Calgary (apparently Air Transat flies “direct” to Paris from Vancouver… via Calgary. I guess WestJet is not the only airline that offers direct flights that stop in Calgary. On the plus side, I’ll probably unlock a new travel badge on the recently joined foursquare (if you’re on foursquare, add me, I have no friends!). So, till France, A bientot.
A short update on the life and times of myself. I’m in the last few frantic hours of getting everything ready to depart. As I type, the last load of laundry is washing, tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s lunch and dinner is on the stove, and I’m working on the last minute assignment things to get as much done as possible before leaving.
Tomorrow I’ll take the ferry over to Vancouver to stay the night before flying out just after noon on Thursday. We’re down to about 40 hours on the countdown!
After a day of listening and learning, sharing and discussing change and church and all the variations found therein, I came back to St David of Wales tonight to take part in the for the Eucharist for Haiti. In the minutes leading up to the service, I found some wifi and checked in on the happenings of school and facebook friends, and then began to read through some of the blogs on my rss feed. Mike, who I’ve now met in person at the Brian McLaren conference a of couple weeks ago though I’ve followed his blog for about a year, had posted this today. I was immediately struck by its application to our setting and the discussions that had been going on and are continuing to go on throughout the conference here.
“Incremental change is usually limited in scope and is often reversible. If the change does not work out, we can always return to the old way. Incremental change usually does not disrupt our past patterns–it is an extension of the past. Most important, during incremental change, we feel we are in control…
Deep change differs from incremental change in that it requires new ways of thinking and behaving. It is change that is major in scope, discontinuous with the past, and generally irreversible. The deep change effort distorts existing patterns of action and involves taking risks. Deep change means surrendering control.”
Robert E. Quinn, Deep Change (p. 3)
That being said, something one of the people who shared yesterday, Dwight Friesen (lectures at Mars Hill Divinity School in Seattle) also grabbed me: “People don’t fear change, we love change! People fear loss.”
Either way, the consensus seems to be that we need to take risks. Try something new – sometimes it will work, sometimes it won’t. Either way, you won’t know until you’ve tried.
Vespers
Yesterday was the opening afternoon/evening of Episcopal Village West in Portland. There are 5 of us from Canada down here, 4 from Victoria and 1 from Vancouver. It has been interesting to hear from our brothers and sisters in the US about what they are experiencing and to see the similarities and differences in our situations. We have a lot to learn from and share with each other.
Follow the conversation here.
I’m heading down to Portland tomorrow to take part in Episcopal Village West Mission Event. There are at least 4 of us from the Diocese of BC heading down and it promises to be a great weekend! More to come.
The BP oil spill if it were where you live:
If it Was My Home is a simple but effective concept. Enter your location, and the oil spill is overlayed on top. Just saying. Check your location out…
I’m going to be fairly out and about all over the place for the month of June. So you can keep track of me (and I can keep track of myself):
Sunday, June 6 – Nanaimo for a meeting of the Myanmar delegation. You can become a fan of our Facebook page here.
Wednesday, June 9 – Saturday, June 12 – Portland, OR for Episcopal Village West Mission Event.
Thursday, June 17 – Friday, June 25 – France! Yes, that is correct, I am going to France. Friends own a sailing barge which they are looking to sell (anyone want a boat in the South of France?!?) and I’m going to hang out for a week. I bought a relatively inexpensive ticket on Tuesday and I leave in less than 2 weeks. Crazy, eh?!
Friday, July 2 – Sunday, July 4 – Prince George for my high school reunion and visiting friends I haven’t seen in ages. I’ll be at my old church on Sunday and hope to catch up with some of you then!
My head is still spinning from this past weekend [possibly also spinning because I had a paper due hours after the conference ended and I’ve been going non-stop on writing since then…]. It is a blur of good times with good friends, late night conversations, stimulating presentations at the conference, uplifting music, new friends, inspiring discussions, new connections, and so much more. I hope that the discussions that began during the conference will continue now that the excitement and immediacy of the event has died down.
While there was nothing newly revolutionary to my thought processes, the challenge of safe space was renewed for me. As Brian said, “Create a safe space to learn and grown and suddenly it is safe for others to join because they are joining a conversation not a denomination.” This is what we were trying to accomplish with our Modern Retelling of the Stations of the Cross over this past Lent. It is the hope of our monthly Theology Pub events. It is my approach to church as well. I love the denomination that I currently go to – I grew up in the Anglican church and returned to it three years ago. However, I’m not going to introduce a friend to the Anglican Church. I am going to introduce them to Jesus and where they go from there is up to them. Yes, filling up emptying pews is a good thing… for our financial overhead… but it isn’t my primary motivation. I would much rather people join into the conversation than get involved in an institution.
The other thing Brian said that stood out to me was,
Liberating people from what keeps them apart from relationship with God and others.
I feel like this is what what my job is [going to be] as a counsellor. It is what I want my job description to be as a counsellor: Creating safe spaces for people to discover who they really are and grow in their relationships.
For full, comprehensive notes, check out the blog of a priest in the diocese who attended. He’s summarized things far better than I can/will:
Also, I read a story about Steve Bell, who did the music for the conference as well as a concert on the last night. Not only do I think what Steve did absolutely wonderful, I am proud of whoever at the Cathedral relaxed enough to let the shopping cart come in.
gillian's island 