Unexpected Connection

First of all, I want to comment that any pastor who does not visit people in their homes really misses the story. People tend to be connected in one way or another. Either they are relatives, went to the same school, belong to the same organization, volunteer at the same place, like the same people, eat at the same places, or whatever. The stories and the connections are endless.

Today I visited Helen. She is clearly a spunky and independent lady in her late eighties, and like so many of them, is a widow. She does seem to be well cared for since she has a son who lives in the back apartment, so she has no need for senior housing.

She had heard where I live, in the development on the hill south of town. It was once her family farm many years ago. They owned one hundred eighty two acres on this corner of the road. Of course, even the road probably wasn't here when she was a child. I live on the back pasture. The pond is not far from my house. Of course, now it is a well-manicured residential area with homes of every kind, duplexes, condominiums, ranches, very fine fancy homes. But as far as Helen is concerned, it was once her pasture.

It was an unexpected connection that I have with Helen. But I suppose we are all connected in surprising ways. Just beneath the surface is a place, or a person, or a thing, or an idea that links us all together as human beings.

Only a couple of degrees of separation.

End of an Era

Information came via email today about registering for the closing, dissolving, final gathering of the NCNY Annual Conference to which I am affiliated. While I do not have a strong and close relationship with "my conference" at this point, I certainly do feel some sadness at its demise. It is, after all, where I got my start in the ministry. It is the "authorizing body" that "called me", encouraged me, interviewed me, ordained me. It is the organizational structure which I have served for a lot of years. It is a group of people with whom I worked and shared common interests and relationships.

The reason for the demise has to do with dissolving four previously existing units into one larger unit, (the Upper New York Conference), which supposedly will be more effective, have more power, etc. I do hope that the vision of creating this "new thing" lives up to the hype. For some of us, especially those of us who are retired, it is a significant loss. What was once "home" will no longer exist. We will melt into the background of oblivion and irrelevance. Perhaps that is to be expected.

It sort of reminds me of my "first retirement" after working for Cornell University for many years. I "retired" from there to go into the ministry. The old Roberts Hall building was being demolished and a new Roberts Hall building was being built. It seemed somewhat fitting that my "retirement" coincided with that change of buildings and re-orientation of the college quad. My Cornell years were associated with the old Roberts Hall.

I guess it is no different with the NCNY conference. My ministry years will be associated with that, rather than with the new structure.

Perhaps that is exactly as it is should be. (Still, it feels a little sad.)

Bach

In a phone conversation on Friday, a parishioner asked me if I was going to the "St. Matthew's Passion". I honestly did not know what that was, but quickly determined that it was musical. Ordinarily, I am a great appreciator of all things musical. She said it was a huge community event. I guess I assumed that meant all the church choirs would be participating.

Actually, it was nothing like I expected, but was a performance of Bach's entire Passion Concert. There was a part one in the afternoon which lasted over an hour and a half. (we did not go to that part). Part two in the evening lasted for two hours. There were printed programs with great detail, but the concert was two thirds through the performance before I found my place and could follow along (didn't realize the program also had part one in it). The "play book" used by many of the musicians was at least two inches thick.

I say this at the risk of sounding uncultured, un-musical, uneducated---I discovered from the experience that I do not like the music of Bach at all! I am not a fan of opera, and much of the singing, though extremely well performed, was opera-like. But the two choirs and two orchestras were most impressive. The musicians tended to be from the "professional" ranks. I think I am glad for the experience of hearing Bach's musical version of the passion narrative. But it is not an experience I would want to repeat!

Perhaps the best part was seeing a couple of 'old familiar faces'. In fact, out of all those hundreds of faces, those two faces were sitting side by side in choir two, though they did not know each other. We went to speak to them afterwards just to say hello. One had worked for Gerry back in his Engineering College days. The other had been my District Superintended when I first went into the ministry. Isn't that amazing? Now that I write about it, I realize just how amazing it is.

Bach----not to my taste. Old familiar faces---priceless!

An Early Spring

Really, one does not expect 81 degrees on April 2! Yet that is what we get today, which means, of course, hitting the tennis courts. We played yesterday at the college, but the college teams arrived to take over the courts at 4:00 p.m, so we will have to figure out a way to work it into our day at an earlier time. I much prefer playing at the high school, and am hoping that maybe they are closed today, so we can have it all to ourselves. The high school is up, way up, on the top of the hill, which makes for spectacular views looking out across the hills and valleys.

This is a small city. Downtown has some city feel to it, but is small enough of a city to have a town kind of feeling to it. I understand that tonight there is to be a city-wide musical event for Good Friday at the church across the street, which has the right kind of space for all the musicians, plus orchestra. We will go.

It is a beautiful, sunny day, a really "good Friday". I made Gerry an apple pie for his birthday, which doesn't happen until next week, but I wanted him to enjoy it all week, with other surprises on his actual birthday, which is a whole family event.

It is especially nice to have a spring like weekend for Easter.

We will remember---He is Risen indeed!