Until We Meet Again
January 29, 2009
Terri and Troy offered some closing reflections to the class on Friday January 23rd before they returned to New York on Sunday.
Terri – I was sitting here thinking about this week and this classroom environment. And how we all came in with our different roles. I started to realize that over 5 days, and I don’t know how it happened, we became each other. All week at some point, we all were a seminarian, we all were a priest,we all were a student, we all were a professor, we all were a native to this place, we all were a foreigner and we all were a son returning home… And it made me realize that this goes along with my theme of life- that with or without our determination, flowers grow in any environment. I was doodling a minute ago during class – and I drew a flower to start with. Normally we think of flowers growing from the ground to the sun with water falling on us. But on my picture, I drew a flower growing out of the sun, with the grass above us and the water protecting us. But the flower was still there, still growing. I don’t know how to fully express how grateful, how I’m gonna miss you, how I hope to come back one day – how to convince you this is true.
So what I’m gonna do, which is hardly what I ever do - I never sing in front of people because I‘ve gotten to a point in this phase in my life that it’s a private language between me and God. Cause sometimes when I don’t know what to say – I can sing.
I’m gonna sing a prayer for you, for me, for everybody that I was actually singing for myself yesterday. I’m gonna ask Margarette to read it in French and then I’ll sing it in English.
May his peace be with you – til we meet again.
May his peace be with you – til we meet again.
Til we reach that distant shore,
and we shed a tear no more,
may he give you strength to endure
Til we meet again.
Troy: I wanted to say a couple of things to you beginning with some of the things I’ve experienced here with you that I take back with me. First, the spirit in this room as we’ve been here this week. Beginning on the very first morning. I got to tell my call to one of the priests and got to hear such a moving story of his own call as well. This was such an incredible gift to me. Second, a sense of your connection to many other places. In 4 days of worship that I’ve been with you this week – we’ve had Eucharist in English, Spanish and French. And morning prayer in French. We were just saying this morning we should take this model into our chapel and worship in other languages. Because this is sign that the body of Christ is always much bigger than the group of people in the room. Third, I thought about how what we’ve been learning this week connects to the work I do in teaching worship. We begin by understanding the context in which we work. Much in the way that Prof. Taussig is peeling back the layers of Mark’s context in our Bible study this week. We bring that context together with a sense of presence that Dr. Cole is talking about. In doing so, it’s something of a dance between form and freedom. It’s like jazz. The melody is always there – just like the prayer book, but doing it each time is new in a particular context. It requires us all to be fully present in the moment like each of you have been this week. You have brought that kind of awareness to know when to sing and when to pray. Whether we gather with the prayer book in worship or somebody’s home, this attention to the moment is essential. Thank you so much for a chance to be with you to pray, to share, to study, and to begin what I hope is a longer and even deeper conversation.
