Dr. David Smith, parishioners, and other guest authors write periodically in this space.
Contact Dr. Smith at dsmith@chathamhall.org. To receive Daily Musings by email, enter your email address in the box provided below on the right.
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For parents, worrying about the health and welfare of their children is a lifelong obsession. Reaching adulthood is merely the end of one phase in the relationship and the beginning of another more complicated one.
Consider some of these parenting lessons:
- a parishioner
"So often we wait for
the climate and conditions in life to be perfect before we
feel safe enough to step forward, trust, and be our
authentic selves. What we don't realize is that in
order to create the ideal climate we are waiting for, we must
be authentic first."
— Sonia
Choquette, spiritual teacher and author
Upon our return from the recent Chatham Hall service trip to South Africa, someone asked me if I would ever go back. My answer was swift and certain - Yes, yes and more yes!
The people on the African continent are joyful, remarkably optimistic, and spiritually vital despite the political, economic, military and cultural uncertainty that seems to be everywhere.
Christianity is growing faster throughout Africa than any other place in the world. Unlike churches throughout Europe that, for the most part, are empty on Sunday mornings, churches in Africa must have multiple services each week to accommodate the crowds.
Even the little Anglican Church in Touwsriver, South Africa (a small town 3 hours west of Capetown) has two services each Sunday morning so everyone can attend.
Chatham Hall students visiting a small apostolic church in Touwsriver, South Africa during their Spring 2009 Service Trip
I’m not sure why the church is growing so fast in
Africa. I wish I did. But if I had to guess I’d say it has
something to do with how much sense Jesus’ words make to them.
All this makes sense to people who have known little else since the middle of the 17th century; and all this makes sense to people with a seemingly bottomless well of smiling, authentic good will.
The message of God’s love for them is not one of which they must be convinced. It is part of their genetic code, and worship for them is as natural as breathing.
The churches do not have fancy programs or grand facilities. However, the people have hearts and souls in which God has taken up permanent residence and they love to let it show.
- David
Smith
(Dr. Smith was one of six Chatham Hall faculty members accompanying this year’s Chatham Hall students on their March service trip to South Africa.)
Our adult children came home to visit over the Easter weekend. It always amazes me how different the house feels when they are home. The house literally shrinks in size and yet seems more alive than before.
Part of that difference comes because we re-center our days and our lives on them when they are with us. Our own concerns become secondary. What can we do for them? To make their visit more pleasant so that they will want to come again?
Are we welcoming the visitors in our midst? What can we do to make their day better?
Mary was right – the joy is in the moment. [1]
- a parishioner
A refreshing op/ed piece in today's Wall Street Journal by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge of the Economist highlights a number of statistics which should buoy the spirits of all Christians during this Easter season.
God is alive and at work in the world!
- a parishioner
Last week's final episode of Battlestar Galactica surprised many of its fans when the surviving remnants of humanity chose a new beginning instead of a continuation of their prior lives. Fewer than 40,000 humans had escaped the devastation of their home world only to be chased across the galaxy by the Cylons, robotic creatures of their own making.
Finally reaching a new Earth (or Earth like planet), the survivors determine literally to start over by abandoning all of their remaining creature comforts, technology and space ships in favor of blending into the local hunter-gather humanoid population in hopes of avoiding a repeat of their culture's past mistakes.
Easter represents our new beginning as we turn from the past and take a different direction with Christ into the future. Lent is that period of transition when we come to terms with our past and prepare ourselves for the future - seeking a new beginning, mindful of our past, and hoping that we can, with God's help, avoiding making the same mistakes all over again.
- a parishioner
I recently hit one of those birthdays ending with a zero. It’s one of those milestones that cause you to pause and think about what you want to do with the rest of your life – with two-thirds down and one-third to go (I hope).
Commiserating recently with a friend on this subject, my friend responded,
“You know, it’s not about how old you are; it’s about how much time you have left. And none of us know that for sure.”
What's really important to you?
What are you trying to accomplish?
What can you contribute?
It’s time to stop thinking and start doing!
- a parishioner
The recent wave of hand wringing about declining investment portfolios represents a serious financial crisis for many people – dashed hopes for family needs, education, or a comfortable retirement. And yet we are truly blessed in this country compared with most of the world’s people.
I am reminded of two stories. A wealthy man had died and his family gathered in the office of the man’s accountant and executor for the reading of the will. A chorus of anxious inquiries ensued: “What did he leave?” What did he leave?” To which the accountant replied, “All of it.”
Another man on his deathbed cajoled his wife into promising him that she would place all of his money in his casket so that he could take it with him. Just before the funeral, his wife wrote out a check for the full amount of the man’s net worth and placed it in the casket.
We are only custodians of the possessions of this life and we have an obligation to devote some portion of them to help those less fortunate.
– a parishioner
With the Ash Wednesday liturgy, we begin the season of Lent.
It is a period of sober reflection, of repentance or turning away from patterns and actions that separate us from God, and of taking on disciplines that renew our spirits in preparation for Easter. This liturgy originates with the practice of the early church of excommunicating those whose serious and notorious sins caused great scandal. These individuals would be reinstated at the Easter vigil following a period of penitence, including fasting and wearing sack cloth and ashes.
Lent first began on the Monday following the first Sunday in Lent, but it was moved back to Wednesday sometime in the sixth century so that the season would have forty weekdays. By the ninth century, this beginning to Lent became known as Ash Wednesday, and over time the discipline of public confession and wearing of ashes was extended to all Christians.
The focus of Ash Wednesday is on penitence, or sorrow for sin, and fasting: the imposition of ashes is the physical embodiment of these themes, a reminder that we are mortal and that we receive eternal life as a free gift of God.
At the appropriate time in the service, you will be asked to come forward, and either stand or kneel. When the priest makes the sign of the cross with ashes on your forehead, he will say: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Though none of us likes to think about our own death or the death of those we love, we are, none the less, faced with the reality of our mortality. If our faith is to have any meaning it is crucial that it can encompass even suffering and death and enable us to go through the passage to eternal life.
Although on Ash Wednesday we are thinking about our mortality, we are also offering grateful thanks to God for our salvation in Jesus Christ.
- David Smith
Last weekend, I had the privilege of serving as the Presiding Bishop’s chaplain during the consecration of Bishop Hollerith and the follow on meeting of Diocesan Annual Council.
Council was fairly routine and non-controversial. We conducted the regular annual business of the diocese without much difficulty or fanfare.
The consecration of Bishop Hollerith, on the other hand, was momentous and awe inspiring. Approximately 30 of the Episcopal Church’s 150 bishops participated in the service conducted by the Most Reverend Katherine Jefferts Schori, our Presiding Bishop.
In this context, the chaplain is basically the Presiding Bishop’s personal aide seeing to her needs and following or standing behind her constantly throughout the proceedings.
These long hours of standing were greatly rewarded, however, with the occasional opportunity to talk with the Presiding Bishop on a variety of subjects as well as to listen to her thoughtful and straightforward responses to a variety of questions posed by individual bishops, clergy and laity.
I found Bishop Jefferts Schori to be:
In every interaction, she focused completely on the person with whom she was speaking – always listening and never hurrying – until the person had finished.
Whether you agree or disagree with her on particular matters of policy or theology, the Presiding Bishop is clearly our chief pastor and priest – and the right person at the right time in our life together in the Church.
- David Smith
