Almost an Episcopalian

Sixth Monday after Pentecost

Let me first note that the Comment that came as "unknown" on the last blog was by Glenn Pomykal. The omission of his name was due to a technical difficulty. I'll respond to Glenn's comment, as usual, on Friday.

Monday is Faith Journey Narrative day. We left off last Monday with my meeting Marianne in August, 1981. My flirtation with the Episcopal Church began in 1979 with my going to the Vaughn-Williams Mass at Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill. I told the story in an earlier blog. In short, I thought I was going to a performance of this musical work. It turned out to be an actual Mass, the celebration of the full service of the Eucharist. It was an unexpected profoundly religious experience for me. 

After I moved to Tennessee Wesleyan, I had a couple of other Episcopal experiences. I was there in Athens, Tennessee on Christmas Eve, 1980. I attended the Christmas Eve Midnight Eucharist at St. Paul's Episcopal in Athens. I was struck by the beauty of the liturgy. I was also very slightly unnerved by how the Episcopalians seemed to always know what page of the Book of Common Prayer they should be turned to, even though I couldn't discern the pattern, and how they always knew when to sit, when to stand, and when to kneel. Having these three different postures instead of two, having a Book of Common Prayer or two in every pew rack, having parts of the service sung in English plainsong (akin to chant), seeing some people bowing to the cross or genuflecting when they came up for communion, tasting real wine from a common cup at communion--all these experiences were immensely appealing to me. 

In the spring of 1981, I went with a couple of friends and one student to attend a Sunday morning service at All Saints Chapel at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, which is an Episcopal University about 90 miles from Athens, Tennessee. The service was more high church than St. Paul's. It even had incense. I was also taken by the beauty of the campus at Sewannee, perched on the top of Monteagle Mountain.

It was all so different from the supply preaching I was doing most Sundays in small, country Methodist Churches all over East Tennessee. No liturgy, no vestments in these churches. I remember one church where at the beginning of the service the acolyte came in without a torch. I soon found out why. He walked up to the altar and flipped a switch to turn on the electric candles. I was high church and they were low church.

In August of that year I met Marianne, who was an Episcopalian. On those Sundays when I wasn't supply preaching I attended her church, The Church of the Resurrection, in Lenoir City, Tennessee. The Church was small but new and beautiful in a lovely wooded setting. Within a couple of months I found myself teaching Sunday School there on the Sundays that I wasn't supply preaching somewhere else (it seems that any church I attend, I soon start teaching Sunday School). I got to know and love the people there and got to be with Marianne. In December of 1982 we were married there.

I began to think about becoming an Episcopal priest. It would not be a simple transfer like a church member of one denomination moving to membership in another. Through the priest at Resurrection, Father Pete Minton, I got an appointment to see the Canon of the Ordinary ("Ordinary" in this instance refers to "Ordination"). I began the process of Postulancy, which would eventually lead to ordination in the Episcopal Church. With all of my previous theological education, the process was pretty easy for me--except for one thing. There were 14 steps for the Postulant. I did the first 12. The 13th would be a problem. It was to spend at least one year in an Episcopal Seminary. Most people training for the Episcopal priesthood go to an Episcopal Seminary for the standard three years. It was possible, however, to go to a non-Episcopal Seminary or Divinity School for two years and then do the final year at an Episcopal Seminary. I had already done three years of Divinity School and much, much more (seven years working on the Ph.D). I could not financially afford to take a year off from work.

There was one way out. And the possibility for it soon arose. The Canon of the Ordinary arranged a meeting for me to meet with the Bishop of the East Tennessee Diocese to discuss it. Our meeting went great. The possibility might be opening up. The Bishop would support me and ordain me, if I could complete those last two steps. 

I'll finish the story in next Monday's blog.

Faithfully,

Christian