Et in Arcadia ego

This morning, at the age of 21, I found my first grey hair. My life is over. Memento mori, y'all.

Resurrexit

TRM is back and taking a new, friendlier direction. Stay tuned!

Strange moments from "Clergy in Motion"

In the words of Kelly: "What the hell?"

I've seen some strange notices in the diocesan Clergy in Motion. There was the notice that one rector had been "deprived of his licence to function as a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada" - shortly after the secular press reported that his church had burned down. But this one takes the cake:

"Deaconess Gail Marshall will be recognized as a Deacon at a service of reaffirmation on March 22 at 4 pm at St Matthew, Islington, Toronto."

Pardon? We have deaconesses? In 2009? I thought all that had been done in back in the day. Didn't the Lambeth Conference affirm that deaconesses were to be reckoned as ordained deacons? Heck, I even knew one priest who was "set apart" as a deaconess in the Church of England and then priested in the Diocese of Montréal purely on the strength of the previous rite's being analogous to diaconal ordination.

Weird.

Update: A resolution to this effect passed in the House of Bishops in October of 1971. So why is this "service of reaffirmation" happening more than 35 years later? In any event, prayers for the imminently Rev. Ms Marshall on this new step in her vocation.

In which our heroine causes the Principal of Wycliffe College to squirm

Today I went to an open house at Wycliffe College. I went in without any real intention of applying; it was more an exercise in networking. My own parish priest was educated at Wycliffe but has warned me against it. As I spent the morning, I began to hear some good arguments for Wycliffe. Admittedly, in contrast to the genially bitchy atmosphere at Trinity, Wycliffe folk come off as rather boringly earnest. But there were good points, too - honest.

Anyway, the highlight for me came when we "broke out" into smaller programme-specific groups. The principal met with those of us planning to apply to the Master of Divinity. One of the questions I asked was about the college Statement of Moral Vision. I had read it, I said, and knew it was likely my family life would fall outside of what it envisions. Should I still consider Wycliffe? As an Aspie, it's hard for me to be subtle, but I was gooood. The whole conversation was so subtextual that at one point another young man interrupted and said: "Can I ask what we're talking about?" The principal graciously circumlocuted that the Statement covered a variety of issues including (his examples) the avoidance of plagiarism and the affirmation of "the Biblical view of marriage." The confused gentleman only became more confused: why on earth would anyone take issue with the Biblical view of marriage? (He clearly realized I wasn't an irredeemable plagiarist). The Principal avoided my question with a great deal of Anglican fudge about Wycliffe being what it is, and pointed to the presence of divorced students in the college. When I cornered him by asking, "So should I apply?" he looked rather crestfallen and said: "Come and talk to us."

So don't let anyone tell you that my sister got all the shit-disturbing genes.

Anyway, everyone at Wycliffe bent over backward to be nice. They've obviously got a great thing going and if I become confident that my presence there would not be stumbling block for anyone I'll be happy to apply. (That popping noise is the vein in Fr Aaron's head).

Lenten Levity

The irreverent story of how a Québec anthem became a disco hit. Full disclosure: I love both the original and the reworked versions.