We went to church this morning at the Anglican church near us. It is a liturgical church and, thus, familiar to us as Lutherans (one still is, the other former). The vicar for the day was a visitor. The regular vicar was attending the ordination and installation of the new Bishop of Waiupu, and the regular vicar, himself, will be "collated" (a word unknown to me) as the new archdeacon of Central Otago.
There was quite a mix of participants in conducting the service, men and women alike. I appreciate the Episcopal and Anglican churches, and some Lutheran synods or conventions, for including women in their highest offices. I am "there" in my faith development - genderless, raceless, as I see in my mind Christ's inclusion of all. To not do so, it seems to me, to speaks to law rather than grace. I accept the grace and live in it. (Thank you, Lord. It has been a long time coming.)
The Vicar's Warden gave the teaching. He spoke about how we make clichés of what we know about the Bible, making little sound bites of things we humanly understand, and miss the whole point. For example, he said that many cannot accept that Jesus was fully human and fully divine - we want to see him only as divine, because that is easier to process. I didn't take notes, so I'm sure I missed much of it all ... I think I got the gist of it all - God is bigger than we can grasp. Embrace the mystery.
As in any talk like this, though, I'm sure each of us comes away with something different because we interpret what we hear through our own personal lens.
I don't understand all the ranks in the Anglican and Episcopal churches, so I can't pretend to know what the roles of each office are. I do know that attending this church will remain a highlight for me. It is always memorable for me to worship with strangers who are Christians. It reminds me that the God I know has many sheep and that we are all ultimately in the same fold.
After church, we decided to drive toward Haast and see how far we could get, knowing Lauren is operating with an energy deficit. We got about half way and stopped for lunch before we turned back. We saw luscious grazing land with sheep (lots of them, some already displaying their spring shoring), lots of little lambs, cattle, calves, horses and foals. We saw beautiful lake scenes, snowcapped mountains towering around us, rolling hills, interesting rock formations, and rock slides on the road. We thought of the American plains, the English moors, the Canadian and American Rockies, the streams and waterfalls of the Pagosa Springs Colorado area. We thought of the green and rolling countryside of Germany, of Bavaria. New Zealand is breathtakingly beautiful.
When we came back to our condo, we learned that our 250mg of free broadband had come to an end. I didn't think my 50mg of Google+ photos would have done that (besides, that had been from my cell phone, not my tablet), nor our email or my blogging. Lauren asked if his Candy Crush could have done it. That was probably it. Candy Crush and Bubble Witch will drain my battery in short order. I'm sure it gobbles up broadband just as greedily. So we dithered around trying to figure out how to buy more. Didn't have much success with that, so we drove downtown and parked in front of New World (grocery) and I tried from there. I had discovered while Lauren was shopping that New World has "blazing" internet for its customers. But, alas, no success. So we came home, vowing to see our rental agent in the morning and beg for another freebie. But I decided to try one more time at home. I picked up my tablet and swiped the WiFi connection, touched "Heritage Village," waited for the sign in prompt, and there it was! Buy "Instant Access." So I bought 5gig for a reasonable price. It will last us "til we leave, with probably some left over. We are happy.
Lauren was 2-0 in cribbage night before, but if I remember correctly, it was 3-0 in my favor last night - the extra point for me because I skunked him. Not a usual occurrence.
I am currently enjoying a " Caucasian," as Den used to call it (confusing "concoction" with a similar-sounding word), of green tea, instant coffee, a bit of BeneFiber, and protein milk. Quite delicious. I will do this again.
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