let us commence

Yesterday was a bittersweet day for Park Street Church. Our associate minister, Daniel Harrell, has been called to serve as the head pastor at a church in Edina, MN. This Sunday he gave his farewell address, speaking at all four services. It was a highly emotional day for everyone, especially since Daniel has been on the ministry team at Park Street for 23 years! This is what they printed in the bulletin about him:

Gratitude for 23 years:
Farewell to Daniel Harrell, Associate Minister

Growing up in North Carolina, Daniel began his ministry in Young Life and InterVarsity. While an editorial cartoonist in college, he majored in psychology and religion (UNC Chapel Hill, 1983). He honed his ministry manifesto “to have fun” at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1988), and twenty-four years ago this June, he joined Park Street’s staff as youth minister. Since then, he’s earned a PhD in psychology (Boston College, 1993), taught as an adjunct professor (GCTS, Fuller, Gordon, BU), written a book on the compatibility of faith and evolution (Nature’s Witness: How Evolution Can Inspire Faith, 2008) and on the 2008 Leviticus Project (How to Be Perfect, 2010), been minister of education, minister of outreach & urban ministry, and interim senior minister. In 1993, he led a team to launch the current Sunday Night format. The PowerPoint clipart, PSC logo, special Sunday Night services, Holy Week liturgies, and Thursday Night Homeless Outreach are all the work of Daniel’s hands. Daniel, his wife, Dawn, and his daughter, Violet, leave us now to start a new chapter of life and ministry in Edina, MN, where Daniel has been called to serve as senior minister of Colonial Church. Please keep the Harrell family in your prayers and take a few moments to say goodbye in the Welcome Center following the service today.

I took my opportunity after the service to shake Daniel's hand and assure him that he would do just fine in the Midwest, that his preaching style and his heart would be warmly welcomed by his new church. He was visibly relieved to hear such a report from someone who calls that region of the country home.

The day had a ceremonial feel to it, like a graduation. This effect was heightened for me because one of the hymns selected for the morning services was "For All the Saints," which is the song USF uses for the processional at commencement, and which I have played probably hundreds of times. By now one would think I'd be completely sick of the piece, and that might be true were I asked to play it again as a processional, but actually singing the words was a new experience for me, and thankfully we only sang it once. As an archivist I have a deep love for tradition, and hearing the familiar tune, I couldn't help but sing louder, as if I were on the stage at the Washington Pavilion, watching the graduates file past the faculty on the stage, sharing one last hug or handshake (wow, I'm really sentimental today, or possibly just missing the community of the USF faculty). I am probably the only member of the congregation who had such a visceral reaction to the hymn, but it just felt right for the day.

Daniel moving on from Park Street is a commencement of sorts. He is closing one chapter of his life (though another member of the ministerial staff reminded him he would always be one of use, echoing the words of Aslan: "once a Park Streeter, always a Park Streeter" [this will apply to me soon to, as I have decided to officially join the church this summer and will be attending new member classes in May and June!]) to begin another in a new place.

So many people in my life are experiencing a commencement, a new beginning, of one sort or another. My friend Brittany got married this weekend, and several other friends have weddings in the works. Many of my grad school friends are graduating and moving out in the next couple weeks. Dianna is headed to Japan to teach English literature at a university for the next two years, and she's leaving shortly after her own graduation, in only a matter or weeks. Other friends are soon to have their first child. It boggles the mind.

Today I finished two of my three final assignments of my graduate career. My Master's gown and hood have already been purchased and are hanging on the back of my dorm room door. I'm beginning to pack up boxes of books and clothes to ship home, move across town to my summer residence, or simply get rid of. And since services yesterday "For All the Saints" has been playing in my head nonstop, in spite of the peppy showtunes I tried to drown it out with.

Commencement is coming.

The grad school chapter of my life is almost at an end, and the next is about to begin. I don't know what this coming chapter will be titled, or what the setting will be beyond this calendar year. Beyond summer work and an international internship in the fall, I don't know what the setting or the content will be. But I know it will be great.

I say, bring it on.

Let us commence.

-Kim