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

what a crazy, random happenstance!

So, life has been pretty fun lately. On Thursday I met a group of sailors from Rio de Janiero, Brazil on the Freedom trail. They were in town for Sail Boston 2009, and on Saturday I got to see their ship, among others, docked here in Boston. They even let us come aboard and look around, which was pretty much amazing. Being on a full rigged ship with 31 sails was incredible, and perhaps even a chance for literary research. The ship is called the Cisne Branco, which translates to White Swan. And it is a beauty! Sadly, it's position at the dock made it such that I couldn't get the best angle for a photo of the whole ship, so the yellow-trimmed Romanian vessel will have to do for giving you the feel of a true tall ship. The tiny photo above is all I could get off the Sail Boston website.

Here I am at the bow of the Cisne Branco--an experience well worth the wait in line.


And this is the Mircea, of Romania. Not quite as long or impressive as the Cisne Branco, but the yellow trim gives it a lovely, fanciful quality.


But sailors and ships were not the only points of interest this weekend. On Friday, I met some folks on the Freedom Trail who worked for Greater Europe Missions and know my cousins, who are serving in Germany at the Black Forrest Academy, a school for children of missionaries. We had a great conversation about Peter and what a great job he's doing at the school. They even tried (jokingly, I think) to recruit me for the school once they found out I was at library school (and being a violinist impressed them too--apparently they're interested in multi-talented people). I enjoy getting to make a connection with random visitors, but this was definitely better than most conversations I've struck up.

On Sunday, Joni Earickson Tada spoke at Park Street Church. The building was packed, and her message about God's goodness was very well delivered. I especially liked the passage she chose to end with, which was from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She read us Mr. Beaver's description of Aslan, reminding us that while he is not safe in the least, God is still Good. And even though being a Christian will not keep us safe from broken necks or other pains and problems, God is good and will use those hurts for good. Gotta love a speaker who can tie in C.S. Lewis so splendidly, especially using his fiction and not his more direct theological thoughts. During the service I played second violin in a string quartet for the prelude and the offertory. After the service I was headed down the stairs by where Joni was waiting to pray with people, and she stopped me to thank me for playing. She thanked me! People do that from time to time, but it feels especially good to get a compliment like that from someone like Joni. It totally made my day.

-Kim

July 4, 2009, Boston

The Fourth of July came to Boston in spectacular fashion and made for an amazingly busy day. First, there was the Freedom Trail. In total, we got fewer people than the day before, but that was partly because we had to close early for a wedding. In the middle of the morning we had another fun event: a recreation of the first public singing of the song "America" (aka, My Country 'tis of Thee) on the steps of the church. It premiered there on July 4, 1831, sung by the children of the Park Street Church Sunday school (which, by the way, was one of the first in the nation and was begun to teach poor children who couldn't afford to go to school how to read a write). I took a bit of video, but conditions on the street were less than perfect, so I didn't record all 4 verses. Yes, there are 4 verses, not just the one that everyone knows.

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountainside
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,

Land of the noble free,

Thy name I love;

I love thy rocks and rills,

Thy woods and templed hills;

My heart with rapture thrills,

Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,

And ring from all the trees

Sweet freedom's song;

Let mortal tongues awake;

Let all that breathe partake;

Let rocks their silence break,

The sound prolong.

Our father's God to Thee,

Author of liberty,

To Thee we sing.

Long may our land be bright,

With freedom's holy light,

Protect us by Thy might,

Great God our King.

Also in the course of the morning, an honor guard came to the Granary Burial Ground to salute the patriots buried within with a musket salute and by playing Taps. Since we weren't busy at the time, I stood on the church steps to watch. A man who appeared to be homeless asked what was going on, and after I explained what I thought it was, he told me I was beautiful, then asked if I was Irish, because "the Irish are very beautiful people." So random. Since he left right afterward, I decided he wasn't creepy.

Once we got the church cleaned up for the wedding, I was off to see what else the city had to offer for the holiday. I snagged some more free stuff at Government Center and then hopped on the T to head out to a birthday party for Calvin Coolidge organized by a fellow Simmons student. After that I needed a nap in order to make it to the fireworks that night.

I went to the fireworks show with Christina and Jen, and we staked out a place on the Boston side of the river. The only problem with our spot was an awkwardly placed streetlight, which we didn't notice until it was too late, having arrived when it was still light out. Jen brought along a radio, and we listened to the live broadcast of the Boston Pops concert while we waited. And as the fireworks display itself was timed to music, the radio was necessary to enjoy the show to the full extent.

The fireworks are launched from a barge on the Charles River, and they make awesome reflections on the water. I'm so glad I saw it in person, though my mother assures me it was also impressive on TV. Below is a short clip of the fireworks finale for you to enjoy.

And the best part of this weekend? It's been raining for the past month, and long-range forecasts had been dismal for this weekend as well, but the weather was perfect! I would have been sorry to miss what is probably the only Fourth of July I'll get to spend in Boston for something as silly as a thunderstorm.

-Kim

Two shifts as a tour guide are now behind me. Friday wasn't too busy, and I was only there in the afternoon, but still got to talk to several people and answer questions. I even met a mother and daughter from Marshall, MN and got to connect about our Midwestern roots--the mom apparently attended SDSU.

On Saturday the highlight of my day didn't come from interacting directly with an individual but simply observing one. One of our visitors was cartoon mouse Speedy Gonzales in human form, right down to the hat. He mustache was even waxed to stick out to the sides, which completed the effect.

Another great part of Saturday was free ice cream on the Common, which I picked up during my lunch break. There was some sort of charity festival going on, and Ben & Jerry's was giving away free samples of their newest ice ream creation--Flipped Out ice cream bowls. After we closed up shop for the day I went to Haymarket (where I intended to buy vegetables, but the fruit was so much more appealing) with Esther, the tour guide team leader and PK. First, though, we had to stop at the parsonage, which I didn't realize was where we were headed until suddenly I was standing in Dr. Hugenberger's living room. Apparently the head pastor and his family are given an apartment at the top of 3 Park Street, one of the several connected buildings in the church complex.

I ended the night with some much needed relaxation, painting my nails green (a personal spring/summer tradition) and watching a favorite movie, Alex and Emma, which I finally realized is set in Boston. The location just didn't matter to me in any of my previous viewings, but now I recognize every place the characters visit on their day out--the Public Garden, a Duck Boat tour at the Museum of Science, and of course the T. Pair that with the fact that it's also a ridiculous comedy about the writing process, and it's a perfect good time for me.

On Sunday I had to be at church insanely early because I was playing the prelude for both morning services with three other string players. I really enjoyed getting to play in a group again, and can't wait until the next opportunity, even if it does mean getting up at 6am on a Sunday.

-Kim

training days

This week has been busy, to say the least. I spent the last three days training with the Park Street Church Freedom Trail tour guide team to prepare to meet the tourists today. Training was actually rather haphazard--our team leader spent the school year in France and is slowly adapting back to speaking English all the time and remembering how the trail worked last year.

Part of the training involved meeting with members of the ministerial staff to discuss how we should answer theological questions and what the church's official stance is on some sensitive issues. It's great to know that the ministers are so supportive of us, and they were constantly reminding us that not only is this a service job, it is community outreach and an opportunity for evangelism, with the right circumstances. I'm still rather nervous to begin, but I think I can handle it.

Also as part of our training, the team walked the Freedom Trail together. Well, most of it. We got the official, costumed guided tour from the visitor's center to Faniuel Hall, and then went on our own to Old North Church (we skipped the sites across the river because we were tired and hungry). The guide was entertaining, but we got to hear firsthand how little they actually say about the history of Park Street Church and the inaccuracies in the speech. It will be good to explain to visitors what it means to be a Congregational church and that the sails of Old Ironsides were not sewn in the church, but in the building previously on the spot, as well as just giving a more full picture of the broad history of the church and the many organizations it began.

The best part of the tour we took was visiting Old North Church. Our team leader was asking questions of one of the guides there, and when she told him who we were, he told us that our status as guides meant we got to have a "special tour." He immediately grabbed a key on a huge ring and led us to through a door in the entryway and up several flights of stairs. Our destination: the steeple. The first level up was a storage room, but then we entered a more attic-esque area of old wooden steps and dust. In all, we went up at least six full sets of twisty, wooden stairs, and numerous short turnings to move upward through the ever-narrowing space. Crys is afraid of heights, so she didn't make it all the way up, but the view from the top was amazing. I can see why this steeple was chosen to give the lantern signal over the river--you can see for miles, and in the days before skyscrapers, it would have been seen for miles as well. We didn't get to stay long, but I made sure to look down on the roof of David and Josiah's apartment below. If only I had brought my camera... (the plan had been to walk the trail on Thurs, but after looking at the weather Esther decided on Wed morning that we should do it that day instead) Old North was also a good stop just to hear how other sites do their tours. Their script is very short, so that gave us a sense of relief about how much we would have to memorize. And really, most of the time we will be answering questions rather than doing scripted tours, which should give us opportunity to remember all the different aspects of the history that might be forgotten in a single recitation.

I also got to poke around in the archive to set up the displays in the welcome center and sanctuary. The archive is rather small, since most of the materials are actually housed at the Congregational Library, around the corner. The archive is located in the basement of 3 Park Street, which used to be a commercial building. The basement has two bank vaults, one of which has been converted into the archive. I can't even describe how exciting it is to see a bank vault door on an archive. It's not locked (the door to the basement is instead), but that's beside the point.

This afternoon, after my shift at the library, I'll be headed back to church for the umpteenth time this week to finally start meeting the tourists. I'm still nervous, but also excited. I think this is going to be a good summer job for me.

-Kim

a weekend outdoors

This really deserves multiple posts, but I used up all my free time away from the computer, so every cool thing that happened this weekend will be thrown together in a single post.

Friday:

Simmons randomly decided we needed to have a cookout instead of running the dining hall as usual. The food was actually really good, which surprised us. The music, not so much. I guess it was supposed to be a fundraiser for a charity of some sort, but they were never very clear about it. There were a few bands, but the quality wasn't so good. I'm pretty sure the groups were chosen based on which Simmons girls with connections to the planning committee had boyfriends in bands rather than on appropriateness of music or actual skill level. Not that I'm complaining, but Parker House and Theory last week was much better. David and Josiah came over to share in the free food, and I got to show them around the res campus, which was rather fun. Even better, now my friends here know that they really do exist and are great fun to hang out with.

Saturday:

Simmons Cup field day. All year the dorms have been collecting points for various activities and competitions, and it culminated in a day of standard outdoor competitive events. Our hall made the best showing in dodgeball. This may have been because we had four guys on the team but the undergrads are pretty intense too. Of course, our boys may have gotten a bit rough. Chris had the most amazing hit of the game, which would have won it for us if it had just been a bit lower. Not only did he hit the girl in the face, the force of the blow caused the sort of reaction rarely seen outside of the movies. I hadn't realized that physics actually worked that way, but apparently Hollywood isn't making everything up. When the ball hit the girl in the face, she flew backward, almost gracefully, and her sunglasses arced through the air, landing several feet behind her. It was beautiful, and Chris will never live it down. Especially since I got such an amazing picture of him launching the fateful throw:

We ended up getting second place in dodgeball, mostly because the Dix team wouldn't come to the line of scrimmage and play fair. The other activities were a bit milder. I took a bullet for the team and did what tey called a pie eating contest, which was actually finding a piece of gum in a pie tin of whipped cream and blowing a bubble, all without the use of hands. There are no pictures, and I like it that way. The event I'm pretty certain we won (though they still haven't emailed the official results) was the judging of the t-shirts. I'm not just saying it because I was largely respondible for the design, but our shirts were definitely the best ones on the field that day. Several of the undergrads had sayings that were borderline offensive, which I know was taken into consideration. Here's the back of ours, with the front logo shadowed behind the text:


There was another cookout that night, but the food wasn't quite as good as Friday. Except the corn--the sweet corn was great.

Sunday:

Went to morning service at Park Street as usual, with the intention of walking back the long way to get my legs in shape for the charity walk next weekend. But then I found out that Keith and Kristyn Getty would be giving a worship concert in the evening. They are the amazing Irish couple behind the modern hymn movement, specifically the ever popular In Christ Alone.

So instead of walking home, I walked along the river instead, down the Charles River Esplanade, across the Harvard Bridge, along the other side of the river past MIT then back across to the Boston side. The river is gorgeous, and I intend to spend quite a bit of my free time there this summer.

The concert that evening was also amazing. The Gettys also have a band they bring with them, including an incredible fiddle player who's Canadian, not Irish, but must be from the Nova Scotia region by the way she plays.

Here's the man behind the words himself. When I told him I was from South Dakota, he told me the band once got stuck at Mount Rushmore for two days. I wish I could have gotten the whole story, since I'm sure it would have been great.

-Kim

Bicentennial and a beginning

This past Friday, February 27, 2009, Park Street Church celebrated it's bicentennial. There are guest speakers all year to commemorate the occasion, but Friday was the exact date. To celebrate, the entire church body (well, the majority of it, anyway) attended a Bicentennial Gala at the Westin Copley Place Hotel. I decided at the last minute that I should go too, and really try to become a part of this church I have been visiting for the past semester. Tickets were pricey, but there were also "scholarship seats" available, so I signed up for one last Sunday. While I was doing so, a woman asked me if I would like to join her table, and I readily agreed. Knowing at least one of the people I would be sitting with for the evening took a great load off my shoulders.

On Friday night, after having two of my neighbors help pick out my outfit (I still felt undersressed--some of the women were treating this like a night at the opera. I suppose it might be the biggest event of the year, but the weather was iffy, so I didn't want to be wearing a skirt.), I made my way down town to Copley Square. I ended up being very early (better than late, right?), so I got to watch as the lobby slowly filled. At first there were only a few older couples, but by the time they opened the doors to let us into the ballroom, there wasn't even room for the wait staff to walk through the crowd.

The decor was rather unusual, featuring apples. Here's an example:


Apples featured heavily in the table decor as well. I was the first in our group to find our table, so I got a good picture of it when it was still pristine:


Okay, so there's a funny story behind this next picture. The couple is Alecia, the woman who invited me, and her husband. Yes, that's his blackberry shining through his shirt pocket. The photo was actually taken by Katie, who was sitting on the other side of me, because she and Alecia found it hysterical. So why was it taken on my camera? Well, Katie's on a photo kick right now and has decided that she needs to take at least one photo every day. She had her camera with her that evening, but realized, to her dismay, that the memory card had been left at home in the computer. So I came to the rescue and offered my camera--it still counts as her picture since she took it. I just had to email it to both her and Alecia.


The dinner itself was amazingly good. I would list the menu, but then you'd all just be jealous. After dinner there was music from an ensemble of musicians from both the traditional and contemporary services. Here's a picture, which doesn't really show the musicians well, but it's another good look at the room:


After the music were several speakers. Also at this point was the Park Street trivia game. We all had questions at our tables about the church, and the answers were revealed at this point. For instance, did you know that over the last three years there were 35 babies born per year at PSC (I assume that's on average), or that the original Sunday Night music director used to play backup for Aerosmith? Or that the wife of PSC pastor Edward Beecher was indirectly responsible for the start of the Civil War (in writing to her sister, Harriet Beecher Stow and encouraging her to take up her pen)--this one is probably an exaggeration, but the historical connections to a church that's been so vibrant for so long are bound to stack up.

The more I learn about this church, the more it impresses me, and the more grateful I am to have found it right away (thanks to Dr. Hiigel and others who suggested I check it out). The senior pastor, Gordon Hugenberger is incredible. Here he is addressing us from the podium at the gala (yes, we really did need those video screens so people in the back knew what was giong on):
In all, it was a very good night. I actually got acquainted with the people at my table (and hope to continue the trend of defeating my shyness) and felt like I might actually be a part of this place now. Oh, and I bought a book on the historyof the church, hot off the presses for the occasion--and the author was there, so I even got it signed. I'm such a nerd...

The beginning alluded to in the title came this morning. I went to church early today to help with the great labeling project in the church library. Two weeks I started helping with the process, attaching barcodes to books. Today, though, there was a meeting between the library staff and some other church elders. They invited me to sit in, and now I seem to be deeply involved in the development of the library. There was a lot of talk about what direction the library should go in, and how we can better reach out to the congregation to help them find appropriate resources and how the needs of various ministries could be accomodated. It was a very interesting discussion, and I even had some input, sharing how valuable a good stock of pathfinders could be to helping fill some of those needs. The leaders were pleased with how the conversation went. Apparently now I'm an official library person with real input, more than just a volunteer. It's amazing what a semester of library school and one good catchphrase will do for a person's credibility! I know it's likely to make me even busier, but I'm excited to be involved in this. Plus, it will look great on my resume.

I made the decision this semester to actually become involved in the church I love attending. It seems I cannot inch my way in but must simply leap headfirst into the thick of it. After all, the metaphor isn't sinking into a hot tub where I'll simply soak in comfort, but diving into a pool where the race has already begun and I need to catch up.

-Kim

February weekend

So, yesterday was actually pretty fun. I managed to not think about what holiday it was for most of the day, which was a relief.

I was going to lock myself in my room and get some writing done, but that ended up not happening. At brunch I can into Christina, who informed me she and Jen were going shopping that afternoon. Well, I tagged along with them for a tour of Boston's best thrift shops and had a pretty good time, even if I didn't find what I was looking for (I did get a pair of fuzzy slippers to wear around the dorm, so it wasn't a total failure. I almost bought a swimsuit to replace mine, which is wearing out, but it wasn't quite right, so that search is still continuing.).

Getting downtown was more interesting than usual. Going to the Longwood T stop is a bad idea with Christina--she seems to be cursed to always just barely miss the train there. Really, the station's design works against us, since we have to double back pretty far to get from the steps over the hill up to the end of the platform where the train actually stops. Well, we were almost there when the train pulled up yesterday, and we refused to miss it. So we scrambled up and over the muddy embankment, to skip the doubling-back routine. Well, I made it over on the first time, but Christina and Jen had to go down a bit farther and try where it wasn't so steep and then run to the train door. I took my time getting my Charlie card out to keep the door open for them, and they made it just fine. Of course, we all had mud on our shoes, but they were worse off than me. We entertained our fellow travelers for a few moments as Christina dug some tissues out of her purse and we cleaned up our shoes, but soon another passenger became the entertainment, as he jammed away to the music in his headphones.

Returning from our shopping excursion, I bought Girl Scout cookies from a table set up in the Copley subway station. At least I won't miss out on them this year! When we got back to campus, the cafeteria was all decked out for Valentine's Day, and all of us girls gor carnations. Mine is a very dark red, and it makes me happy to see it on my desk (I even had a vase for it--one more useful cast-off from Tetima). After dinner I spent the night by myself, writing letters and watching a favorite movie to pass the time.

This morning I went to church early to help out in the Park Street Church library. They're in the process of reorganizing the collection and putting barcodes on all the books to have an automated checkout system. I spent about an hour putting barcode stickers on books after being shown where everything was. After this project is finished, I'm not sure what they'll want me to do, but I'm more than willing to go to church an hour early every week if I can be of service. It's about time I got more involved at church instead of just waiting for someone to reach out to me specifically. The only way to really connect with people is to get involved, so I'm finally moving forward on that. It's a great church, and I want to stop feeling like a visitor.

-Kim