gradgitation

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

wild turkey menace?

Below is the text of an email I received from my school today:

"Wild Turkeys on Campus

As you may have noticed, wild turkeys have been seen daily on both our main and residence campuses, as well as in the surrounding neighborhood. Please be advised that wild turkeys can be quite aggressive and dangerous to passers-by. We are currently reviewing humane options to remove the turkeys from our campus. However, the presence of wild turkeys is not limited to Simmons, but is a (growing) problem in the Boston area generally. Our removal options may need to follow directives from the City of Boston as well as other agencies.

In the meantime, please refrain from feeding the turkeys and use caution when walking near them. Do not approach them or try to touch them.

Thank you for your cooperation."

Seriously? Are they wild animals or dangerous escaped criminals? Too funny, Simmons, too funny.

-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