I Love My Presbytery

Two posts in one night! Either I am trying to make up for all of the times I forgot to blog or I really don't want to finish my exegesis...probably that latter.

I just wanted to say how much I love my Presbytery! That's really random, I know. People often talk about how much they love their church, which I do, but I also love my Presbytery.

• I love when they nominate me to do things (like be a Synod Commissioner) even though in church standards I am crazy young (average age of a Presbyterian is 61). 
• I love how welcoming and embracing they are.
• I love that the vast majority of people who attend presbytery meetings know who I am.
• I love that CPM (Committee on Preparation for Ministry) is super easy to work with. 
• I love that there are so many people in my presbytery that are supportive of me and willing to talk to me and help me along the path toward ministry. 
• I love that we care about rights and put a lot of attention into civil rights and issues that concern the members of our Presbytery. 
• I love that we have a transgender woman as a candidate and that tonight my dear friend and mentor, who is openly gay, became a candidate as well.

I cannot wait to be able to be ordained in the Presbytery of Boston.

I love my Presbytery!

Update on Life in Seminary

I'm going to take a break from my New Testament Exegesis homework to update the world on my life. Okay, honestly, I have not started the Exegesis homework...but I will get to it. I have not blogged in eons so I thought I would remedy that. 

Where to begin?

Princeton Theological Seminary is amazing and I am so glad I came here! The people are amazing, the classes are amazing, the professors are amazing, and everything is so amazing! I am being completely serious, but allow me to elaborate. As i have said previously, the people here are phenomenal. Since the fall semester is underway, I have met even more people and I am just impressed with the high caliber of people here. Everyone is awesome for his or her own reasons but all in all everyone is great. In addition, it's not just students. The faculty and staff are great too. I am particularly in love with David Wall, the registrar. He helped me get everything together so I could register and stay when it looked like everything was going to hell in a hand basket. He is amazing and helpful and friends with Burns.

The classes are intense and it is quite evident that AUC did not prepare me for this. I clearly have a bachelor's in bullshit! I have a 20 page paper due in 3 weeks and I have never written a paper that long before. The writing center is going to become my best friend! There is a lot of reading and everything is more intense that it was in college and I am going to struggle but I will make it work and I will learn so much.

I have attended karaoke night at the IVY a couple of times so far and that is overly entertaining. I have been to a party at one of the private clubs at the University. I have attended Shark Week and my first hall party (big fan of Brown 2). I have made so many phenomenal friends already. One great thing I have experienced is joining a club. 

Tonight I attended the first meeting of BGLASS (which stands for Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Supporters). We talked about the many different events that will be taking place this year. Amazing things like attending a Mennonite hymn sing, opening worship an intercultural café, events with the covenant Presbyterians and the Yes Coalition (and maybe GLAAD, service projects, BGLASS week, hosting forums on the OT and the NT as well as the possibility of getting together with Princeton University as well as the Westminster Choir College. I am incredibly excited to be involved with this. In fact, I sort of dove right in and will be helping with opening worship as well as representing BGLASS in working on the Intercultural Café with other campus groups. BGLASS is essentially everything that I wished I had in college. I am extra excited and thankful for this in my life as I am struggling to figure out my life.

Life Experience

I think I'm having a not quite a quarter life crisis.
Being here at Princeton this summer, there have been a lot of instances where I wish that I didn't come straight here. I wish that I had taken a year off and got a job somewhere doing something ministry related and just dealing with people. I've been doing school for the past 16 years and I'm wondering if it might be time for a break. There are so many people here that took time between college and seminary and went abroad or worked for non-profits. They have life experience that they can relate to what they're learning and I don't have that.