You, my friend, have just described ME! And that exact book, too. I laughed out loud reading this, despite myself. Be well, and pray often, or at least as often as you can manage. 'For God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.' CS

Thanks, Ann. I added the props to Dan--my bad. He never grows old to me--Dan just gets at the heart of it, making it simple and o so difficult, partly by never making it simplified. Hope you are well. +CS

The Star Tribune said yesterday that an announcement is coming Monday, with pre-sale on tickets coming soon after. I'm using my fan club pre-sale code to get as many tickets as I can, and hopefully we can have some kind of pre-concert event. I don't know what, but we'll have fun with ideas. Thoughts, anyone? If it is June 27th, that's a Sunday night.

Partly I'm just impressed how they are willing to put their faith out there, to keep wondering about what God is doing and can do, crying out in lament and praise, regardless of the 'sitting down' or calls for them to 'quit preaching'. CS

This is fabo. Sonja and I laughed and said to eachother, 'right!' Missing you all! CS

Eat it, of course.

Exactly, Pam. Wonderful insight and so beautifully put. Thanks for breaking open your own life and ministry so reflectively for our sake, so we can see one level deeper into your reflections that happens 'in church.' Say, I'd love to talk to you about participating in our research project. How many years ordained are you? Peace, Chris

Thanks for this, Pam, with a twinge of jealousy. In my course this semester, Congregations in Context, a major aim is to learn how to simply describe something with economy and grace. Every class session opens and closes with a poem by Mary Oliver. We're just working our way through Why I Wake Early. Todays poem, The Poet Goes to Indiana, left some class members in tears. Here it is: The Poet goes to Indiana I'll tell you half a dozen things that happened to me in Indiana whe I went that far west to teach. You tell me if it was worth it. I lived in the country with my dog - part of the bargain of coming, And there was a pond with fish from, I think, China. I felt them sometimes against my feet, Also, they crept out of the pond, along its edges, to eat the grass. I'm not lying. And I saw coyotes, two of them, at dawn, running over the seemingly unenclosed fields, And once a deer, but a buck, thick-necked, leaped into to road just - oh, I mean just, in front of my car - and we both made it home safe. And once the blacksmith came to care for the four horses, or the three horses that belonged to the owner of the house, and I bargained with him, if I could catch the fourth, he, too, would have hooves trimmed for the Indiana winter, and apples did it, and a rope over the neck did it, so I won something wonderful; and there was, one morning, an owl flying, oh pale angel, into the hayloft of a barn, I see it still; And there was once, oh wonderful, a new horse in the pasture, a tall slim being - a neighbour was keeping her there - and she put her face against my face, put her muzzle, her nostrils, soft as violets, against my mouth and my nose, and breathed me, to see who I was, a long quiet minute - minutes - then she stamped feet and whisked tail and danced deliciously into the grass away, and came back. She was saying, so plainly, that I was good, or good enough. Such a fine time I had teaching in Indiana. Peace, CS

Deep thanks for this word, Pam. It is, actually, a word to live by. An old Benedictine monk was asked what he'd learned from all his years of monastic life. "Falling down and getting up again, falling down, and getting up again." He replied. Peace, Chris

Hi, Pam. Check out Laura Miller's thoughtful article about Pullman, "Far From Narnia," in the December 26 2005 issue of The New Yorker. She notes that he is drawn to reinterpret the 'fall' not as horror and sin, but as 'necessity' and that 'growing up' is a good thing. He critiques Christianity, C. S. Lewis, and even his beloved Milton for lamenting the loss of innocence. That reminds me of Paul Tillich's controversial understanding of the Fall in his Systematic Theology, which if I remember it rightly, sort of sees the fall as the transition into consciousness, knowledge of good and bad, and behind this for Tillich is, I suppose, a reading of Freud. Anyway, you've got me thinking further on all this. Wish we could go out for coffee and talk. CS

Hi, Pam. I first ran across this series when writing my forthcoming book, Faith as a Way of Life, which has a chapter on faith and arts. I ran across a National Theater dialog between Rowan Williams and Philip Pullman that captivated me. Actually, what Rowan Williams had to say about faith and the arts, and about Flannery O'Connor. But it made me take note of the His Dark Materials phenomenon. Isaiah and I had read all the Narnia books and all the Harry Potter books together, and I was looking for something else, so I decided to read The Golden Compass to see if we should read it. I decided after reading some interviews and reading the first book that it was worth attending to closely, on C. S. Lewis' own principles. In An Experiment in Criticism, he argues against categorical dismissal of a work as 'bad' or 'good' and rather asks 'what sorts of people do we become through giving ourselves over to this or that product of art (song, novel, movie, &tc.). I actually find a couple facts really interesting about Pullman--that his beloved Grandfather was an Anglican parish pastor and that he taught young Philip to love stories, to love the truth that stories can convey. He doesn't like Narnia because he things they are not truthful stories, they mislead us, in fact, from the truth. Well, that's interesting. And so far, I'd venture his critique of religion (the Christian church included) is that it, too, misleads us from the truth. Alas! That is too often right! Rowan Williams had an interesting point--Pullman's version of religion in His Dark Materials has no Christ figure. So, to make this brief(er than it might if I went on), I'm reading and thinking too, and look forward to hearing more thoughts from you. Advent peace to you and Will and the schmoofies (as we call them around our place). Chris

Hi, Pam. I just bought it. I have a book on Wencelas that I bought last year and LOVE it--it is Good King Wenceslas by John Neale and Tim Ladwig. Of course, the book is nice along with the Roches version of the hymn, also my current fav. But well see what you've got here--perhaps it is better! Happy Advent. Peace, CHris

Pam, I wonder about this exhaustion you feel (post on weekends below) and where you are filled. I too love reading and writing, and going on retreat (St. John's Abbey is a favorite of mine, too). That is part of how I dump my mind and make space to laugh and let go of all that I carry, even if I'm not directly tied to a congregation just now. I wonder if things change a bit as kids get older. Isaiah is 9 and Grace almost 7. We just got back from camping with 60 of our closest neighbors and the kids just ran off enjoying themselves. Sonja and I could talk, just sit by the fire and whittle, or read, and it was very relaxing. Of course, I didn't have to come back for Sunday, or worry about a sermon, either. I think I do get what you are pointing to, and it is a weight. Books about ministry don't often speak about this aspect of ministry and both edges of the blade, so to speak. You know, how it both allows good ministry to be trusted with secrets, and how you can begin to feel like the character in The Mission, carrying a huge bag up a waterfall. Well, look forward to talking next time we have a chance. Sorry we missed each other this summer. If you'd like a fall trip out to the cabin in Wisconsin, let us know. Peace, Chris

Dear Pam, this is deep and true, for you clearly, but also for us. It is largely why I left a solo call now two and a half years ago. Thanks for the reflection from the woman's side of this question--Sonja and I discuss all this balance or unbalance all the time, and the ways our theoretical commitment to equality bends because of gifts and biology. And they intertwine, I think, in that Sonja nursed our children and she is the one more clearly grounded in daily living issues while I have the gift and freedom to have brain float. So while she works, her career has in the end been more circumscribed than mine partly out of choice, but only partly. Chaos, yet not my parents model, that's for sure. Peace, Chris

Dear Pam, this is deep and true, for you clearly, but also for us. It is largely why I left a solo call now two and a half years ago. Thanks for the reflection from the woman's side of this question--Sonja and I discuss all this balance or unbalence all the time, and the ways our theoretical commitment to equality bends because of gifts and biology. And they intertwine, I think, in that Sonja nursed our children and she is the one more clearly grounded in daily living issues while I have the gift and freedom to have brain float. So while she works, her career has in the end been more circumscribed than mine partly out of choice, but only partly. Chaos, yet not my parents model, that's for sure. Peace, Chris