No Apology

To my handful of dedicated readers:

I know that much has happened in the St. Paul's 20s/30s group in the past few weeks and that I should have posted on them, but things come up, and summertime has a tendency to melt our brains a little and make us think from time to time that we actually are in a utopia where responsibilities and inhibitions are a thing of the past. For some reason it reminds me of the trailer for the movie The Beach. I saw the movie years later and it was very interesting, but I always remembered the shot from the trailer with the pristine view of the beach and the sun so bright that it makes you feel like wax in the oven. As many of you know, I despise the sun and the pain it wreaks on my fair skin. And most people would say that I'm crazy because I feel that way, but I would say that all of you who live in Buffalo and love the sun are crazy since you live in one of the worst places for sun in the continental US. But I digress. The point is that I have been out of it, but am still dedicated to reporting on what has been going on in the 20s/30s.

That being said, let's go back to June 23rd and Shakespeare in the Park presenting the Tempest. Oh wasn't that a fun time! You know, it's funny: the 20s/30s is a difficult group to read. I'm not going to claim that those of us involved in the planning of events have divined the needs of the group. More the opposite. And just because we're "not only the president, but also a member," doesn't mean that we know what other members want. There is a lot of discussion surrounding church 20s/30s and their quest to find themselves in the greater church community. There is also a lot of discussion about how 20s/30s (especially the single/non-parent ones) want to be able to balance their spirituality with their debauchery. But maybe there's a reading between the lines where people just want to hang out with people they can trust to accept them for who they are without being judged or proselytized to while having some good old-fashioned fun. Shakespeare in the Park may have been our largest event thus far since I have been at the church. And speculation on why that is seems to be that this event was something that everyone wanted/was going to do anyways, and organizing it just gave everyone an excuse to do it and opportunity to do it with people they know. I'd like to give a shout-out to Mother Cathy. She told me when I first started working with the youth group that her vision for the group was not to proselytize or indoctrinate church youth into Episcopalianism, but simply to provide a place where the youth of the church would have access to mature and sensitive adults (outside their parents) who would listen to them and talk to them about issues that people face at their age. And I think that there has been a certain extent of that introduced into the 20s/30s. I like that there are 20s/30s sponsored services, but we also do cool stuff that doesn't even require anyone introducing church-related information. So where has this digression brought us? Basically that I'm reporting how successful our Shakespeare in the Park event was/why it was so successful/how I believe that nurturing this behavior will bring more people together.

The Tempest was a wonderful play to watch. I think most would agree that none of us knew the story very well, and watching something that feels new is always more fun. Of course, it could also have been so much fun because we had an average of two bottles of wine per person and the comic relief in the play are two ship crew who were more drunk then we were. We also had more cheese and crackers, sandwiches, salads than was necessary. Jason even brought a little chocolate cake as a treat for Jim who usually doesn't get dessert apparently. We had so much fun that I think there is a plan in the works to see Shakespeare's Caesar on August 11.

Along those lines, another event we have planned that people may want to join us for because they were planning on going anyways is visiting the Body Worlds Exhibit at the Buffalo Science Museum on August 4th. I hear that someone in the group can get discounted tickets, so people are welcome to meet us there or contact us for specially priced tickets.

Moving on to the other event that I managed to not write about yet, on June 30th at 7pm we did a very unique service called the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. One of the wonderful things, in my opinion, of having 20s/30s people who are so interested in the church, is that we are not so set in our ways yet that we don't like exploring and trying new things. Services that I never knew existed are introduced to me through this group and opened up to conversation about church history that I hadn't heard of. From a layperson, here's my interpretation of the service and the controversy surrounding it. Along with Roman Catholics, Espicopalians believe that the bread is not merely a representation of the body of Christ, but, upon being consecrated, is literally the body of Christ. This adds a certain amount of reverence to the consecrated sacrament. Further, although we are all taught that Jesus exists inside of us and all around us, based on the Last Supper, Jesus' presence is heightened when we are near the sacrament. To some catholics, this places a special emphasis on knowing where the sacrament is in the church and their proximity to it. This service exists solely as a special recognition of the sacrament and its special focus for us as the literal body of Christ. The service is technically always performed in combination of another service: with evensong as a replacement for receiving communion, or with a eucharist as a way of putting emphasis on the meaning of the communion for Episcopalians. Historically, the way I understand the importance of this service and its decline in recent years is that people used to receive communion only once or twice a year, sometimes less, so this service was a way of still being close to the body of Christ. For many Christians this addon to a service was an equivalent replacement for receiving communion. In recent times, when most churches provide communion at least weekly, there is not as much of a need for this service because we get about as close to the Christ as a person can when we ingest him. Where the controversy comes in is that some people view this service as idolatry. The service basically involves kneeling the entire time, placing the big wafer inside this cross with a window in the middle for viewing the sacrament (known as the monstrance), and focusing on/worshipping the sacrament. You can imagine how this would make some uncomfortable, placing a wafer in such a prominent place in the worship service. What needs to be understood is that this wafer is not a representation of Christ, but is actually the Christ. Therefore, no amount of worshipping it can be idolatrous. But if you are the kind of person who can't wrap their mind around this and only sees a piece of cheap bread, then this service would seem almost as the antithesis of everything you were brought up in the Church to believe about our mission as Christians.

What is the point of all this? It isn't about the 20s/30s challenging the status quo, or trying to be cool, or any such nonsense. We are interested in experiencing and understanding the Church in all its forms as a way to get a fuller understanding of our faith and how it plays in to our role as 20s/30s in the Church. After the service we had a wonderful discussion with Father Glen Fuller joining us from Holy Communion at Lakeside, which is where I got all this information. We haven't decided to put this service on the docket as a permanent fixture, but now we all know a little more about our church history and the discussions that happened so many years ago, forming us into what we see today. I can also tell you that we don't always do crazy services. We have done regular services in the past, services from different prayer books, and on August 16th we're sponsoring the 9am service in Cathedral Park and the only thing that will be different about that service is that 20s/30s are going to fill all the contributing positions in the service.

As you can see, we have lots of events planned for August, hopefully something for everybody. If you are ever interested in getting more involved or getting more information, you can always contact St. Paul's and we'll be sure to get in touch with you.

A. Peter Snodgrass