My name is Legion; for we are many.

Alright, so this entry probably will be found to have been more appropriate a week ago, but you know how things are. So let's talk about what happened a week ago that could necessitate a visit to the blog. As everyone knows, the St. Patrick's Day Parade was last Sunday, which was probably a lot of fun. However, if wearing lots of green and being drunk before noon is not really your cup of tea, you could have come and spent it with us at 4pm for a guided meditation brought to you by Jason Elliott. Trust me, this was not an anti-St. Patrick's Day event, nor was it a moral stance. We honestly forgot that this particular Sunday was a special event. Personally, I was there because I had helped plan this exciting event, and my younger brother had been in town the previous five days, so my liver was already on the verge of meltdown.

Aside: So, at 3pm that day was evensong at St. Paul's. Me and Gus Perfect attended and got to share a beautiful service with the officiant, the men's choir, and three other people. The title of this post is a quote from the second reading in Mark 5:1-20. It's the one about the demoniac full of unclean spirits who lived among the tombs. Jesus meets him and makes a deal with the unclean spirits to send them into a nearby herd of swine who, upon being possessed, rushed 2,000 strong down to the sea and committed mass suicide by drowning. See what happens when you make a deal with the devil? That's a lot of lost bacon. Maybe Jesus was getting payoffs from the cattle industry.

Back to the story at hand, the meditation was phenomenal. Jason started out explaining to us the purpose of Ignatian meditation and what we were supposed to walk away with. The Gospel reading was the one about Jesus trashing the vendors in the Temple. After a few minutes to clear our minds and prepare for the meditation, Jason started in with a full description of the scene. We were imagining ourselves as one of Jesus' followers making our way with Jesus and the disciples to the Temple. Jason helped us place ourselves in that particular time and setting through his vivid descriptions of the climate, dress, sounds, smells, and general goings-on en route to the Temple. At the Temple Jason described what we were seeing to prepare us for what comes next. You could really see in your mind's eye as Jesus cracked: money lender booths were overturned and coins flew all over the place causing a mad scramble for the money and making the lender's very irate, cages containing pigeons were smashed sending a huge amount of pigeons flying all over the place, flapping their wings, making annoying cooing sounds, and running straight into people in the havoc, and, finally, pens containing oxen and cattle being loosed, causing newly freed animals stampeding through the Temple, occasionally trampling someone. And just when you didn't know what was to come next or even if you could imagine yourself out of this predicament, everything comes to a halt and it's just you and Jesus. He's welcoming you forward, several tables before him. The tables represent the things about you that are unclean, things that clog your conduit to Jesus. He invites you to flip these tables, ridding yourself of your impurities. No easy task, but one that seems more attainable after watching Jesus clean his own house.

We are told that meditation like this is something that should be done often. There should always be what Jason calls a "fruit." Something that you are striving for and trying to attain. Once you know what that fruit is, you take a story and imagine yourself into it. The deeper you place yourself in the story, the more fully the effect of attaining the fruit will be. It can be any story at any time, but you must focus on the end goal. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this paragraph, it's simply what I recall a week after Jason explained it to us. If you have any interest in this subject, I'm sure that he would be more than willing to walk you through the process. From all of us in the 20s/30s group at St. Paul's, thank you Jason for entertaining us and making another event a wonderful and memorable experience (even though watching you eat that first piece of sushi slathered with wasabi at the mixer was pretty priceless).

A. Peter Snodgrass

Disclaimer: Nothing said above is the official views of the St. Paul's 20s/30s group, St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, the Presiding Bishop, the Archbishop, or God. Any grievances should be promptly written down, folded, sealed, and dropped in the nearest waste receptacle, where it will hopefully become part of the collective consciousness, rippling out until it reaches me. After all, "My name is Legion; for we are many."

Goodbye Paul, Hello us!

First an apology to those of you who follow this blog and are concerned that there have been no postings since Father Paul left. Well, the 20s/30s group is under new management. Who, pray tell, could fill such big shoes? Well, I honestly couldn't tell you. There are a few of us who gather for brunch the first Sunday of every month to make sure that there are events happening (always open invitation), but I think we'd be hard-pressed to point to one person as the “leader” (although I vote for Jason!).

Now, you may be thinking that such a communal method is ludicrous for a group that has enough trouble getting organized for even one event a month, but I would beg to differ. First, a more fluid approach allows more people to be involved in the decision-making process, which hopefully means that more people will make it out to events without as much poking and prodding. Second, more people involved in management means distribution of labor, which plays out to more events and a broader reach (Yes, this blog is one example of how that has not been as successful as of yet, but this entry is the beginning of something beautiful, I promise.). Third, an open system makes people more likely to take it upon themselves to plan events and contribute to preparation, instead of letting Father Paul deal with everything. That being said, if anyone thinks that this is a diatribe on how much better the new school is than Father Paul, you are sorely mistaken. I raise my glass to him and all the hard work he did to plan events and get people to come out. Keep it old school islander! And by old school I mean high church.

I have to apologize, but I'm in law school right now so this is going to look like a legal argument. Introduction, Argument, Examples, Conclusion. So I think we're up to Examples. We started with a January 16^th Potluck at Mother Liza and Luanne's house. We had a good turnout, with a great variety of foods (salad, lasagna, sushi, brownies, and others), icebreakers (what condiment would YOU like to be able to dispense through your navel?), and some discussion of the direction for the 20s/30s group and various plans in the works. We posted a survey on surveymonkey.com and got some really good and helpful responses. On February 18^th we did a 7:30pm Scottish Eucharist, which was a lot of fun for everyone, especially wondering if Mother Liza was going to make it through all the reading she had to do, without even a glass of water! Afterwards we went to Century Grill (Ali's favorite!) and had some great food and a couple beers. Then, two days later Jason Elliott and James Rayburg hosted a Robert Burns dinner at their new home, including kilts, Scottish beer and more alcohol than is safe to serve to Episcopalians, haggis with a Burns blessing, and many other great foods and company, including two handsome dogs. Most recently the 20s/30s “hosted” 7am oatmeal breakfast on Ash Wednesday with a 12-hour fast, and a vegetarian simple soup supper afterwards. Thank you for all who either prepared soup, helped in the kitchen, or did dishes. Gold star to Kate Little for doing all three (you should have seen her man-handling that huge dishwashing contraption!).

Hopefully by now you understand that we've been keeping ourselves busy. But we have even bigger plans to come. On March 15 at 4pm please join us for a guided meditation led by Jason Elliott. He's training for the Vocational Diaconate, and if you don't know what that is then you should come so you can ask him. And I can't make any promises, but I always like food and beer after a good meditation, so don't be surprised if there are some dinner plans afterwards. We're also looking at trying something we call Lenten Buddies. About two newer members will be randomly assigned to seasoned veterans of St. Paul's. All you have to do is wait for the person you've been assigned to to make contact with you and get together for coffee or something like that. This is just a way for those of us newer members to ask questions about St. Paul's from someone who has been around, and also to get to know each other a little better outside of the 20s/30s big group sessions. Lastly, we are looking into an overnight retreat possibly on April 24^th. We hope to get Douglas Fenton from NYC to lead the retreat. Oh, and did I mention that if everything works out this event will be FREE?! You can't beat THAT with a stick!

Let me just close by saying that our mission is to make the 20s/30s group more inclusive, but also more free-form so everyone can find their own way to enjoy the group and maybe even share some of their interests with the group. Although Mother Liza does not technically fall within the preferred age range (don't tell her I told you), she has adopted the group as spiritual liaison (not her official title) in Father Paul's absence. So, if you have any questions about the group you can always contact her, but the best thing to do is read the entries in the bulletins and get your email address to karen.bull@stpaulscathedral.org so we can include you in our e-mailings.

A. Peter Snodgrass

Disclaimer: Nothing stated above is the official position of either St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral or the 20s/30s group therein. If anything is misstated please email someone and your complaint will be addressed in a timely manner.