Two Homes

Well, we returned to Sewanee from our Christmas trip to Jacksonville about a week ago. It is cold and snowy outside. For the last five days the temperature high temps have been in the mid 20's and the lows have been around 10! My kids love it because they have been out of school since last Wednesday - for the very same reason, I wish it would warm up a bit...

Our trip to Jacksonville was wonderful. We spent the best part of two weeks visiting with all of our old friends from church, cub scouts and work. We also saw all of our family who live in Jax. Many of my new friends at the seminary had warned us to not have too high expectations for our visit, especially regarding how things would be different and we might not feel quite as "at home" anymore. This was not our experience though, what I encountered was that my dear friends in Florida had grown dearer. We didn't do anything fancy, just spent a lot of time visiting and chatting over coffee and lots of food, but it was the best. Our church has grown in the short six months since we left, but the new people were nice and many familiar faces were still there to greet us. Father Mark and the team lead some beautiful services, and as usual, St. Andrew's really shows off nice in her Christmas greenery. We also had a great time at the New Year's party at church, especially the amazing fireworks! Finally, on my last Sunday in Jacksonville I was able to drop by San Jose Episcopal and see my friends there, especially Father Stef. It was a great visit, start to finish.

Another thing that I really enjoyed about our trip to Jacksonville was being able to share about seminary. There were some questions about grades and classes, but for the most part folks wanted to know what it is like to study at Sewanee during this very transitional time in the Episcopal Church. I was delighted to have only good things to report. My classmates and I all started discernment after the "Gene Robinson thing" happened and therefore we've gone into seminary with our eyes wide open in terms of the different issues that are assailing the Anglican Church right now. That's not to say we're all on the same page, but I don't think that Episcopalians have ever been on the same page regarding anything besides faith in Jesus and our creedal beliefs. I can say that, God willing, all of my classmates should make fine priests some day and that the future of our denomination seems to be in good hands. This is a good thing and it was a blessing to be able to share some good news about the Church.

Since we've been back at Sewanee we've had dinner with our extensive seminary family almost every night. There isn't much to do up here and there's no money do it with, so you take turns cooking dinner for one another. This doesn't sound nearly as wonderful as it truly is. These nights are filled with kids playing and lots of laughter and fulfilling conversation. Having not much else to do forces us to do the thing we so seldom did when we lived in suburbia: live in community. A year ago I would never have thought that I would spend the bulk of my time with the same people day after day and love it so much.

Anyway, the trip to Jacksonville was wonderful, but coming back to Sewanee was too, either way, home is home.

Peace and blessings,

Jon