In full voice

Yesterday afternoon, after time at home for unloading my "Sunday" totebag and packing a suitcase and a computer, Tal drove me to the Columbia airport for my non-stop flight to Alexandria and Fall Convocation at Virginia Theological Seminary. US(sc)Air was on time and I arrived at Reagan National just at dusk, Washington on my left warmly illuminated in the fading light. I was mesmerized, shocked back to reality when the aircraft touched the runway.

Convocation actually begins tomorrow, the topic of the Sprigg Lecltures provocative: "Religious Discourse on Our National Life as Perceived and Reported by the Media." Today's activity was limited to a day-long meeting with the institutions's class stewards, a group I co-chair and whose mission is staying connected graduating classes and helping former students find ways to stay engaged with the seminary. It was an energetic gathering of over 50 stewards, its high point, not unexpectedly, being a nearly two-hour session with VTS' new dean and president, Ian Markham.

Returning to campus is one of the most pleasant and most anticipated things I get to do. While the place has changed markedly since my class departed in May of 1992, it is still very much the same. For example, during my three years here one worship service was offered each day and we were all (students and faculty) required to attend. Now, 15 years later, there are three services per day and students and faculty are asked to be present at one.

That change means the daily schedule is considerably more complicated than it used to be and it also means that the chapel is not full-to-overflowing at 8:10 each morning any more, a potential drawback to the new plan, no doubt. But, to my delight and relief the single-most memorable feature of the chapel experience for me and the feature I miss the most as an ordained person has not changed at all.

The singing (even of unfamiliar hymns and canticle settings) and the verbal responses are strong, full of conviction, confident. Oh, how I do miss it. In the liturgies I officiate and on the rare occasions I attend worship, the congregations seem shy or bored or distracted or doubtful. The give and take which defines liturgy (a word meaning the work of the people) is missing.

But, not here. Those who gather in the seminary chapel gather there in full voice. Still.