Comissioning, Ordination, and the Churches I am a part of

This week has been one of intense culture and church learning as I continue my involvment in this parish. Owen and I have now recieved our final assignments as to who is going to be in which church! I will be at St. Michael's and St. Paul's and Owen will be at St. Pancras and St. Mary's. Because of the uniquness of the congregations that we will be serving in, our jobs will differ a little from one another. Owen will be working a lot with St. Mary's toddler program and youth group as well as coordinate a winter night shelter that will be going on at the church from January to March. I will be working a lot with two schools connected with St. Michael's, lead a bible study for both St. Michael's and St. Paul's, and be connected in some way to the day shelter in the area.

Both of the churches that I am working at have a very interesting past history that I can share a little bit with you here. St. Michael's Church has been a landmark in downtown Camden since the late 18th century. It, like many of it's church counterparts in the area, was built in the Victorian era mindset that EVERYONE needs a church close by so that it will be easier for the public to retain a moral life. Consequently, churches were built in the area not because there was a need in the population, but because the Church of England deemed it necessary for the moral behavior of the city inhabitants. The Victorian Church of England got pretty far in this goal as there is still currently a pew seat for one of every seven people in the entire city of London. Even as the Church of England tries to attract new people in current years, it has become very apparent that there are just too many church buildings in the area for the communities to support. St. Michael's would have fallen onto the "abandoned list" if it had not been for the Reverend Nicholas who came and brought the four parishes of St. Michael's, St. Paul's, St. Mary's, and St. Pancras together. He also retooled the mission of St. Michael's as a church that reaches out to the poor and the hungry. Thus, the congregation of St. Michael's has drastically changed from that of very wealthy Victorian business men, to that of migrant workers, refugees, and people with mental illnesses. On September 29th, St. Michael's will be celebrating it's 10 year fundraising campaign of putting a new £500,000 roof on the church building. The church really looks impressive with it's great new looking spires from the street. Since the building is over 175 years old, it still needs huge upkeep. Now that the building looks new from the outside, it is the inside that needs attention. Plaster is cracking, the floor is worn, the great mosaics are peeling apart. This determined congregation is now setting it's eyes on a new restoration project for the inside. Many believe it won't happen for another 15 years, but this congregation is determined.

St. Paul's was a beautiful church that graced the greenery of Camden Square since the 1820's. It had an incredible 100 ft. high steeple/bell tower that could be seen for miles. This asset turned into a negative as it was one of the many targets for German bombing raids in World War II. Consequently, the building was destroyed and a "temporary" building was installed in 1954 that is still here today. The current building unforunatley doesn't recount any of the beauty of the church that preceeded it (though they were able to reuse some of the stained glass windows). As the area has changed in population, so has the congregation. Though unlike the congregation of St. Michael's, St. Paul's retains a large group of elderly who remember how the church once was and continue to hope to bring it back. This isn't likely any time soon as a new church building would cost well over £1 million pounds. For a congregation of 95, this is a huge task indeed.

This week also gave me the opportunity to be comissioned by the Archdeacon of London. We had a wonderful service here in the Vicarage with a lot of people from the four congregations attending. There is a wonderful sense of excitment and support that I know I will feed off of.

I was also part of an ordination of Father Malcom who has been studying to be a priest here for a long time. It was fascinating to see the culture difference and "high church" ways of the Church of England. Owen and I were called "Vemperbarers" who are in charge of holding onto the Bishop of Edmonton's holy staff and hat. Because of the very nature of these "holy" things, the church of England tradition is that we cannot hold them with our own bare hands, but with a glove/stole thing that I can't remember the name of. We also could also not hand them directly to the bishop, but through a priest or archeacon who was "closer" to the bishop. All in all it was interesting to see this whole process, as my Lutheran tradition has none of this.

It has been an exciting week indeed. More to come.