This blog has been started as an experiment in engaging with the various parts and pieces of being whatever it is I am becoming: Episcopal, Anglo-Catholic, Protestant I suppose, and a poet and writer. Almost every week I go to mass and am overwhelmed by the riches of our Anglican liturgy and I get any number of ideas for new poems and essays and various creative projects. Being somewhat frightened of my creativity, and very, very frightened of the way so-called serious writers dismiss religiously inspired writing, I usually dismiss my ideas. Later in the week, I will try to come up with something which I am convinced will be taken seriously. I am somewhat desperate to be taken seriously, I suppose.
And so I have started this blog. Partially to take myself less seriously (I'm really not in love with this format; still intimidated by these computer-things), and partially just to see what happens. Basically, every week I will write whatever comes up for me during the different parts of the service. The richest areas for me are usually: the Scripture, including an Old Testament passage, an epistle (or letter), and a Gospel reading; the Psalm; the homily; and the hymns. But I will use whatever is available. My favorite Sundays are when people bring animals into the worship space, and there have been times when the animals seemed to provide the most edification. Unfortunately that doesn't happen every week.
My parish is beginning a renovation of our nave, which means that for the rest of the summer and the beginning of the fall we will be worshipping in a different space and with a slightly altered liturgy. I'm not sure that I will use much of the specifics of space to shape my writings, but it gives me a time period. Hence the temporality of it. My first post is a response to the readings and homily of this past Sunday, July 3, 2011, which is the third Sunday after Pentecost. I will continue to do at least one post a week for the duration of our renovation. I believe we will be finished with the work in the nave by All Saints in November, so after that we'll just see what happens.
And finally, while I am of course telling every religious person I know about this blog, I am also telling my friends who have no religious affiliations, or who might practice a different faith. Possibly my non-Christian readers will be uninterested, and that is just fine. But if anyone is reading this and doesn't know what something means and I have failed to explain, please let me know. I just noticed above that I wrote "epistle" and "All Saints" as though everyone knew what those things referred to. But of course not everyone does, so if something seems puzzling I'd love to hear about it. Or if you'd just like to post a response to a poem or essay, religious leanings shouldn't preclude you from doing so.
Pax et caritas,
Terra Leigh Bell
