Visiting Churches

Since everyone seems to think an 1,100 mile commute for Sunday morning worship is "unfeasible," we're having to find a local church. (I kid. It's important to have community. But boy, were we blessed with our church of the last three years.)

One of the things I have so loved about the Anglican communion is found in the Fifth Article of the 39 Articles of Religion:

VI. Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation.Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.

This means that an Anglican community cannot require of anyone for salvation things which are not required (and cannot be proven to be required) according to Scriptural proof. And this is huge. As Hamilton said, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary." But we know that we are not. If we were, we wouldn't have needed either government or redemption. Mankind has a propensity for corruption linked with power, and this particular Article helps keep honest men in positions of power honest, and it helps to keep the theology centered and unified across Dioceses and Congregations. That's a comfort, really.

Article 34, however:

XXXIV. Of the Traditions of the Church.It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, or utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversity of countries, times, and men’s manners, so that nothing be ordained against God’s Word.

means that you're going to get distinctive flavor in each church. If you attend an Anglican church in Ethiopia, it is going to have the same theology and the same catechism, but it will have a cadence and tone to the liturgy that is very different from one in, say, Amesbury, MA. Why? Because the cultures, the needs, the histories, and the people are different. (Our church in Huntsville actually had incorporated an element from the African churches, and it was such a beautiful way to refocus us onto the cross and away from the cares of the days that often get us down.) Anyway, you'll get the same gospel, and the same communion, but it's going to be presented in the way that best meets the needs of the community the church is in.

So. Same in many ways, but different in many ways. In this context, I am always reminded of the striking differences that crop up in newly married households that arise from the little things among in-law relations, like Holiday menus and family vacation habits. It's crazy how much stress that causes.

"What do you MEAN you open presents on Christmas Eve?"

"What do YOU mean that you don't do it until Christmas morning?"

Eventually, most of us find a way to remember that those aren't the meat and bones of marriage or life, and they aren't deal breakers. They are traditions, and traditions are a reflection of the culture and the people. Although that is usually the first time most of us realize just HOW different groups of people and their cultures can be, even when they are seemingly homogeneous on the surface. We humans are just like that, and it's good to come to grips with it so that we can enjoy this vast and diverse world, and encourage others the way we hope to be encouraged. Just as this reminder applies to marriage, it also applies to corporate worship and finding a new church.

Anyway, there's a running joke that every Anglican church is different, and everyone knows the right way to do liturgy is... precisely the way your church does it. 😉

So we've looked and prayed, prayed and looked, then left it off until we came out here. We're hoping we will soon find where we are supposed to be. I've had a sense of where we'll end up, but the last time I pushed what I thought, we ended up spending a very awkward year in a place that we really didn't belong. It wasn't good for anybody. So I'm navigating right now, but letting Z drive, and bringing the whole family in for input on where they need to go. And did I mention prayer?

Because honestly, it's good to make plans, but it's also a total sanity saver to remember that there's already a plan. Our job is to be where we've been placed and be ready to answer the call when we're needed. That's going to look different for each person, depending on their call. But the thing about being called is that if you're not listening, or if you haven't willingly stayed within earshot, you're likely to have a hard time hearing. So we have approached this part of the move very prayerfully.

This morning we visited one. They have two services, and we attended the early one. Next week, we'll visit the second church. The week after, we'll attend the later service at the first church. And then we'll see.

Even if this is not where we need to be, it was really nice to have communion. It was important to share in confession and absolution, to hear the Gospel and worship corporately. They were very welcoming and clearly Christ-centered. They do many things differently than we are accustomed to, which was a little weird and disorienting ("Wait, I thought I knew this prayer! What? Wait! What?), and we all had to laugh at ourselves when we got back in the car afterword, because we all know the right way to do liturgy...

Anyway, be encouraged!

~ Dy

John is Good To Go

Well, things never really improved with CNM. That was a shame, but it was what it was, and it turned out so much better in the end.

He did get into some classes, which was great. Ish. (The instruction was a bit of a mixed bag. It's pretty horrifying what college instructors are doing and saying in the name of being "the cool teachers". There are still those, though, even at CNM, who show intelligence and integrity while they man their post in front of a class of students. They are so appreciated.) They still hadn't bothered to look for his official scores and transcripts. It was crazy.

We had submitted the waiver for residency and his two "overt acts" for declaring intent to establish residency. (NM State law allows for students to receive in-state tuition if they have relocated here for a parent's job and are willing to declare their own intent to remain here.) What CNM doesn't tell you on their website, or in person, is that of the 11 acts that they say you need to have accomplished at least two of, what they really mean is there are only two on there that they will actually acknowledge. Good luck guessing which two! And they won't tell you until after the deadline! They denied his petition. Wee! We spoke to a supervisor. She also denied the petition. We asked to whom we could appeal, and she said no one.

Okay, then.

I went home to transfer money from savings (at this point, I was feeling rather defeated and didn't want to be an obstacle in John's path forward) and planned to pay his tuition in the morning. Except bright and early the next morning, as we sat down to take care of business, John forwarded me an email he'd just received announcing he'd been dis-enrolled for non payment. (At some point, you'd think I'd have gotten a clue that if it's THIS difficult to work with this institution, then there's probably something I'm not getting, like, I don't know, this isn't where he ought to be. But I am slow.)

I told him to go ahead and re-enroll and then I'd log in and pay right then (since the funds had transferred). The process for re-enrolling, however, is quite complicated, and not listed anywhere on the school's website. You cannot register online for a class after the registration period has ended. He contacted the one helpful person we'd found at CNM who explained to him how to get it done. You have to email each professor and ask for permission to re-enroll in their class. Then they will, at their leisure, issue a manual override to permit you to re-enroll. There is no notification process in the system letting you know when you're good to go. You just have to keep trying until it works. The instructors have no time limit in which to complete this, because they're doing you a favor, but the payment clock starts ticking the minute you get your first class re-enrolled. And you'll be dis-enrolled if you haven't wrapped it up and paid by the time that clock strikes done. Again, because they're doing you a favor.

Well then.

I asked my brother-in-law if he could help us navigate the bureaucracy, but from everyone he spoke with he really just heard, "Yeah, this is how they roll now. It stinks." :-O Wow. He suggested we go to UNM-Valencia and talk to them. We hadn't really considered the UNM system. It's HYUGE, and we thought it would be worse at a larger institution. But why not give it a try?

I emailed the contact BIL had given me. John submitted an application. He doubled checked his Bag of Holding to make sure he still had everything. (ACT score report, unofficial transcripts from both high school and college, high school diploma, NREMT certification, BLS certification, etc. - all the same material he had brought with him to CNM) I submitted all the official requests that fall to the parent to request (or, more accurately, pay for). Mid-morning, I received an email reply, "I'll be here until 4. Come on by any time!" So down we went.

Y'all. We walked in there cold and walked out an hour and a half later with a graduation plan, a contact for who will evaluate his EMS credits, a full fall schedule, fully registered, with books, a parking pass, a student ID, a map of the campus, and the assurance that he will be coded as an in-state resident for tuition purposes once he turns in one form. (Also of note: he turned it in the next day and they issued him a bill for the in-state tuition. I paid it that day!) We could not get that far in six weeks of diligent effort at the community college here.

And now, he has money left over to buy a commuter car. He has a four-year plan once again. He knows where he stands, what he needs, and what he will need to accomplish in order to reach his goals. This was crazy hard to navigate, and he kept his cool, made sure he did the right thing at every step, kept communicating. I am gobsmacked.

Of course, because of the runaround at the community college, we wasted a lot of time extending good faith to them, and so he's starting the semester a week behind in his hardest subject. Again, what a difference growing up makes! He's been on it every day since he got home from registering, and he's nearly caught up to where the class will be next week.

Co-op

I keep geeking out about co-op. Do you know why? Because it's amazing! Good structured time, followed by good free time, with food thrown in. That's a poor narration, as I'm sure Miss Mason would have observed, but I'm still processing it and thinking deeply about it. So that's all I've got, really.

It's a large group, and they'll likely want to divide up into slightly smaller groups if it continues to grow. But the people are amazing, and the instruction is delightful. If I can ever get John squared away, we'll have so many neat things to do at home that springboard off the topics and activities covered in class.

Everybody's getting brown from being outside so much (except me, I just get a darker shade of yellow - it's not jaundice, just a lucky roll of the pigmented dice).

So, that's ... actually, I started this at some point, and then people. So much talking and processing, and really, that's the work that's on their plates right now.

- How does this work?
- Where does this go?
- How do you not know, either?
- This is weird.
- Can I just put it here and we'll say this is where it goes, now?
- Know what I saw?
- Did you hear that bird? See that bunny? Watch that hawk?
- Come see the sky! (It's always doing something different.)

So that's where a good bulk of my time goes in the day. It's time well spent.

And the co-op really is amazing, but that will have to wait for another day.

Be encouraged!
~ Dy