On Saturday, January 19 the spring semester at Bloy House began with the first of our community dinners, this one cooked by seminarian, Laurel Coote of St. Cross, Hermosa Beach. Our dinner coordinator, Nancy Wallis of St. Mary's, Laguna Beach, has challenged students to add a scriptural theme to their cooking for the remainder of the semester, if they were so inspired. We are hoping there will be no locusts on the menu this semester.

Following dinner, Liturgical Coordinator, Steve Swartzell, of Messiah, Santa Ana officiated at our opening service of the semester by leading us in a beautiful guided meditation inspired by the life of 12th century monk, St. Aelred. The focus of the service was on celebrating the spiritual role friendship plays in all our lives, and the special gifts that friendships have to offer each of us.

This January Tim Reed joined the staff of Bloy House as the new assistant to the dean. Tim comes to Bloy House with experience as both a church administrator and having worked in non-profit organizations over the last fifteen years. He also holds an MA in Biblical Studies from Claremont School of Theology. He is an active member of the Disciples of Christ Church and sees his work at Bloy House as a spiritual calling. His quiet, methodical, patient leadership will be a true gift to our life together. If you need to reach Tim with an administrative question about life at Bloy House or to register for a class or event, his email is bloyhouse@cst.edu.

In the last few weeks the Episcopal Church has lost two wonderful Christian leaders, both of whom were true champions of God's work to bring peace, justice, and equality to all people. It is with deep gratitude and a heavy heart we say goodby to these two amazing Christians!

2017-18 Spring Academic

Calendar

Jan. 19/20

Jan. 26/27

Feb. 9/10

Feb. 23/24/25 Long Retreat Weekend

March 9/10

March23/24

April 6/7

April 13/14

April 27/28

May 11/12 

Bold dates indicate the second of back to back weeks in the semester.

Look for the 2018-2019 Academic Calendar in your February Bloy House News!

Fresh Start for Lay Leaders

Fresh Start for Lay Leaders is an exciting program at Bloy House led by Canon Joanna Satorius, Canon for Formation and Deployment of the Diocese of Los Angeles. In these informative and enriching sessions which are held from 9 to 3 on the Saturdays of teaching weekends, Joanna helps lay leaders learn more about what effective lay leadership within a congregation can do to grow and enrich the vitality of their faith community, and how to be a full and active partner with clergy to lead a congregation deeper into its mission. Covering topics like adaptive change, congregational visioning, budgeting, church administration, conflict management, vestry roles and responsibilities, and a host of other topics, Joanna helps congregations prepare for and embrace change within their church. This program is particularly valuable for congregations that are experiencing significant leadership or missional change in the current moment. Because we live in times of rapid change, the program is very useful for any congregation seeking to grow into their own futures. It is not too late to sign up for this class. Cost is $280 and includes Saturday lunches. For more information contact Canon Satorius at 213 482-2040. To register write to bloyhouse@cst.edu.

  From the Dean

Preached at the opening Eucharist of the new semester at Bloy House based on the Epiphany 3 lessons

Perhaps we should title these lessons: Discipleship a cautionary tale. Just about the only day I can imagine that might be even more frightening to hear these lessons than the first day of a new semester at seminary would be one’s ordination service.

What these lessons remind us if we are paying attention is that to become God’s spokesperson, God’s ambassador if you will, is to sign on for a life of suffering. Grace it seems is not cheap. It costs. It costs a lot! Ask the man who spent a terror filled night in the belly of a fish. Or the man who after spending years living in the wilderness on a starvation diet of locusts and wild honey meets his end, ironically, by being beheaded at the behest of a naive teenage girl during a sumptuous hedonistic royal banquet. Or ask the one whose proclamation of God’s love and justice for all including the dispossessed and the powerless led to his torture and death on a cross as a Roman criminal.

Sometimes we forget what we’re signing on to. We get carried away by the silly clothes and the fancy titles, and we imagine that by being one of God’s spokespeople we’ll become a somebody. Let me suggest to you today that we will become a somebody—just not in the way the world usually means that. As Paul asserts in today’s Epistle, what we will become is an unfilled vessel, a vehicle and a means through which truth can be spoken. Even hard truth. Even difficult words, even and maybe especially the words no one wants to hear but everyone desperately needs to hear.

Repent. Turn your life around. Dare to be more than you have been! Give a flip about goodness, about honor, about service, about dignity. About trust. Because that is the high ground God wants us to stand on. And when you take that high ground, it will probably cost you a night of terror, or even your head, or at the very least it will cost you your comfortable familiar life.

A number of you have just finished a unit of Clinical Pastoral Education and still others of you will be taking your turn at CPE in the coming years. I still remember when I started CPE the program sent out a questionnaire before we started asking each of us to identify what we thought would be the most difficult part of being in a CPE program. As an incredibly young and naïve seminarian, I answered truthfully and said that I thought dealing with death would be difficult and frightening for me as a fairly protected 27 year old. Imagine my surprise when I arrived for CPE to find that they had, in response to my questionnaire, assigned me to the cardiac intensive care unit of that regional trauma center. Over the course of the 10 weeks of CPE I was the chaplain at over 60 deaths. That was my long night in the belly of the fish. 

Last week I presided at the funeral of my best friend’s mother. She was not a church goer and had specifically asked that when she died I do the funeral. At the end of the graveside service I went and stood directly behind the casket and laid my hand on the casket for the commendation in a way that I had done dozens and dozens of times before over the course of my ministry. And in that moment I was once again reminded of who I am. I am the one God invited to stand in the midst of death and proclaim the assurance of eternal life. I am the one not afraid to put my hand on a casket or to think about the life and death of the person whose body lies within it. I am Jonah spit out of the belly of the whale and expected to tell the tale. I am a disciple of the risen Christ. Discipleship is the call God places upon our lives. It is painful, difficult, demanding, and transforming!

What will you gain through your discipleship? Much to your surprise and that of all those people who have known you your whole life long, you will gain yourself in all the goodness and courage and authenticity God already sees in you. If you need more than that; walk away now, because your disappointment at real life in God’s service will devour your soul. Walk away and choose an easier more comfortable life.

But if you stay, be prepared to meet yourself, and forgive yourself, and love yourself as God loves you.

In the belly of a fish

At a hedonistic banquet

Beside the sea waiting for the tide to go out

Be prepared to hear God speak and then let the good news stir and shake and tumble your life into a polished gem.

Discipleship a cautionary tale! But one oh so worth the living!