Butterfly Dance Days

For the time being, please follow me at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1617555154&ref=profile

Trust-building begins to go fast, but I want to take care of new relationships. If by chance you would like to begin to pray for me, just begin to give thanks on my behalf. Kwa-kwai!

Sometimes The Keys Are Just Too Small

I'll be back as soon as I can get my laptop back online. As DG suggested, I tried connecting from my cell, but something about that connection isn't working, and this keyboard is too small for me to think with. Later!

I Was Never Supposed To Live In This Neck Of The Woods Again

For nine summers in the '70s and very early '80s I played violin in the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, and during the academic year 1975-76 I was one of three musicians-in-residence at St. John's College in Santa Fe. At the time, it was my hope that I might find a way to make a living as a violinist in the Southwest, but in the spring of 1976 St. John's suddenly announced that there was no money to continue the musician-in-residence program. My musicians' union card was in New Haven, CT, so back to Connecticut I went in order to keep body and soul together (i.e., musicians can't work without a union card). And, oh yes, there was that little matter of vocation to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church that still needed dealing with. Oh, I kept going back to the Opera in the summers until 1981, but then I waved goodbye to this wondrous country and thought I would never live here again.

Enter Facebook. Twenty-five years later, after a fruitful career as an Episcopal priest in southeastern Connecticut, I decided to sign up for Facebook. When you do that, Facebook helps you get started by suggesting friend after friend it thinks you might know or at least have something in common with. As I suspect is true for other Facebook naifs, I made "friends" with just about anyone FB threw my way. One of them is an Episcopalian woman who has gathered a support/worship/service group of Native (mostly Navajo) teenagers at a church in Holbrook, AZ. I was interested, so I engaged her in a little private FB dialogue. And then...I asked the innocent - and fateful - (kw)estion, "Do we (meaning the Episcopal Church) have a mission with the Hopi?" [Note: This blog uses "kw" for the letter "cue" ever since my cat pulled that letter off the keyboard of my laptop.]

She said, "Let me tell you about the Hopi Mission School."

It happens that the Mennonite Church, after a recent reorganization at the national level, has begun let the Hopi Mission School go as an official mission of that Church. The School was founded by a Mennonite missionary from, it turns out, my home town of Newton, Kansas. (As a matter of fact, the school was founded in the same year I was born - 1951 - and the Hopi Mission School Foundation, which helps fund the school, has its offices in the same block in Newton where my mom and dad owned and operated a retail business.) At the same time, an Episcopal priest in AZ who has been actively supportive of the School did some research and found out that the Hopi Reservation is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona, although there has never been an Episcopal parish or mission here.

When I found that the position of Administrative Assistant at the School was open, I applied. I interviewed there several months ago. I got the job. The School is in Kykotsmovi. There are three Episcopal parishes in NE AZ, one on and two off the Navajo Reservation (which surrounds the Hopi Reservation). The need for clergy assistance varies from parish to parish. I am the only Episcopal priest on either Reservation, and the nearest town of any size is 63 miles away. It is a mind-boggling situation to be in, and a blessed one. I'm deeply grateful. I was never supposed to be able to live in this neck of the woods again - but here I am, at home, surrounded by beauty and waiting to find out exactly why I was led here.

Native American Episcopalians Step Up

"I note several common themes in all of these conversations: self-determination for peoples whose cultural traditions and identities often have been suppressed or obliterated; the overwhelming poverty in many Native reservations and off the reservation; the resulting negative impacts on health, lifespan and what we insist God wills for us all – abundance of life; and the gifts of awareness of connection with creation that Native traditions and communities can offer to the wider church."

- Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

Read it all here: Learn About Native American Concerns.

Michael Jackson

Michael...Michael...Michael.

(silence)

We all owe you, big time. Thanks.

Song of the Day

From my FB friend Tonweya Tokaheya, who reminds us that "Dakota" also means, "affection, friend, ally...



Kiss me goodbye, indeed, and kiss me peace, as i do all y'all (a dialect i picked up at Fr Jake's, once upon a time). (No, i'm not leaving the blog behind; for God's faithful people life is changed, not ended; i just wanted to share a gift, and a FB synchronicity.)

"It's all good." - Fr. Jake

Whither?

A couple of you have begun to press me on the issue of this blog.

So, ok, now that you know me better than I know myself, what would you like to hear about? Help me establish the direction of this blog. I want it to include all the things I originally intended (see sidebar and heading), and I want it to respect the culture into which I have been invited.

If you understand Hopi culture, I would especially appreciate your input.

(This blog is linked to my FB page.)

Hopiland, Here I Come

FrScott: Somebody please pinch me so that I can be sure I'm not dreaming.

Somebody: (pinches FrScott)

FrScott: Thanks, then it's a dream come true.

I apologize for being so evasive, but I had to wait until all the t's were crossed and the i's dotted and the parish informed.

Over the next few years I will be living among the Hopi people. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle the blog, because the Hopi culture is very private ("polite"), and I don't want to violate the trust they have placed in me. If the blog turns overtly into an "it's all about me" project, that's why. For the time being, this may be a place to journal "transition" (and it's a major one in many ways).

For now, let me interest you in the Hopi Mission School. The Hopi Mission School is a Christian School whose faculty, staff, and board are dedicated to promoting the education and development of the whole child (K through 6) through sound academic instruction in a spiritual, safe, caring and constructive environment.

- High Academic and behavioral standards
- Small Classes
- Individualized instruction
- Faith-based learning
- Leadership opportunities
- Athletics for everyone
- Networked computer programs
- Values education
- Positive discipline
- Christian teachers and staff
- Atmosphere of support and reconciliation
- Music and drama programs
- Spirit of togetherness
- Daily Bible teaching
- School-wide Accelerated Reader program
- God's love in action
- Candidate for Millenium Development Goal donations

Oh, there's much more, including more priestly things, from time to time.

So, for this evening, remember - "don't worry, be Hopi!"

UPDATE: Well, elsewhere I said I would be praying. So, I just want to share this with you. It "came up." This blog is dedicated (see first post if you can find it) to Margaret S. Wilson. And there are no coincidences anymore, as far as I am concerned. Also here (fifth article down). (Peg was a faithful - and VERY DIFFICULT! LOL - member of the parish.)

I'm fine - really.

It has come to my attention that some of my friends out there are concerned about my welfare. Please don't be. I'm fine. I'm just doing some re-prioritizing and will let you all know about it when the time is right.

Meanwhile, for your viewing and listening pleasure...

Sabbath Rest - Maddy Prior

Julian Day

I have just placed a brass memorial in the new garden in front of the house.

It reads:

"On this site on 8 July 1982 the Episcopal Monastic Order of Julian of Norwich was founded by the Reverend John Douglas Swanson, based on the spirituality of Dame Julian. The Right Reverend Bradford Hastings, Bishop Suffragan of Connecticut, was the First Episcopal Visitor and Protector of the Order."

Brad also offered me hospitality when i was an aspirant for holy orders. He asked me how i knew about his gift of hospitality. I said something about how it was obvious when he peeled me an orange. No one had ever done that for me. Ever. (UPDATE: Excepting my mom, who took great delight in offering me sliced apples and oranges, whether i was sick or, just on a whim....:)...Jesus, our Mother.)

Blessings to all who enter here.

Jeremiah 18:6 - "Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand."

I have pretty much always been an "a-movin' and a-shakin'" kinda guy. "Watching and waiting" is hard for me. This morning at the nursing home Eucharist, our intrepid and ancient pianist (who chooses the hymns and very clearly reads the lectionary) chose "Have thine own way, Lord." I had a very difficult time singing, but the smiles and voices of the truly "mixed" congregation (including the wisest, Native and African-American) got me through (most of them no longer have voices, but they mouth the words when they know them). I folded up the page and brought it home so that I could remember to sing it, from time to time.

As I survey the youtube universe, this one seems good. Please forgive, if there is anything offensive about it.

Transitions

You who stop by here deserve a post, so here it is.

"...for to your faithful people life is changed, not ended..."

This blogger is in the midst of a major life change. The purpose and name of the blog will remain, but there will be very few posts over the next ten weeks.

I ask your prayers...and while you're at it, please add Jim and Mitts to the list.

Blessings and thanks,
Fr. Scott

A Mellow Saturday Night To All

I think I'll dedicate this to the memory of Mr. John O. Crosby, in whose company I first enjoyed this album at San Juan Ranch the summer it came out (let the reader understand).

Please have a mellow Saturday night (the rest of the album is plenty worth listening to as well).