In this Issue:

Nativity, Maysville, moves forward undr Kibler, Kilbourn-Huey

Episcopal Church Breaks ground for a new building

Lewis and Narnia: Episcopal Heritage

Seed Planting

Out of Deep Waters: Second line brings new life to New Orleans

Commentaries

From the Bishop: The Yearnings of our hearts

Reflection: ...and Christmas comes once more

X-ercizing: Packing and unpacking Christmas

Diocesan Calendar

Past Issues

Seed Planting

By Holly Davis

Early in my discernment process I looked up the word “seminary” in Chamber’s Dictionary of Etymology. I was interested in the explanation of the Latin seminarium, “…a plot of land where plants are raised from seed.” The Latin meaning moved into the German language as seminar. This “…breeding ground, plant nursery…” was expanded in meaning and came to mean a group of college or university students doing directed research. Finally, the English use of “seminary” has come to mean a school or college for training students to be priests — this in 1581.

Most of us have a casual acceptance of “a plot of land where plants are raised…” We are people of The Garden and our lands of cultivated fields, arboretums, and plush expanses of gardens are more the norm than the exception. My mind has been nurtured by the well-watered scenic vistas of my home in Arizona, the beautiful uniformity of the gently rolling pastures of Bluegrass horse farms, the manicured campus of Virginia Theological Seminary and the grounds of our National Cathedral in nearby Washington.

Our Lord was born into a Semetic world where the vastness of desolation, the haunts of wild animals, and the demons of the wilderness were still ever-present. Only intense labor allowed “a plot of land where plants are raised from seed” to exist in the Land of Canaan. His appreciation of cultivated wheat for bread, figs, olives, the nectar of the grape, and herds of domesticated animals is apparent in his teachings.

Some may find this fanciful introduction to my experiences as a seminarian to be far-fetched. However, I am beginning to learn about and to deeply appreciate the grandeur of life and land and understand the vital historic struggle of God’s creatures to awkwardly inadequately mimic our inadequate recollection of the nuances of The First Garden.

I am finding that my seminary experience is conducive to developing my mind, heart and body toward reflections and meditations such as the foregoing with which I introduced my seminary experience. The “garden of my being” is being cultivated in ways I could never have imagined.

The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor in The Seeds of Heaven writes, “‘X’ marks the spot right here, right now, in all the ordinary people and places and activities of our lives. If we want to speak of heavenly things, he (Jesus) seems to say, we may begin by speaking about earthly things, he seems to say, we may begin by speaking about earthly things, and if we want to describe that which is beyond all words, we may begin with words we know, words like: man, woman, field, seed, bird, air, yeast, bread…”

Sometimes I hear people say that they can not wait to get out of here so that they can do ministry. But seminary life is fertile ground for ministry. It has been everything that I had hoped for and nothing that I had expected.

As the president of the incoming class at VTS I was gratified to do a reading at Evensong in the great choir of our National Cathedral. I have heard the voices of the Westminster Abbey Choir lifted up in glory to God. I have met Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Archbishop Robin Eames of Ireland in a span of two weeks.

Those things have paled in comparison, the ordinary people and earthly things in my life. I have heard Madeleine Albright speak powerfully about those starving in our country and around the world. Along with my brothers and sisters here, I have grieved the loss of parishes washed completely away in Louisiana and Mississippi. I have prayed for God’s grace in the lives of a classmate who has lost two friends in car accidents, an aunt who lost a new nephew in childbirth and a son here who lost a father.

I have been appointed to lead a group of students to Slidell, Louisiana, as the Habitat for Humanity Global Village Leader in January. It will be the last ten days of a month-long course entitled Biblical Call, Concrete Engagement and Theological Reflection. This is the place that we will be digging for the kingdom of heaven; this is the place that we will be looking for the presence of God, the rule of God and the will of God in the recent devastation of that area.

I ask for your prayers for our journey and I ask your prayers for my time here in seminary. Again, Taylor writes, “It is here on earth that the seeds of heaven are being sown and their treasure is the only one worth having.”

(Holly Davis is a Junior (first year) at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. Her sponsoring parish is The Church of the Holy Trinity in Georgetown.)

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