Hazelnut Reflections

In which we have a new bishop

or, as my friend Paula referred to it, BishopStock '07. Which is not to imply that any priest named Stock was made Bishop.

Anyway, the Rev. Dr. Edward Konieczny is now the Rt. Rev. Dr. Edward Konieczny, Bishop of Oklahoma. It only takes 3 bishops to make one new bishop, but like a wedding, it just can't be that easy. There were Native American drummers (which I could only hear, not see, as I was out in the "West staging area.") There were two big screens to televise the service to the whole field house. There was Taize. There was the Presiding Bishop. Iactually think half of the congregation was in the procession, in some form or another.

I had one part in the service myself, which was the chanting of the Psalm, which was set to a lovely melodic setting by a musician in the Diocese. I need to write her a thank you note, because it's not that often that one gets to sing a Psalm setting that is actually, you know, pretty. When it was time for me to sing, I went up to the lectern and prayed that my voice would hold out (I had been suffering from a cold all week, and promptly after the Psalm, what was left of my voice was done. I've been reduced to silence and IMing with friends. Instant Messenger is a gift to extroverts with laryngitis).

I got to sit in the very front row along with the other worship leaders for the Ministry of the Word, so I got to see it all, mere yards away from me. It was all beautiful and perfect, and I was keeping it together until our retiring bishop handed our new bishop the crozier. And guessing from the sniffles around me, I wasn't the only one who got a little teary at that point.

The other discovery of the event was that the Holy Spirit can apparently manifest herself in the form of the Oklahoma City Emergency Alert System. The actual moment of ordination itself happened a little before noon. As the other cantor started singing the Taize setting of "Veni Sancte Spiritus," the sirens went off. I held my breath--and then it became clear that the Spirit was indeed working. The Taize piece is set in A. Apparently, so are the sirens. The cantor went on, the ordination went on.

The events of the whole weekend have left me remarkably peaceful about the upcoming House of Bishops meeting and whatever emerges from that for the future of the Episcopal Church. That's either the work of the Spirit or the great quantities of herbal tea I've been drinking to help move this cold along.

posted by Emily @ 8:09 AM