Christian Rabone, a "middler," or second year seminary student, from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Lubbock, is spending time in the Dominican Republic this semester. He is there for the Cross Cultural requirement in his curriculum at Seminary of the Southwest. He will be there for a total of three weeks, during which time he interacts with other seminary students from the Center for Theological Education, the Episcopal seminary in Province IX, located in Santo Domingo. 

During the weekdays Christian and the seminarians have Morning Prayer, Eucharist, and breakfast, immediately followed by one-on-one Spanish instruction from 9:00am - 1:00pm. After lunch he joins the students from the seminary again, followed by Evening prayer and supper with the group. On weekends he lives with a parish priest's family. Friday evening through Sunday afternoon he works with the priest in their parish, with visiting the needy on Saturdays, and assisting at the altar on Sunday.    

"Being in the DR is positively out of my comfort zone, especially knowing almost no Spanish, but the experience has been great so far. The Spanish instructor has been wonderful. He is teaching at my pace, especially helping me to learn the basics. He has also taken me around the city to see the sights and will take me to see the poorer sections of the city. Another missionary person, named Charlie, has also shown me poor sections on the outskirts of the city. The poverty here is something I have never experienced before.  We think America is poor, but it's nothing compared to the poverty here.

"I have enjoyed being with the seminarians. Only one knows English well. He has helped me make a smooth transition. They have two services a day at the seminary, one in the morning at 7:00 a.m, which covers the morning service. They wait for about five minutes, and then have a service of Holy Eucharist. Everyone wears an alb for the service.  The next service, Evening Prayer, is at 5:00 p.m. Both services include singing, which is really nice."

 

(Pictured below, Christian participates with others from Iglesia Catedral Episcopal de la Epifania, the Cathedral of the Dominican Republic, located at the seminary in Santo Domingo. They work to feed the homeless and the poor every Tuesday morning at 8:00 a.m.)

 

 

Coffee In Church?

by Greg Syler on January 14, 2015

I don't watch E! television nor do I have a subscription to People magazine, but like anyone  who's mildly sensitive to popular culture I'm not immune to the images. And I've noticed one pretty consistent thing: whenever you see a shot of a 'star' out and about on the street, the celebrity is often holding a cup of coffee or some such coffee drink. Mostly Starbucks, let's be honest. The white cup, sometimes the cardboard heat protector, the green logo; it's all part of the image, all part of the brand.

I want to start with these simple cultural observations because this is only superficially a post about the church, and it is not at all about etiquette or proper manners or what is right or wrong to do in church. The title says this is about coffee in church. But let me hasten to add that I'm not saying we should rip out the back few pews and put in a coffee bar (that'd be hokey and silly); nor should we serve coffee in church (although, having said that, we could step up our game and serve better coffee at coffee hour); nor should we be drinking coffee or other drinks in church (I'm completely indifferent to this question anyway and whenever I'm a worshiper I really don't do it, although I may have walked into the building with the cup I was carrying on my walk over and I'd like to find a garbage can).