I live a somewhat bipolar existence. About half of my week I am “ministro Jónatan" - I preach in Spanish, play pickup soccer, eat tacos at La Rosita, live in “people time” where the scheduled time for events is flexible, and, except for my lily white skin, I feel Hispanic. The other half of my week I am "Mr. Kindberg,” the Swedish American: I eat mac and cheese, listen to Jazz, and am, as the Germans say überpünktlich or over punctual, often arriving not only on time but early to many of my meetings.
This last Tuesday, May 1st, I was ordained a transitional deacon by the laying on of hands of Archbishop Robert Duncan in a carefully crafted bilingual and bicultural service and my two, usually disconnected, halves came together in what was a rare Kingdom abrazo or embrace. Both my Hispanic parishioners and my white friends and Anglican coworkers were for the first time all in the same room at the same time worshipping the Lord together. It was a beautiful taste of heaven. “Fue Una misa muy bonita,” as many of the Hispanics said afterwards in their usual understated way. “Today heaven and earth meet,” is how Archbishop Bob Duncan put it after pronouncing several parts of the service in Spanish, to the delight of all.
In addition to the multi-cultural and multi-lingual milieu, it was also a multi-congregational event, an ordination into the regional church or “net.” This was displayed visually during communion with clergy and catechists from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nigeria and nearly all the congregations of the net behind the altar raising their hands in worship. Different aspects of the service were led by different leaders from the net.
To top it all off, the reception was a real fiesta. There were cheese and crackers, muffins and huge vats of pozole (a hominy and chicken soup made on special occasions), which some of my parishioners had stayed up late into the night cooking, with a dessert of arroz con leche (rice pudding) to ease and facilitate conversation between people who would usually not encounter each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment