[Oe List ...] Salmon: A reflection on your reflection

[Isobel Bishop via OE]

Dear Bill,
Please send me your thoughts..
With love,
Isobel

Sent from my iPhone

> On 28 Jun 2017, at 10:21 am, William Salmon via OE <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
> 
> Bill and OE Colleagues--
>     Perhaps you will remember this. During one of the Summer programs, a special team was created to be the Disturber-of-the-Sleepy. Sometime during the hours of a break-out session, a person with a Chinese Gong would enter your room, smash the gong and leave; or a quartet would march through your space singing one of our great tunes, bow and leave. The purpose was to break the ordinary into the extra-ordinary. In consulting with school systems and/or individual schools and others, I've suggested doing something similar.
>     I asked a school colleague about the topic of a paper l wanted to write. He said, "Tell them about being thirsty." I asked him to explain, and he went on, "You can lead a horse to water but you can make him or her drink it unless the horse is thirsty for what you are offering it."
>     He sent me out into my high school to observe the classes where students had moved from complacency into engagement. It was easy to find: art, metals, woods, band, choir, drama, home ec. The students wanted to be there and when they were engaged in some project, they did not want to be bothered and were disappointed when the class ended.
>     Much of the problem in our high schools is in the teacher's teaching.
>     I have information to share on why this is the case and some suggestions on what are the alternatives--should anybody be interested.
>     Inner Peace,
>     Bill Salmon
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Bill Schlesinger via OE
> To: 'John Epps' ; 'Order Ecumenical Community'
> Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2017 6:33 PM
> Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise Reflection
> 
> Ah, those cerebral Presbyterians!
>  
> From: OE [mailto:oe-bounces at lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of John Epps via OE
> Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2017 4:49 PM
> To: Tracy Longacre via OE
> Subject: [Oe List ...] Earthrise Reflection
>  
> To continue our Earthrise contributions around one's birthday, I offer the following:
>  
> I’ve never heard anything like it.
>  
> The ordinary mode of beginning the Sunday worship service at Montview Presbyterian Church is the sound of chimes after which the congregation is invited to quietly make the transition from getting there to being there. This Sunday, being Easter, the sanctuary was overflowing with people enthusiastically greeting each other with churchy cordiality and requests from the front to move closer together in the pews to accommodate more people.
>  
>  I was sitting quietly waiting for the chimes, hoping to be able to hear them over the din, and looking forward to a few moments of silence to absorb the beauty of the surroundings.
>  
> Suddenly from the choir loft came a deafening crash of cymbals followed by a brass and organ fanfare that filled the gothic architecture with ear-splitting wonder that lasted a full 5 minutes. After the final grand chord, the congregation was speechless. The impact was powerful and profound, setting the tone for something grand about to happen. For me, if nothing else occurred during the service, the Easter wonder had happened.
>  
> The piece was Grand Choeur Dialogue by Eugene Gigout; you can find it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rufxt80iVA0
>  
> But that was only the first musical treat. The brass and organ and choir continued their gift of awe-producing sounds during the hymns, anthem, and offertory anthem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZtIRp3Vglw was the anthem.
>  
> By the time we left, I was done in, having experienced something of a resurrection myself..
>  
> Since then, I’ve been wrestling with the thought that such grandeur was not at all like the lifestyle portrayed in the New Testament. Though it clearly portrays the significance of the Easter event for Christians, the music and setting seemed more appropriate to royalty than to us. Recent Public TV shows featuring Henry VIII depict a setting in which this type of music would have been right at home.
>  
> Maybe the point is that awe happens when you least expect it, when surprises break through that are not of our doing. If, as I have contended elsewhere, surprises are where we are confronted by Mystery, that certainly happened at the Denver Montview Presbyterian Church on Easter Sunday, 2017.
>  
> 
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