“With Christians far and near”
I think it goes without saying that GTS is a seminary known for its robust chapel life. For most of the 20th and 21st centuries, students and faculty have had the opportunity to gather three times a day for Morning Prayer/Matins, Eucharist, and Evening Prayer/Evensong.
When I go on accreditation visits with the Association of Theological Schools, the frequency of worship in Episcopal Seminaries is one of the things that both amaze and impress our colleagues from other traditions.
In our Hybrid MDiv program, we have retained this pattern of thrice-daily Chapel as part of our common life during intensives. Students dive right in, sometimes just a few hours after having arrived on the Close, to serve as Officiants for Morning and Evening Prayer, Readers, Intercessors, Acolytes, Crucifers, Thurifers, Sacristans - or any number of other roles in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd.
At our noon Eucharist today, our Organist and Artist in Residence, Buck McDaniel, led us in Hymn #304 (“I come with Joy to meet my Lord”) as our post-communion hymn. It’s one of my favorite hymns - I’ve sung it dozens of times (at least a full dozen of them in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd) - and in my Hymnal, I have marked it with a star next to the words “for my funeral,” so that when the time comes, my children or grandchildren can remember to sing this hymn when it’s my time to “meet my Lord.”
Today, though, as I was singing this, I was struck by what a powerful image it creates of our Hybrid learning community here at General Seminary!
With students assembled in the Chapel from all over the country (from as far away as Washington State and as near as Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan), it's hard not to feel the sense of God's Spirit drawing us together when we sing that second verse:
I come with Christians far and near
to find, as all are fed,
the new community of love
in Christ's communion bread.
We’re now halfway through the first intensive, and students (and faculty) are already beginning to form together in the most amazing community of learning and prayer. I trust that as we turn the corner toward our respective journeys home, the concluding verse of the hymn will remind us how - despite our distance - we will continue to remain one people, joined together in common worship:
Together met, together bound,
we'll go our different ways
and as his people in the world
we'll live and speak his praise.
Dean Michael
