I thought you might like to see what the EYC was up to while we were setting up for the cookout on Thursday.  

WATCH FOR THE EYC ON THE TODAY SHOW THIS MORNING!

Okay, last night is complete at 12:30am.  What a day (do I always start that way?).  

We had our one breakfast out this morning (the other mornings we've gotten bagels and brought them over).  We went in groups of 5 or 6 to the French cafe nearby and ordered fabulous, delicious French foods brought to us with all the accuracy and timeliness one expects of the French (sigh).  After breakfast we headed out to church.

Sr. highs went to "groovy church," aka All Angels at 80th and Broadway for the 11am service.  Except the website lied (I think) and the summer schedule started this week and not next.  So our gang arrived at 11:00 and the service had started at 10:30.  They walked in mid-sermon, though apparently they still heard longer preaching than they were used to.  They found the people welcoming and open on the whole, and got out about 12:15 (for a 10:30 start!).

Meanwhile, the junior highs (plus the one sr. higher that didn't make it off the subway car in time and was stuck with the junior high - you know who you are) went to "snooty church" at St. Ignatius of Antioch, where we had a congregation-wide solemn procession around the church (since it's Trinity Sunday, of course), followed by a baptism, followed by Eucharist, all done with a combination of Latin and Rite I language.  Oh, and lots of incense.  Lots.  We sang ALL the verses of St. Patrick's Breastplate (as God intended) and our 11:00am service wrapped up around 12:45.  Mixed reactions from the jr. high, I think.  To some it felt cold and distant, while others liked the mystery of it all and especially the beautiful choir.  The rector met with us briefly after church and answered questions.  Many of them were around why somebody took our wafer and stuck it in our mouths.

After church we made our way back to the seminary to change clothes and travel en masse to Brooklyn for ice cream and a walk of the Brooklyn Bridge.  At this point things got a little shaky.  I won't say tempers flared, but they did simmer a bit, because we didn't have lunch until late and we did lots of walking and it was starting to get hot.  My own temper simmered a bit, I'll admit.  

After walking the Brooklyn Bridge we headed back to the upper West side to St. Michael's (where the jr. high had worked on Saturday) for their Intersection service.  It's a way cool service for the contemplative sort, which we were all exhausted enough to be.  The service seemed to restore civility to the group (okay, especially to me) and we headed down to Chelsea to eat at Patsy's Pizzeria.

After a fabulous salad and pizza it was almost 10pm so we decided to turn in early.  Okay, not exactly.  We got back to the seminary and decided to walk to Greenwich Village for cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, a fine baker of treats and a place made famous by Andy Samburg and Chris Parnell in the Saturday Night Live digital short film, "Lazy Sunday" ("It's the Chronic" - What? - "...cles of Narnia!").

At this point we're approaching 11:30 and the street just down from Magnolia Bakery has 3 fire trucks trying to save someone or something.  So we decide to walk back.  Now it's 11:45pm and we separate into those who really need to go to bed and those who want to process the experience.  So we met in the chapel and talked about what we saw and heard.  And smelled.

Let me just say (now that I've deleted all those letters I just typed when I fell asleep with my fingers on the keys) that those comments told me all our work was worthwhile, both by the EYC'ers work this weekend and the work done by the people back home.  I can't exactly put my finger on what "it" is, but they get "it."  Be proud of them.

MORE PICTURES

More pictures!  The thought occurs that when we see pictures of Andrew online at Camp Mikell we pore over each shot trying to figure out how he's doing.  It's probably unavoidable to do that here for many parents checking the blog for clues, but let me assure you there's no narrative to these pictures.  They're just ones I thought looked cool.

WOW!  Beautiful weather today!  The Jr. Highs went to St. Michael's and worked at the soup kitchen.  They served meals while I washed dishes in the back.  "That's okay, don't worry about me.  I'll be fine." 

The senior highs went to the tenement museum and learned about the Irish immigrant experience in the 19th century.  Responses vary, but seem to think that the tour guide would have been more effective if she didn't think that 19th c. NYC was pretty much like present-day Georgia (dirt roads? really?).

After our morning activities 5 guys went to the Yankees game (Rays win!) while the rest of us took our pilgrimage to Ground Zero and St. Paul's.  It was a beautiful day to walk down the West Side Hwy.  but it may have been hard to concentrate on man's inhumanity to man when there were all the pretty people sunning on the grass beside us or roller blading around us.

We left the seminary at 2pm, arrived at Ground Zero around 3:15, to St. Paul's Chapel at 3:25, then on the "1" up to Harlem to meet my cousin April for a tour of Harlem.  Okay, not so much a tour as a "walk around and see what you see."  But we made our way to Morningside Park and sat and watched people.  One of us was just about to move from the "making eyes" phase to the "hi, what's your name" phase with a cutie in the park, but then April and I ruined the moment by saying it was time to go.  To get from one side of the park to the other (it's a very long and narrow park) we had to climb up a long and lovely marble staircase.  Before I could use the edit on my brain, I asked if anyone wanted to race up the stairs.  I managed to come in 2nd but wondered if 3 chaperones would be enough when the ambulance came to take me away.  

We met the Yankees game at Columbia University and walked down to see St. John the Divine, before dispersing into small groups on Broadway for dinner.  At 7pm, we regathered in front of Columbia University and went down to Times Square to see Mamma Mia, Lion King, and Chicago, while I took the Yankees group to a movie.

Everyone made it back safe and sound around 11pm (though the Chicago gang had a weirdo hanging around their group after the show while they waited for the other groups to join them, which gave their outing a little extra spice).  I thought we were going to have an early night, but as it turned out we got to engage in my extra-special activity at General Seminary.  We sat around on the lawn in adirondack chairs and pondered the fate of the universe under the stars.  My friend Norm, the rector of St. Luke's who brought his EYC here this weekend also, invited me over and the male members of our group joined us to wonder about Biblical literalism; how old the earth is; whether Rome High is segregated by intellect, race, or class; how the Greek language is like Russian; and why it's so hard to give a homeless guy a Coke when you're 8 years old. 

Not to  be outdone, the female members decided to join us as well, but we sent them to their own corner of the lawn, and were not privy to their conversations.

Oh, best moment of the day.  We got off the "1" at 7th Ave. and 18th St. and I thought I'd see how they were learning their way around, so I told Ellen to get us home and wouldn't give any advice.  And she did it, taking us the shortest, most direct route.  Hooray for Ellen!

Tomorrow is breakfast at a French restaurant nearby that has their butter specially made by Jesus, or at least one of the apostles, then off to church in the morning, fun in the afternoon, more church in the early evening, dinner, then wrap it up with a little church.  Hey, they knew it was a church trip....

Greg

ps - 3 questions:

1. Who's playing Tetris on their cell phone at 12:54am after drinking not 1, but 2 Red Bulls after 10pm?

2. Who got lost crossing the street?

3. Who was making eyes in Morningside Park?

Answer to all 3: What happens in New York stays in New York!

HOW COME NOBODY'S COMMENTING?  DIDN'T YOU SEE THE CHEWED-UP COOKIES COMING OUT OF KATIE'S AND ALLISON'S MOUTHS?  THE BEAUTIFUL SEMINARY?  THE BANNER AT HOLY APOSTLES?  TALK TO US!

Rain, rain, and more rain

Now that we have a photo card reader, a new battery for my laptop, and a little time to get settled, here are some pictures!!!!!  We have lots of pictures by lots of people of  lots of people, and now that the technical challenges seem to have resolved I'll work on that tomorrow.

Greg here, at the end of another full day.  Anne and I walked into a light drizzle at 7:15 on our way to Murray's Bagels to pick up breakfast for the crew.  The bagels and muffins quickly disappeared but the rain sure didn't.  Nevertheless, we kept our appts. for Friday morning.  The senior highs walked up 9th Ave. to 28th St., where Holy Apostles Episcopal Church serves meals to several hundred people a day in the same space where they worship.  Imagine if we took the pews out of the church and put in chairs and the people at our soup kitchen had lunch surrounded by beautiful stained glass and high vaulted ceilings.  Imagine if we served food to anyone who wanted it in the same spot where we received food and drink in thankfulness and celebration of God's love for us.

Sorry, I slipped into the pulpit there for a moment.

Anyway, Allison or a special guest blogger will have to tell you more about it because I wasn't there but I think you should be able to see a picture from Holy Apostles somewhere in this post.

Meanwhile the junior highs were making a separate pilgrimage to beautiful downtown Newark, NJ.  Okay, we were schlepping to rainy, ugly, depressed Newark, and to the port of Newark to boot, though I must say the PATH train that takes you there is nicer than the NYC subways.  We were picked up at the terminal by my friend and fellow priest Megan Sanders, who works as a chaplain at the port of Newark for the Seamens Church Institute.    Unfortunately we didn't make it onto a ship as we'd hoped, but that was another example of the incredible restrictions that have been put on the sailors since Sept. 11th.  Most of you will hear more about this trip to the port in a sermon or two in the future, but let me just say that the magnitude of the operation was mind-blowing.  Enormous cranes that must be at least 300 feet tall are lined up one after another, picking up trailers from 18-wheelers and loading them onto or off of ships. 

Except most of them aren't operating right now because the economy isn't doing much, so these gi-normous cranes are sitting still, and the fenced-in areas are full of Kias and Hyundais and who knows what else.  Anyway, Megan drove us around the shipyard in the rain and told us about the work she does as a chaplain, which is basically to try to help the sailors, who can no longer leave the ship while it's in dock, by lending them cell phones and giving them lip balm and hand lotion, and knitted hats and new socks, all as an effort remind them that they are human beings of value in this world.

After the port, Megan drove us into the city where we lunched at Chelsea Market, home of Food Network studios, Eleni's cookies, Fat Witch brownies, and all manner of wonderful foods.  After sampling many more things than we should have, we walked in the rain the 4 blocks back to our apt. at the seminary.  

And this is where it got interesting.  Having walked through the rain twice already, I suggested first to the chaperones and then the EYC that maybe taking the pilgrimage to Ground Zero should be postponed because of the rain, and that instead they could go to either the Natural History museum or the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  They all agreed the weather was too bad for the pilgrimage and I thought we were all settled.

But then the senior high guys reminded me that they were looking for a time to go out as a group without a chaperone.  

And then the senior high gals reminded me that they were looking for a time to go out as a group without a chaperone.  

And then the senior high guys thought they wanted to go to Greenwich Village and China Town and check out some of the local shops.

And then the senior high gals thought they wanted to go back to Fifth Ave. and see the rest of the shops they'd missed last night.

And then the junior high gals thought they'd love to go shopping on Fifth Ave.

I mentioned that if everyone was willing to walk the streets to go shopping, then we should be able to walk the streets for our pilgrimage.

But as Ray Stevens once famously sang, "it was too late."

My friends, I had been duped.  Bamboozled.  Shnookered.  The barn door was already open and there was no closing it now.  So three groups went shopping in the rain and a much smaller (but morally superior, I assure you) group checked out the Natural History Museum.

I'll confess there was a moment there when I was feeling a little peeved at the turn of events.  But then I met Megan and two other former classmates at the Half King pub while the rest were returning from their outings, and after a Salmon and Crab burger with fries and a Boddingtons, I realized I was just miffed that people were doing what they wanted to do and not what I wanted them to do, and maybe I should just get over it.  So I did.  And there was much rejoicing...

After we had all collected ourselves, we embarked on our last trip of the night, over to the "1" train to head over to the Staten Island Ferry.  Basically, a big, slow boat takes you from the southeast corner of downtown Manhattan over to Staten Island.  Then you get off the boat, turn around and reboard it and head back to Manhattan.  On this cloudy, rainy, and cold June night, we still stood on the outside of the boat and saw the Statue of Liberty in a beautiful, almost somber light, and saw the silhouette of Ellis Island and, of course, the skyline of Manhattan at night.  

I mostly enjoyed the night by offering a crisp $1 bill to the first person who could correctly quote the famous lines written for the Statue of Liberty.  I kept offering false clues to throw them off:

"Give me liberty or..."

"Ask not what your country can do for you..."

"When in the course of human events..."

"Four score and seven years ago..."

Anne Kerr finally let the cat out of the bag, but a fine time was had by...well, by me, anyway.

Upon returning we learned that the weather forecast for tomorrow is bright skies and warm sunshine on our faces.  We also decided to postpone our Today show trip until Monday morning, so we (okay, they, I'm not getting up that early) can have a chance to see Matt and Meredith, etc.

Tomorrow includes Yankees game, Mamma Mia, Lion King, Chicago, Tenement Museum, Soup Kitchen, and, just maybe, a little pilgrimage after all.

It's midnight.  All the guys but one are asleep (yes, Mom, it's probably your son), so I'll sign off.

Peace, Greg

New York  City! Wow we finally made it. I was not expecting what I saw today. There was a totally different feeling as I crossed the state, an inordinate anount of land scape filled with nothing  but bareness and a couple patches of trees, but who cared it was New York City! As we landed in Lagardia we were not welcomed by anyone or had that warm feeling. It kinda stunk, but  I was just so excited to be in the big apple the first time. As we waited in line and gathered with our groups, there were hundreds of taxis awaiting some of us. I totally didn’t care which one I got in, I was just hopping for a cash cab. Amy, Lucy, and myself all gathered in this taxi with nicked paint aqnd an assortment of trash collected at the bottom. It was totally ewww! We had a driver namned Islam Shaki, don’t ask me how I remebered that I just did, and he took FOREVER to get to our destination. Mrs. Amyand I still think that he took us the long way to get moremoney because everyone alse paid at least 7 dollars less then we did. As we got to the seminary we were lead to our rooms. Some how the girls, which totally dominated the boys, got the smallest room so we inded up trading. I shared a room with Lucy and Allison, and we kinda had some space issues so Haley oppted to move rooms, As we all pumped our air matresses up and got “settled in”, we had some free time. A lot of us went across the street and played frisby, which lead to getting hit in the hip and thrown into the road, but its all good…. The game consisted of Jake Taylor, Matt Summerlin, Katie Lansing, Lucy Lansing(photo taker most of the time), Bryan Hostetler, and myself. I found that day that I am pretty much the worst “frisbier” in the whole world! lol. As we finished that we all got a tour of the church! it was beautiful everything was hand made and the stain glass windows were exquisite! After a little history we had the best sandwhiches known to man! They were perfect, We finally got a little more break and kthen we were off to church. I had the privelage of being an acolyte and I loved it. We met another church group from floride calledSt. Lukes Episcipol church. They were really sweet and we were all greeted earlier. The service felt different from the one here in St. Peters. I t was more opened and kinda not as  homey but no one cared because the church we were serving in was amazing.  I have the privelage to say that I was able to ring the church bell  18 times. It weas exciting. haha, but enough of that. Next we had a cook out with burgers and hot dogs and an assortment of salads. but it lead to a mean game of four square which I was ganged up on by Matt, Jake T, and Bryan, even some of my girlfriends! but it was really fun.  We werea ble to come backj grab a couple od things then we were headed up to Central Park, I think that it waould have been better during the day,  but we did not complain. then we waalked our way to the Rock! it was the most beautiful thing that I have seen. So many lights I just couldn’t stand it. I never knew that this city could look so exceptuional, but let me tell you we were all ready to head home, after about 65 blocks I think  we finally reached our “home”.  I don’t know about some people  but I fell asleep so I that was kinda the end to my story. Miss all of yall home. I love you mom and dad!!!!

Julia Taylor

(day one)

Whew! Day 1 is in the books.  Good news everyone - we started the day with 21 and I just counted 21 just entering the apt. bldg. heading for bed.  This is Greg giving this post as our regularly scheduled bloggers are too pooped to type.  

We left at 7:10am and arrived at the airport around 8:45, checked in without incident, and had 90 minutes to sit in the airport.  We were greeted by Remy's and Ella's dads, who had other reasons to be at the airport.  Asa absolutely won the award for least luggage, having approximately 1/2 of a duffel bag, total.

The flight took off nearly an hour late, but still landed within 10 minutes of the projected time.  We took 7 yellow taxis from LaGuardia, and all arrived safe and sound.  Only one got abused by taking the long way to run up a bigger fare, and only one (that I know of) gave a $10 tip.  

Beloved Frankie's deli had all 21 sandwich orders ready and waiting for us for a 2pm lunch.  I say beloved because the owner, Frankie, has been a friend to seminarians for many, many years and was recently given the Clement Clark Moore medal by the seminary, on the same day that our presiding bishop, Katherine Jefferts Schori, was given an honorary doctorate.  Frankie got much bigger applause. 

Wandering around the seminary I ran into lots of people I knew and they all asked the same question:  "How are the boys?"  Hi, Andrew and James!  I had an amazing small world moment when I saw my friend Chris who works at the seminary and he introduced me to his asst., whose name escapes me at 12:38am.  She asked me where I lived and when I said Rome, GA, she asked me if I knew Grant Ammerman and John Uldrick.  Grant Ammerman is known to me as Andrew's science teacher, Mr. Ammerman, and John Uldrick is the youth minister at 1st Baptist, Rome, who will be participating with us in our EnterFaith program this fall.  John was her youth minister in Orlando.  

After lunch we went and set up our rooms, the boys in a studio apt. and the girls in a spacious 2 BR apt.  But we got the air conditioner!  It took us a while to carry all the boxes of bedding across the street from the mail room.  After all that strenuous work the girls went to their room for some post-travel chatter and the boys went to sleep.  At 5pm we took a brief tour of the seminary (purely for my nostalgic needs), including the Harry Potteresque refectory, and a brief meeting on walking around in NYC.

At 6pm we had Eucharist in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd.  We used the Wednesday night Celtic Eucharist from St. Peter's.  Greg swallowed hard once or twice.  Julia rang the bell 9 times (as God intended) to signal the beginning of the service.

After Eucharist we had a cookout with the EYC of St. Luke's, Marianna.  I conveniently forgot to request a veggie burger, so I was forced to call my favorite Thai restaurant for takeout (veggie spring rolls!!!!).  A frisbee game and a 4-Square game broke out.  Jake hit sister Julia with the frisbee (shocker).  At 8pm we began...the walks.

First walk:  up two streets to 23rd and over 1 avenue to 8th to buy Metrocards (thanks auction people!).  20 cards x $20 = a lot of money.  We took the C train to 72nd St. for a brief look at Strawberry Fields (dedicated to John Lennon, who lived across the street).  

Second walk:  with it getting too dark for compline in the park, we decided to walk to the middle of the park to see the famous fountain area (seen in Enchanted) and the Mall (seen in lots of movies).  We ended up just walking on down to the south end of Central Park and on down to Rockefeller Center.  That's 3 avenues East and 22 streets South.  

The walk to Rockefeller Center was probably the highlight of the day for everyone.  We strolled down 5th Ave. from 59th to 50th, which was right in the heart of the swanky shopping district.  Even those who don't really care for shopping and name brands (hello, Patrick) were nonetheless caught up in the energy of the walk.  Others (okay, girls) were dancing and making happy sounds and taking pictures and thinking of ways to become millionaires.  

Rockefeller Center was a great experience, even on a somewhat overcast night.  The temperature was perfect and the views are incredible.  Look north and see this big blacked out rectangle - that's Central Park.  Look south and it's the Empire State Bldg.

Third Walk:  After the Rock, we decided to take the bus down 7th ave. rather than another loud subway ride.  So we hoofed it over from 6th and 50th to 7th ave. and 49th st. to take the Southbound M20 bus.  But I forgot that Time Sq. stretches up 7th Ave. and that catching a bus in that madness was near impossible.  So we walked 2 more avenues west to 9th Ave. and decided to take the M11 southbound bus straight to the seminary.  One problem.  We just missed the 11:00pm bus and the next bus wasn't until 11:18.  We then decided that walking beat cooling our heels, so we continued our walk from 49th st. to 20th st.  It appears we have begun our walking tour of NYC one day early.  

It's amazing how these neighborhoods can turn in a heartbeat.  At 42nd st., going under the Lincoln Tunnel, we walk by a gaggle of scary-looking dudes.  At 41st st. there's a bunch of swanky looking people having an expensive dinner on a sidewalk cafe.  But then three of the scary looking dudes turned out to be quite nice and we talked about the Lakers-Magic game a couple of streets later.

All in all we returned at 11:40pm ready for showers and bed, happy on our air mattresses and, I think, happy to be here.  I know I am.

In the morning we'll split up into jr. and sr. groups.  That should make for a more manageable group.  We'll post some pictures tomorrow, too.  We're going to buy a card reader so our photographers' cameras can talk to my laptop.

3 questions for you, dear readers:

- Who said, "Oh my God, spinny doors!  I love spinny doors!"

- Who's reading Fareed Zakaria's "The Post-American World"?

- Who's trying to pick out the penthouse he or she is planning to move into?

Thanks, everyone back in Rome, GA for making this trip possible.

Are you a little nervous?  

I'm a little nervous.

There are lots of things I'm not nervous about.  I'm not nervous about walking through the Big Apple with a bunch of members of St. Peter's, no matter how old they are.  I'm not nervous that anybody's going to get eaten, or run over by a black limo, or even that the EYC'ers will get into too much stuff they shouldn't.

But I am nervous.  Maybe it's because I'm bringing people from my new world in Rome and taking them to my old world.  Maybe I'm nervous because we've all put a lot of work into this trip and I want it to be a great experience.

Nah, that's not it.

I think the truth is that I HEART NY.  I heart it hard.  There's nothing I like better than walking down a sidewalk in Manhattan and seeing a million little things going on.  I HEART NY and I want these people that I spend a lot of time with every week to have a great visit, and maybe to HEART NY a little when they're flying home.

No good comes of this sentiment, of course.  There's nothing that turns someone off more than trying too hard.  So...sometime tomorrow I'm going to take a deep breath and realize that I've put all the spit and polish on my favorite city that I can and we're just going to see what happens.  Or, as some silent movie star is reported to have said long ago, "Honey, we're just gonna leave it where Jesus flung it."

Peace, Greg