Triduum

This year was the first time I've ever been able to go to Good Friday services at Stiggy's. Usually I have to work and all, but this year I finally took my discretionary holiday and stayed home. So for the first time, I'll be able to go to all three Triduum services-- Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Great Vigil.

I hate Lent as a general rule, but the Triduum makes it totally worth it. And the Vigil is one of my three favorite services (the other two being Christmas Eve and Blessing of the Animals), even though I'm exhausted by the time it rolls around.

I've learned a lot at Stiggy's, even though (or maybe because) it's so different from my home church and my family's traditions. And beyond what I've learned about Anglo-Catholicism and orthodoxy, I've also learned things about myself, clarified what I believe and why I worship the way I do. Part of that has come from constantly negotiating compromises between the Anglo-Catholic traditions and my own, more Protestant, theology (I'll kneel for the Eucharistic prayers but not for the Creed; I'll genuflect before the altar but with a curtsy, not a full-blown kneel; I'll venerate the cross on Good Friday with the triple genuflection and prostrate myself before it, but I don't kiss it; etc.), and part of it comes from being exposed to new ways of worshiping and thinking about God. I certainly enjoy all the Latin, that's for sure.

I don't know where we'll end up, liturgically speaking. Adam did his field work within very high church traditions, and he likes them, but I think he's ready for a change. I think I am, too. I guess it'll all depend on where he gets a job, and what kinds of churches we find in Chicago.

Let the church-hunting begin, I guess!