CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL An Episcopal Community in the Heart of Houston, Texas
MAY 2018 CHRISTCHURCHCATHEDRAL.ORG
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Sowing the Seed a huge success The Sowing the Seed capital campaign launched with a festive dinner on January 28. Since then, the capital campaign committee has been hard at work canvassing, producing informative campaign videos, and staying in touch with the parish through mailings. After eleven weeks of this prayerful labor and much support from the congregation, on Sunday, April 15, Sow- The Very Rev. Dean Barkley Thompson with Margot and John Cater, campaign ing the Seed drew to a co-chairs, and Karen Kraycirik, minister of stewardship, at the Sowing the Seed Celebration on Thursday, April 19, at the Wynden. close. On Thursday, April 19, more than 200 paApproved by the vestry in October 2017, the campaign’s focus was threefold: (1) once-in-a- rishioners attended the celebration event for generation restoration and renovation efforts the capital campaign, held at The Wynden on for the Cathedral campus; (2) fully funding Post Oak Lane. There was an atmosphere of the Tom Barrow and Stuart Hellmann Legacy thanksgiving and fellowship as the crowd waitFund for Cathedral Preservation to keep pace ed in anticipation for the final numbers to be with necessary and ongoing major repairs; and revealed. Campaign co-chairs John and Mar(3) continuing meaningful outreach, designat- got Cater were pleased to announce that the ing funds for the Mary and Walter Taylor Out- campaign had not only reached its $10 million reach Fund to support The Beacon and other goal but had exceeded it by $2.8 million. SOWING, page 8 outreach initiatives.
Making sacred space in Reynolds Hall The Cathedral’s renovation of the sanctuary this summer means services will take place in a new space on campus: Reynolds Hall. However, it will not be the Reynolds Hall that parishioners have known and loved for years; it will be transformed, each Sunday, into a sacred space. While this recurring conversion, from midweek Treebeards to Sunday worship space and then back again, will require some logistics and coordination, the planning committee has made every effort to create a worship place for “church as usual,” says David Simpson, chief operating officer. “Our message is ‘Come share community in a
sacred space.’ This isn’t just services held in a conference room.”
Coming together “My first bishop used to say that we consecrate holy things by their use,” says the Very Rev. Barkley Thompson. “Just so, as we gather this summer in Reynolds Hall for Eucharist, it will become sacred space.” “It is our hope that this alternative space will look and feel familiar, enabling those who attend to experience church.” In terms of duplicating some of the Cathedral’s liturgical architecture, for example, the
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Faith lessons from a comedian Recently, Netflix released “Jerry Before Seinfeld,” about the comedian’s early stand-up career. I remember Jerry Seinfeld way back then. I always liked his act. Seinfeld was funny, self-deprecating, and satirical, and he never lapsed into being vicious or crude. Even now, when I view old clips of his act, Seinfeld’s humor seems effortless. Consequently, I was surprised in the documentary to learn the time and labor that Jerry Seinfeld puts into each THE VERY REV. joke. As an example, BARKLEY Seinfeld’s act once inTHOMPSON cluded a ninety-second riff on the children’s breakfast cereal Cookie Crisp. The joke seemed extemporaneous, with each line being off-thecuff. It turns out, however, that the Cookie Crisp joke was the result of several long pages of iterations, scratch-throughs, and discarded punchlines. At one point, Seinfeld even considered mentioning the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in the joke. (He ultimately decided against it.) Jerry Seinfeld worked on that individual joke for hours, if not days, before it was ready for use on the stage. In the documentary, it is obvious that Jerry Seinfeld loves comedy. For him, comedy is not merely his job; it is his passion. Seinfeld says, “When a bit is your act and your act is your life, you know every letter of every word. Every note of inflection and timing.” The internal effect of such attention and care is counterintuitive. One might think such dedication would be a heavy and onerous burden. But Jerry Seinfeld demonstrates that it is not. Knowing his craft so intimately actually grants Seinfeld a lightness and a joy, because his jokes practically
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