CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRAL An Episcopal Community in the Heart of Houston, Texas
DECEMBER 2014 CHRISTCHURCHCATHEDRAL.ORG
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Hines Center to open in fall 2015 “And in my body, The Vestry of Christ Church Cathedral practices such as contemplative prayer, mediis pleased to announce the approval of the tative visual art including icon writing, oneBishop John E. Hines Center for Spirituality on-one spiritual direction, interfaith lectures, and film studies. & Prayer. Dean Thompson remarked, “Just as The Named to honor the legacy of the former Christ Church rector, later the fourth Bishop Beacon feeds hungry bodies in downtown of Texas and 22nd Presiding Bishop of the Houston, the Hines Center will feed hungry Episcopal Church, the Hines Center’s mission souls.” The Hines Center is a major initiative of is as follows: “The Bishop John E. Hines Center for Spirituality & Prayer seeks to facilitate HINES, page 5 knowledge of and relationship with God by nurturing the spirituality of Cathedral parishioners and those who live and work in downtown Houston through spiritual practices, prayer, and opportunities for both Christian and interfaith lecture and conversation.” The Hines Center will offer physical practices that support spiritual growth and appeal to a large cross-section of individuals coming from a broad spectrum of Christian faith. Such physical practices will include a labyrinth, sacred movement, yoga, and more. The Hines Center will be located adjacent to the Cathedral in the Episcopal Additionally, the Hines Cen- Health Foundation Building (formerly the Wilson Printing Building) at the ter will offer contemplative corner of Fannin and Prairie.
Honoring a long tradition of sacred music It’s a Thursday night and Sanders Hall is full of voices. Bob Simpson, Canon for Music at the Cathedral, is perched on a stool in the center of the room, arms waiving about in a controlled but passionate manner. Tenors, sopranos, altos, and basses warm up to songs of Advent. Even in the midst of a midweek rehearsal, the rich tradition of music at Christ Church Cathedral can be felt. With musicians going as far back as Keziah Payne in 1858, the tradition of sacred music at the Cathedral is a long and storied one. “Music is one of God’s most
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I shall see God”
In his very good book on the mystical theology of William Law, my seminary professor Alan Gregory distinguishes the bodies of angels from the bodies of men. About angelic bodies, he says this: “Angels are spirit; they enjoy a heavenly materiality. Entirely subject and obedient to their THE VERY REV. BARKLEY wills, angelic bodies are THOMPSON the immediate music of their desire. When their love turns from God, at once all is discord and loss.” It’s an interesting notion: Because angels have no physical bodies, when their spirits turn away from God, they are lost entirely. (That is, after all, the biblical story of Satan.) There is no physical, bodily anchor to keep angels tied to place and prevent them from spiraling into hell. But about human bodies, Gregory says, “Our bodies are not like that; they have their own way, acting alongside and even upon our thoughts and intentions. Their rhythms exceed our knowing; their demands resist our wills.” When our souls rebel, our very bodies can sometimes save us. That’s counterintuitive. We think of our bodies as the locus of our lusts, our addictions, and our gluttony. But consider also those times when our spirits desire things destructive, but our bodies hesitate, seemingly of their own accord. Recall those moments when our bodies resist the vices of our souls by dropping to our knees in prayer. Sometimes, indeed, it is our bodies that check the harmful inclinations of our spirits! Gregory goes on to say that, “Since we are embodied, we have our being in a material world through which we are to
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