The beginning of an extended period of structured humiliation.

As I said a few weeks ago, I'm now officially a postulant for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church, which means that I am entering an extended (at least 3-4 year) period of training and formation for the role. I like to call it a 'structured humiliation' b/c along with education, postulancy is meant to beat the rough edges off of you to get you in shape for the priesthood - to give you an opportunity to become aware of your flaws and do what you can to minimize them while also maximizing your strengths. Already we/I've established that (my paraphrase) 1) I'm often awkwardly and distractingly nervous in situations where I'm being evaluated or critiqued, 2) my ironic sense of humor and delivery can be confusing and off-putting 3) I have a tendency to be overly cerebral and 4) when nervous, I unleash 'a wall of words' on my victims. On the bright side, those aren't things I haven't heard before. On the other bright side, there are also some good things about me.

It's going to be an interesting road ahead. Continuing the trajectory I've set w/previous posts, I'll try to keep you updated on my progress (and failures). I'm working on some big projects during my postulancy, so hopefully this will be more than just an ongoing report on seminary classes, which aren't really great blog-fodder in my experience. I'm approaching this as a time to apprentice into a place of leadership in the Church, and Seattle's a great place to be doing that in the Episcopal denomination. Hoping to make a mission-shaped dent in the community and the church - we'll see what happens!