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My sabbatical month away was refreshing and stimulating and I appreciate your generosity in providing it for me. Bruce and I spent the month traveling to England and visiting family. In a Holy Spirit sort of way, the theme of space and time surfaced wherever I went.

Our journey was an intersection of Church and Empire. We worshiped at Yorkminster, St. Paul’s and Westminster over All Saints’ and Remembrance Day. Bruce had interest in all things nautical and so we visited Portsmouth harbor and toured Lord Nelson’s ship, the Victory. We followed that up with a visit to Greenwich, exploring the Royal Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory where the prime meridian is marked. I learned more about the British Navy than I never thought I would!

The Church’s calendar and worship, our architecture and music, led me to contemplate the reality of eternity’s presence in the moment. Every moment of our lives, we are in the stream of all that was, is and shall become. From our study of British naval navigation, I learned that the ability or inability to tell time at sea drove the astronomers to develop charts of places on the globe. This was driven by the needs of Empire for business and war.

Advent is a season when we engage time uniquely. We remember the first coming of our Lord as we await the ever effusive arrival at the Second. In the meantime, in our flesh we mark and enliven our time.

Reverend Lisa Hunt, Rector