Summer

What I've been up to over the past couple of months.

Dear friends,

So good to be able to write to you again after a bit of break. The last letter I sent was from way back in June. A lot has happened since then for me, and I am sure, for you.

The two big highlights for me were some vacation and a lovely week of study leave.

For our family vacation, we drove through the most boring parts of America to Southern Ontario (arguably the most boring part of Canada) to visit with our family, first in Burlington, Ontario , and then afterward in Listowel, Ontario.

I was able to scoot into Toronto for a very short afternoon visit with some dear friends and a dear mentor.

Just outside Union Station, Toronto.

From Ontario, Amy and I were able to fly away for a week in Scotland.

I went to Edinburgh for a week of study leave, working through a course on the Scottish Episcopal Church. One of the blessings of serving as a priest in the USA or Canada, is that there is time set aside every year for continuing education. Pastoral ministry is a joy and privilege, but its busy, and without time away to learn and reflect, one can feel like one is trying to draw water from an empty well. I am so grateful for this time, and I always return to the parish beat feeling refreshed and ready to serve Christ and his Church after time away like I had this summer.

And, to top it off, because I have saintly in-laws, who lovingly cared for our four boys, Amy was able to join me. This meant we were able to cram some adventures into this time away.

It was a wonderful week. I learned a lot about the Scottish Episcopal Church, read some good books, saw some important churches and sights, and I even finished a book proposal.

Some highlights of the week: Edinburgh Castle; St. Mary's Cathedral, where worshipped on Sunday; Amy and I in the Highlands; New College Library (inside and outside) where I spent time working; the interior of St. Mary's, along with an icon.

Writing

This has been a somewhat fallow time in terms of writing that I can share. And, for the past month, I have not been preaching, so I don’t have any sermons.

• You might be interested in this very short piece on reading Augustine’s De Doctrina Christiana in our parish newsletter, however.

All of this said, despite appearances, I have been busy this summer.

I was able to plot out my next book, and cobble together a proposal that I am hoping and praying will be well received. I finished a major academic essay that is now under review, and I’ve got a few shorter, popular essays I am waiting to hear back on.

My work is continuing and I am hopeful I can share some of this with my next missal.

Reading

Though there is little I can share with respect to writing, I was able to read quite a lot over the past months and this has been great. Here’s what I’ve had a chance to read:

• Andy Crouch’s The Tech-Wise Family. I know I am a little late to this one, and I know Amy is far more responsible when it comes to monitoring our family’s screen time. But overall this book was helpful provided some useful guidance, even if sometimes it felt a little overly idealistic.

  

  A terrifying and meaningless image created by AI when I used the prompt “tech-wise family”.

• Edgar H. Schein’s Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling was another more practical book. I’ve been interested in learning how to listen well and to communicate more effectively. There were some insights here, but overall the book was a little too ‘business-y’. Works by Chris Voss or even Kate Murphy’s You’re Not Listening (which I mentioned back in March) are a lot more pleasant to read and also more instructive.

• I read a couple of graphic novels this summer. The first Berlin: City of Stones by Jason Lutes chronicles the decline of the Weimar Republic in the late 20s and 30s. The art was a great, but the plot was a little too complex for the medium, at least it was difficult for me to follow.

• Mercury by Hope Larson was another story. This delightful graphic novel set in rural Nova Scotia that relays two story lines—one from the 19th century and one in the present—that are deeply entwined. It was magical and fun and made my heart sick for the Maritimes.

  

• Ross Gay has been on my a mind a lot this year. I read his Book of Delights, which is a collection of short essays on things that delight Gay written over the course of a year. He writes about all kinds of things: observing a praying mantis, hustling a tomato seedling through airport security, and even harvesting his urine in Gatorade bottles (a mistake, by the way) in order to use it in his garden. I laughed out loud several times.

• Less funny, but only by a little, is St. Augustine’s De Doctrina Christiana or On Christian Teaching. I read this volume by Augustine first about a decade ago, and it’s featured prominently in my thought since then. Augustine here teaches Christians some tools for how to read Scripture well. I reread it with our Men’s Summer Depth Group at Christ Church. It’s been a great refresher.

  

• I picked up Shane McCrae’s collection of poems, The Gilded Auction Block. A darkly funny commentary on the craziness of American life and politics over the past several years.

• I also read through a course on the history of the Scottish Episcopal Church that is taught to seminarians at the Scottish Episcopal Institute. Fr. Stephen Holmes prepared the course and kindly passed on the material to me. This helped anchor my trip to Edinburgh.

• Probably the most influential book I read this summer was Pahl Zahl’s Grace in Practice: A Theology of Everyday Life. I was familiar with some of Zahl’s more recent books like Peace in the Last Third of Life, and know some of his big ideas through Mockingbird (we are hosting a Mbird conference in Tyler at the end of September by the way!).
  
  The book is in part a biblical/systematic theology of grace followed by some more practical theology. Essentially, for Zahl, drawing heavily from Luther, there are two forces at work in the world. These are Law and Grace. Law stipulates what is good and holy (this the Decalogue). The Law is true but it does not have the power to accomplish what it commands. This only comes via Grace, or God’s one-way, unconditional love. Paradoxically, it’s only Grace that frees us to fulfill the spirit of the Law.
  
  I found Zahl’s theology here convincing, but I found the second part of the book, which focuses on how this plays out in families to be even more compelling. I’m still thinking through the implications, but I can say the book was really edifying and left me feeling lighter.

  

• Frances Young’s Scripture, the Genesis of Doctrine has been with me for a few months now as I was slowly working through this magisterial treatment of the interplay between Scripture and doctrine in the early Church. A review is forthcoming, so I will not say more now.

• Finally, I listened to Wild and Precious: A Celebration of Mary Oliver, which is what it sounds like. I am an Oliver fan, and Sophia Bush walks the listener through her life and work in a fun and lively way. There are also many special guests including Ross Gay (whom I love) and Rainn Wilson (the actor who plays Dwight in The Office).

To be honest, I was hoping to get a lot more reading time than I did this summer. Or maybe I am just overly optimistic about what I could accomplish with the time I had. Reading is deeply refreshing and real pleasure but I seldom feel like I get to do it enough.

I’ve got a few more books on the go right now that I’ll share with you in September.

Listening

I listened to a lot of great music this summer. But the two bands that were on rotation most for me were Right Away Great Captain!, a side project from Andy Hull of Manchester Orchestra. RAGC is a lo-fi and folksy lament centered around the life of fictional sailor. I’ve been listening to Hull since I was 16 years old and still love his stuff.

Another band that’s been with me for a while and who served as a kind of soundtrack to my summer is Bon Iver. The self-title Bon Iver was what I listened to most, but also this version of “Heavenly Father”.

If you haven’t listened to this before, do yourself a favo(u)r and have a listen. This is one of the best arguments for the existence of Youtube.

Watching

The Bear, season 3 was great but left us hanging.

Amy and I rewatched Stranger Things, season 4, which totally drew us in. Stranger Things is my favo(u)rite show of all time. I am beyond ready for the fifth and final season to release next year.

Also, kind of on a whim, we watch Saving Private Ryan. I think I watched it around the time it was first released. I remember liking it then, but seeing it now years later, I appreciate even more the wonderful storytelling and cinematography.

Tasting

So, the big gustatory experience this summer was the Scottish breakfast, pictured below:

This was a wonderful and magnificent meal that kept me full late into the afternoon. It included homemade bread (along with butter and/or marmalade), eggs, bacon (Scottish/English bacon is more like Canadian peameal), tattie scone (a fried scone with potato in it), vegetarian haggis (with lentils), Lorne sausage (a savory, square beef sausage), black pudding (first time trying it!), beans, and mushrooms. This was accompanied by a cup of decent coffee.

Second, a very kind friend and parishioner gifted me a pipe and some Peterson Navy Rolls. This is by fare the nicest pipe I have had and probably will have. And the Navy Rolls have this wonderful sweet, zesty, dried fruit and hay- like flavor. Delicious! I can’t wait for the cooler weather to descend on Texas to heighten the experience.

Well, that’s about all from me folks. I’ll return to regularly scheduled programming in September.

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I appreciate you taking the time to read these words.

In Christ,

Cole+