Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 18 (The SFTS Seraphs)

My incoming class just might be a little psychotic, and I'm not helping (BWA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!)

We've been talking about this whole quidditch thing for a while and we found out we have a soccer team and a ping pong team. Our soccer team is called the "sacramentals," and as far as I know, the ping pong team does not have a mascot. This is unacceptable. If we are going to have a quidditch team, we need a proper mascot. We talked to the Greek professor and she said that we could come up with one, so we decided that we are now the "STFS Seraphs." A Seraph is basically a warrior angel, much like in the picture above. Yes, that picture is Serra Angel from Magic: The Gathering, and yes I knew exactly where to find a picture like this because I am that much of a nerd. Although I haven't played a game of Magic in years, I still maintain that it is one of the best designed games ever invented. I did bring three or four decks with me just in case...

I'm supposed to come up with a seraph logo that we're going to put it on sweatshirts to sell as a fundraiser.....we'll see, LOL.

I had to explain the quidditch rules to a girl we might tap to be the snitch.

We're planning phone and email lists, weekly lunches gatherings and Grey's Anatomy dinners. And, a big group of us decided we're all taking a class together at the Unitarian Seminary. I can't wait to see how they react to a bunch of SFTS kids all showing up at the same time!

I love how well we're gelling together, but this might make studying an homework a little difficult. Oh well...

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 16 (Harry Potter is My Life)

I can't believe it's only Tuesday; this orientation thing keeps you busy! Filled out a bunch of forms and had my picture taken for the second time, not counting all the shots they got of me talking to our new Roman Catholic dean at the get-together earlier tonight where I was sweating like a pig. I really need to see a doctor about this blood pressure medication because this sweating side affect is really starting to get on my nerves. I can't get over how cool it is that we have a Roman Catholic sister as the dean for our Presbyterian Seminary!

Anyway, I'm starting to get to know my classmates and I'm starting to realize just how liberal this school really is. I don't think I necessarily have a problem with it, I mean hey, they accepted me right?, but they seem to be awfully fond of pushing the envelope. I might even come across as looking pretty conservative once all is said and done. Everyone keeps telling me that seminary will radically alter my views, and maybe it will, but I come from a pretty solid and apparently conservative Presbyterian background, so who knows?

After the get together, five of us threw together an impromptu dinner of onions, olives, zucchini and anchovies with some fettucini. It turned out really good. I even tossed in a 99 cent jar of mixed wild mushrooms and it worked out great. I was a little scared of the mushrooms because I had never tried them before, but I figured if I was ever going to use them, now was my chance. It was so great cooking in a normal sized kitchen again instead of my tiny Oxtaby one.

Our class consists of, but is not limited to, a pastry chef, a math teacher, a business major, a med student and 2 marines from California, Alaska, Montana, Colorado, North Carolina and Korea. I've already registered for 17 units. Every day has been more strange and exciting and wonderful than the last. And, magical. Here is some evidence that I might have accidentally enrolled at Hogwarts:

1. The administrative building and one of the classroom wings are actual castles.

2. Depending on how long you've been going to school, you are either called a first-year, second-year, third-year or fourth-year.

3. One of the ancient language teachers looks like Professor McGonagall and the teacher that has us growing things in the dirt looks like Professor Sprout.

4. The names of the courses sound like the courses at Hogwarts: Hermenutics, Homiletics, Exegesis, Pentateuch, etc.

5. We have to learn dead arcane languages.

6. I brought some of my things with me in a big green trunk with brass fittings.

7. Each student is allowed to bring one cat.

8. Our house names are Oxtoby, Landon, Trinity and Dobbins.

9. We learn our craft from ancient texts written by guys that have been dead for thousands of years.

10. There is a better than average chance I will be joining the Quidditch team before the end of the year.

Don't be jealous.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 15 (Ready for Battle)

Today was the first day of orientation, which is going to last all week. There's a lot of stuff to know! The ordination process takes an average of 3 years, which should happen concurrently while taking classes and tests for the Masters program. I need to get psych evals, write essays and be interviewed to make sure my theology is up to snuff. I'm currently working on the first phase, which is to become an inquirer, but I keep putting off finishing the essays. I wish I wasn't such a procrastinator.

Lunch came with some eye-opening conversation. Apparently, Santa Barbara Presbytery, the presbytery that I belong to, is super ultra-conservative. Presbyteries are the churches equivalent of states, like Santa Barbara Presbytery = Texas. I guess I was pretty naive this whole time because when I think of Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, I think of artsy hippie wine drinkers. A couple of my friends were telling me that I might want to try to get ordained in a more liberal presbytery, like San Francisco, but Ventura is where my heart is, and if Santa Barbara Presbytery really is as conservative as they say it is, then I think it's more important for me to try to make things better over there. I know God has put me where I am in order to change things, to make them better. For the past few decades, the church has been hurting itself and the community around it. I was born and raised in the Presbyterian Church; I love this church with every fiber of my being and am proud to call myself a Presbyterian. I realize the fight ahead of me will be hard, but I have a loving family and a wonderful congregation that I'm hoping will stand by my side during this process. I'm not sure why God decided I was the right person to do this, but he did, and if God is for me, who can be against me?

On a lighter note, a bunch of us first-years went to dinner tonight. There was talk of forming a quidditch team... no joke. We had a really great time getting to know each other, and afterwards, one of the girls gave us a tour of Trinity House, the intentional christian living community house. Seven of us ended up on the roof looking up at the stars and listening to the wind blowing through the trees. For a while, I felt like I was on a warped version of MTV's "The Real World." We took seven strangers, put them in seminary...

The minute I stepped out of my car the very first time visiting this school, I knew this is where I was meant to be. I know it won't last forever, but leaving this place is going to be one of the hardest things I will ever have to do.