Goodbye Yale!

There is nothing more fitting nor more glorious than six inches of snow on the last day of term.  No sooner were exams finished and essays submitted than the snowflakes began to fall.  People were outside, tobogganing down the hill, building snowmen and generally having fun.

I have now enjoyed Yale in almost every season.  From the intense heat of the Indian summer in September, through the magnificent colours of the Fall, to now the snowy depths of winter.  Perhaps one day I shall come back in the spring!  

Great British Tea Party

We decided that we wanted to say thank you to the YDS community for the wonderful, generous hospitality we have received here (a glance back through this blog shows food and drink to be a recurring theme).  What better way, we thought, to throw a Great British Tea Party?  Americans don't seem to understand the concept of tea (at least, they don't seem to appreciate that the water must be boiling when it makes contact with the tea leaves), and we wanted to share with them something from home. 

Rebekah learnt how to make clotted cream, and managed to source a bakery which makes authentic scones (the Emerald Bakery in Hamden, if anyone is interested).  Sadly they lost the original order for 60 scones, which meant a morning car-chase round New Haven seeking out the all the scones they had sold (including retrieving some from an Irish tea-shop) before finishing my essay.  Dawn spent the afternoon making cucumber sandwiches and cutting off the crusts.  Paul provided a playlist of music suitable to accompany High Tea, including the national anthem, Land of Hope and Glory and Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs.

We were thrilled that so many people came.  Students, support staff and professors (current and emeritus) all arrived to sample a cucumber sandwich and join in the debate about whether the jam or the cream should go on first.

Advent at YDS

This week has seen a plethora of advent services.  The Berkeley service took place just following AIDS memorial day, when we had five parts of the AIDS quilt hanging up around the chapel.  The service was beautiful, solemn, candle-lit, with a glorious selection of advent music.  Dawn, Rebekah and I were called up to receive farewell greetings from the Berkeley communtiy.  It felt very strange - and very sad - to be saying goodbye so soon.

The YDS advent service, on the last night of teaching term, was one of the most extraordinary services I have ever been to. We pulled out all the stops. 

Everyone was dressed up in their Christmas finery.  The AIDS quilt had gone, but from the ceiling a blue gauze canopy hung, from which hundreds of stars had been carefully suspended.  Every musical group in the Div School made a contribution (male and female a cappella groups, chapel choir, gospel choir, soloists, organists, instrumentalists, jazz musicians).  There was dancing by every liturgical dancer in the Div School.  We had not one but both homiletics professors preaching, each wearing the bright purple and pink robes of the Riverside Church in New York.  It was a riot of colour, music, and movement - ecumenical worship at its most spectacular and its most moving.

Christmas Tree-Trimming Party

On Friday night we had a tree-trimming party.  There were cookies and eggnog (the sweetened, creamy, sugary drink which is a staple of American Christmas parties).  There was a table covered in paper, card, glitter and glue for people to make their own Christmas decorations.  

This included pictures of faculty members, so you could choose your favourite professor, adorn him or her with Santa or reindeer accessories (for example) and then hang him or her on one of the two large Christmas trees at the divinity school.  Music was provided by the women's a cappella group the Sacramental Winers, our brothers, the Bible Belters, and a jazz quartet.  

Things to like about Yale #4

The Sacramental Winers

We sing a cappella music: sacred harp, folk, pop, liturgical ... you name it.  We laugh.  We drink wine and eat homemade baked goodies.  We talk and pray together.  We sing some more. Sometimes we invite other people to come and enjoy sharing with us and our music.  We are the most fun and supportive group of women I have ever been part of.

Environmental outrage

Paul and I witnessed an environmental outrage this week in the form of shrink-wrapped logs.  That is, the kind of logs which you put on the fire.  In this case, they come from the supermarket shrink-wrapped in plastic coating.  And whilst burning wood is a relatively sustainable and environmentally friendly form of producing energy, surely it makes everything worse to cover it unnecessarily in non-biodegradable plastic.

What is perhaps most alarming is that no-one here seemed to find this problematic.  There is an interesting relationship between theology and environmental ethics in Yale.  Several students are on joint degrees between the Divinity School and the School for Forestry, which includes a large environmental programme.  Yale proclaims itself to be a environmentally friendly university, incorporating energy-saving lightbulbs and recycled hand towels in the bathrooms.  At the same time, however, people seem to think nothing of running the air conditioning all the time, leaving the lights on all night or - as we have seen - burning shrink-wrapped logs.  After the second world war, the USA decided to invest in roads rather than public transport, with the result that you need a car to go pretty much anywhere.  There is nowhere in the centre of New Haven where one can buy, for example, an ink cartridge for a printer - which means that every time someone requires something this basic, they have to make a car journey.  The fact that American shopping culture is based on you getting in a car to go somewhere means that there is a ridiculously high dependence on the use of cars.

The world's environmental crisis will not improve unless there is a little more joined-up thinking, especially from a country such as the USA which currently uses 25% of the world's oil.  Many of the churches here are concerned with the environment as part of their mission, but they need to think a little further than recycling the pew sheets.

Things to like about Yale #3

Berkeley Divinity School

Down the hill from YDS, Berkeley is the Episcopalian Seminary housed in what can only be described as a small mansion.  The day kicks off with Morning Prayer and Eucharist at 7.30 am, which means my day usually starts with a somewhat perilous run down the very steep hill to get there.  That is, unless I'm following Margie's Rule from Westcott ("sometimes you need to sleep more than you need to pray").  Morning prayer is followed by breakfast - tea and coffee, toast, bagels, english muffins.

Berkeley has a community Eucharist at YDS on Wednesday evenings, which is followed by REAL FOOD down in the Berkeley house, provided by the house residents (students who are paid a stipend to live and work there), or even occasionally cooked by ordinand Heather's husband Mike, who is a trained chef.  The budget is enough to include a hearty meal, salad, dessert, and wine.  Since we are - as I said - in a small mansion, there is enough space for everyone to have a chair and even, mostly, be in reaching distance of a *table*.  Contrast with Westcott community night supper of bread and soup, cooked by us (unpaid ordinands), budget £35 for 90 people, crammed into a room which seats about 45 comfortably, and the money saved is given to mission projects.  I veer between feeling rather smug that Westcott's community evening is supposed to be of spiritual benefit to ourselves and others (benefit which is, no doubt, cancelled out by my feeling smug about it) and being extremely grateful for actually having some food.

Jet set ... moi?

I am returned from my Thanksgiving break travels, which included a four-day trip back home.  I managed New York - London - Cambridge - Durham in 24 hours between Thursday and Friday, and then the whole journey in reverse between Sunday and Monday.  Needless to say, I felt somewhat spaced-out by the time I found myself back in New York.

However, it was more than worth it to attend the wedding of one of my closest friends, have the honour of being her bridesmaid and catch up with my friends from home ... with the added excitement that it all took place in Durham Cathedral.  Walking across Palace Green from the castle to the cathedral was cold but very special, and walking up the aisle to Herbert Howells' Hymn to Saint Cecilia is an experience I am never going to forget! 

On my return, I spent two nights with my godmother in New York, then successfully managed to make my way to Massachusetts on the bus, to my mother's cousin and her family near Boston.  I say 'managed', because American efficiency seems to break down when it comes to certain forms of public transport.  Admittedly it was the day before Thanksgiving - the busiest travel day of the year - but it required hours of queuing, discovering that the queue you meant to be in had moved, and then not being sure if there would be enough seats on the bus.  

I had a wonderful time with my family, including my first American Thanksgiving, complete with turkey, stuffing, and all the trimmings.  I had that wonderful post-Christmas feeling over the next couple of days, when there are lots of leftovers and you are allowed not to do any work.  I spent two happy afternoons downstairs in Kathy's wonderful studio, learning bookbinding and making my own book, and playing with my second cousins  once-removed, who were staying with their grandparents while Mom and Dad took a few days away.  Kathy and I had a great day in Boston and went to the Isabella Stuart Gardener museum and the theatre before I got the bus back to New Haven, back to work and back to reality. 

Two presentations, two essays and a book report to go, and then I can have a holiday!