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.