Inspiring days of 'Holy Week"

Our lesson learned this past week is when you pray for something from the heart for long enough it might come to pass. But more important is when you pray don't be specific, just pray; because what you can get is something that you never imagined would happen in a lifetime. We have had reservation about 'holy week' as that was the time when some people really tried to push us into a corner and make us invisible as members of our church, so we really haven't been too visible.

Our 'Holy Week' began with us being part of a information training panel that was to create 'safe spaces' for lgbt student on campus. As leaders of the local chapter of PFLAG, we were just one of the many groups who explained their purpose for protecting and supporting gay and lesbian students.

As I am the strong voice in the choir, we are a integral part of the whole thursday service with the foot washing ritual. So I was a little surprised when our Vicar specifically asked to wash my feet and say that she wanted to talk to me after service. It has become part of the service for the choir director and I to sing this duet from John Stainer's composition, "The Crucifixion" and he was in such good voice this week it was a powerful experience for me.

On Friday Kay and I were scheduled to speak to a graduate level class for Sociology, which by class time had been combined with another class so instead of 25, there were now about 45 student in the room. It was suppose to be a 'smart' classroom with all the electronic goodies, which failed to work, but we dove into the class discussion despite the technical problems.

We had mentioned to my daughter that we would be speaking to this class and because her degree is in Sociology, she was interested in hearing us. She was a few minutes late and so she sat in the back next to the professor who knew she wasn't one of his students and encouraged her to join us at the front. As we have talked to several college classes before, our lecture topics has become refined, but as the questions differ we jump around some issues and experiences, which we don't mean to do, but there is a time constraint and we encourage question and hope we answer. But having my daughter there, she was able to give her perspective on how she dealt and felt about my transitioning. That class got big bonus points listening to a child, a daughter and her anger and thoughts on before and now several year later, having the change to internalize her emotions and feelings about the family, her father and person she now calls Sarah.