Young Adults "Common Table" October 5, 2016
So, the YAs have initiated a weekday evening activity called, Common Table where they discuss different topics over a few beers, in a public tavern somewhere in the Upper West Side. Last night it was at a place called, The Abbey Pub on 105th Street.
The topic was "Science and Theology" and I have to confess I went, in part, thinking Min might have shown up. He has the science background and must have wrestled with these ideas at some point before becoming an agnostic. But, wrestling with them once may have been enough and it was a little naïve of me to think that this would amount to a lifetime passion for him in the same way that it is for Crosby. Crosby is just unique in all sorts away.
I soon put away my disappointment at not seeing Min when I realized how many YAs would actually show up, including Tiger, Bird Woman, and Montana. Montana is a young man I have not blogged much about even though he has been active in St. Mike's for well over a year now, in many ways filling the vacuum left by Crosby and Huggy Bear. He is a convert to Episcopalianism from the other extreme of the liturgical, Mass-oriented, Christian world: the orthodox realm occupied by the Greek and Russian churches. It also helps that he is a fellow gay man. And, it helps that he is southern. We see St. Michael's through a very similar outsider's prism.
The pub was uncharacteristically crowded and the turnout for the forum was unexpected. There were nearly a dozen men and women of all sexual persuasions seated around two picnic sized tables that made it hard to hear what anyone was saying from one end of the arrangement to the other. After Montana made a few opening remarks, the facilitating duties were taken over by Father K. who himself does not seem much older than twenty-five, although I'm obviously wrong about that. He can't be younger than Crosby.
I may have had outsized expectations about what could actually be resolved around the issue of science and religion. I have a complex cosmology for which I really was looking for one answer to one question: Is there life after death? But, I forgot that before you even get to that question you have to settle the one about whether G-d even exists. And, that's where the evening stuck. Father K gave about as lively and concise an overview of the history of physics and evolutionary biology as you could imagine and the gathered stuck with it even as the Mets were losing their Cinderella hopes for the playoffs one booth away.
Afterward, I caught up with Tiger and Montana as they walked slowly back down Broadway. Tiger's job prospects sound as elusive as ever. He doesn't think he's being given enough responsibility, but, won't do any of the things that ordinarily make young people indispensable, like learning Excel(TM) or web design. I don't know what to do except to stay out of it.
The topic was "Science and Theology" and I have to confess I went, in part, thinking Min might have shown up. He has the science background and must have wrestled with these ideas at some point before becoming an agnostic. But, wrestling with them once may have been enough and it was a little naïve of me to think that this would amount to a lifetime passion for him in the same way that it is for Crosby. Crosby is just unique in all sorts away.
I soon put away my disappointment at not seeing Min when I realized how many YAs would actually show up, including Tiger, Bird Woman, and Montana. Montana is a young man I have not blogged much about even though he has been active in St. Mike's for well over a year now, in many ways filling the vacuum left by Crosby and Huggy Bear. He is a convert to Episcopalianism from the other extreme of the liturgical, Mass-oriented, Christian world: the orthodox realm occupied by the Greek and Russian churches. It also helps that he is a fellow gay man. And, it helps that he is southern. We see St. Michael's through a very similar outsider's prism.
The pub was uncharacteristically crowded and the turnout for the forum was unexpected. There were nearly a dozen men and women of all sexual persuasions seated around two picnic sized tables that made it hard to hear what anyone was saying from one end of the arrangement to the other. After Montana made a few opening remarks, the facilitating duties were taken over by Father K. who himself does not seem much older than twenty-five, although I'm obviously wrong about that. He can't be younger than Crosby.
I may have had outsized expectations about what could actually be resolved around the issue of science and religion. I have a complex cosmology for which I really was looking for one answer to one question: Is there life after death? But, I forgot that before you even get to that question you have to settle the one about whether G-d even exists. And, that's where the evening stuck. Father K gave about as lively and concise an overview of the history of physics and evolutionary biology as you could imagine and the gathered stuck with it even as the Mets were losing their Cinderella hopes for the playoffs one booth away.
Afterward, I caught up with Tiger and Montana as they walked slowly back down Broadway. Tiger's job prospects sound as elusive as ever. He doesn't think he's being given enough responsibility, but, won't do any of the things that ordinarily make young people indispensable, like learning Excel(TM) or web design. I don't know what to do except to stay out of it.