“He will glorify me, because he will take what
is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. St. John
16:14-15”
In the first year of seminary, my classmates and I were sent out a few Sundays to preach in local congregations. I drew the short straw, and was assigned to a Family Service in a rural Cotswolds village on Trinity Sunday. The assignment was to say something orthodox and meaningful in about five minutes, and the core audience was a dozen elementary school children. Well, I mustered my full energies, and most of what I was learning in my class on the church fathers, and put together a plan, which involved a circle dance and some half-digested fifth century Greek theology.
In the first year of seminary, my classmates and I were sent out a few Sundays to preach in local congregations. I drew the short straw, and was assigned to a Family Service in a rural Cotswolds village on Trinity Sunday. The assignment was to say something orthodox and meaningful in about five minutes, and the core audience was a dozen elementary school children. Well, I mustered my full energies, and most of what I was learning in my class on the church fathers, and put together a plan, which involved a circle dance and some half-digested fifth century Greek theology.
I was feeling rather confident about
my impending oration, and on the Saturday before Trinity Sunday, over breakfast
after Mass, I announced to the congregation at Pusey House Chapel that I’d
happened upon a way to explain the Trinity to kids. Father Philip frowned over his teacup, looked
me directly in the eyes and said bluntly: “If you think you have explained the
Holy Trinity, young man, then clearly you’ve got it wrong.”
