Periodic Communities

We are vacationing this week in Lyme, NH at a place called Loch Lyme Lodge (www.lochlymelodge.com).  Loch Lyme Lodge is a type of vacation spot sometimes referred to as a cottage colony or a family camp.  There are approximately 20 cabins available for rent and a farmhouse where you can go for meals.  There is a lake to swim in, plenty of water craft available to paddle around in, fields to play in, and woods to hike in.  There are tennis courts, a basketball court, and a ping pong cabin where there is a hot round robin tournament most nights that we are here.  There is a small library in town where you can always find a few good books to read; it's gotten to be our first outing as soon as we arrive each year.  Loch Lyme is rustic.  There are no TV's or phones in the cabins, no heavenly beds with 300 thread count sheets, and no marble bathrooms with luxury toiletries.  This place has been operating as a family camp for around 100 years, and it shows its age, but in a good way.  It has character and charm.   It's a terrific place for kids, which is why we started coming here 14 years ago when my kids were little.  We always come the same week each summer, and a number of other families with kids of similar age also come the very same week.  These kids have grown up together, albeit only for only one week each year, and the families have become good friends.  The interesting thing is that given its rustic nature, Loch Lyme self selects people with the same values, values of family, friends, outdoors, peace and quiet, relaxation, and play.   Some people come here and hate it and never come back.  Some, like us, keep coming back for a lifetime because the values and the experience resonate with us.  Which curiously is not unlike our churches.  They too are periodic communities, gathering once a week rather than once a year, drawing people with similar (spiritual) values who come together to celebrate those values.  The question is do we celebrate values of community, welcome, family, openness, and thanksgiving that make people want to stay for a lifetime?   Or do we celebrate values of "clubbiness", closed community, secret ritual, obligation, and "we've always done it that way" that make newcomers want to run for the door?

Since we were in Lyme, we opted last Sunday to go to St. Thomas in Hanover, a short 12 mile bike ride away.  It was great to have my whole family join in on the trek, setting a record of 5 for participation in an EBP ride.  The ride was along the spectacular back roads of the upper Connecticut River valley, one of the most lovely places I have ever ridden.  Unfortunately, we were delayed in our start from the lodge, so we didn't arrive until halfway through the Old Testament reading.  Showing up late, we did the EPB in "low key" mode, foregoing any announcement or hooplah in church.  Instead we chatted folks up at coffee hour, added some signatures to the shirt, and talked quite a bit about the Bishop search process.  Sarah is on the Bishop Search Committee, and I had the pleasure to meeting one of her committee compatriots, Gene Garthwaite, who is also a member of the Vestry at St. Thomas.  The Bishop search effort is a hot topic in our churches, which is a very good thing.  An organization says a lot about itself in the way it handles leadership succession, and I think the Diocese of New Hampshire is speaking volumes in the way it is handling this one.  The search and transition committees are all staffed with solid leaders from all around the Dioceses who are following a well laid out process openly and transparently, with appropriate confidentiality where it is required.  With this group in charge, I can't imagine anything other than a slate of great candidates and an affirming election.  Interestingly, one of the people we were talking to at St. Thomas had been through two Bishop searches in another Diocese.  One search was executed similarly to the one we are undergoing here, with a clear and well adhered to process, while in the other search the process was not rigorously adhered to, and included a number of private meetings, lobbying, and "back room" conversations.   Needless to say, one had a very positive experience and outcome, and one did not.

Finally, for all of the organ geeks like me, one note about the instrument at St. Thomas:  While listening to the organ, I noticed it produced a very full sound, yet there were only a relatively small set of pipes set on two shelves on the wall behind the altar.  There was no way those pipes were making all that sound.  There were also a number of speakers mounted on the walls around the sanctuary which seemed much larger than would be required for a PA system.  After the service I talked with the organist, who explained that the organ is a hybrid, with some stops running physical pipes, and some stops being produced digitally and played through the speakers.  The interesting thing is that the pitch of the pipes changes day to day based on temperature and humidity, but the digital stops do not.  So he has a means of adjusting the tune of the digital stops to match the pipes, which he has to do each day before he plays.  It is very well done, and I could not tell at all which notes were coming from which system, an impressive merging of old and new technology.

The beautiful back roads of the
Upper Valley

On Cheating, Religion, and What It's All About

This past Sunday I rode down to my last summer chapel for this year: St. Andrew's by the Sea in Rye.  Yet another church I had driven past, marveled at, and swore I'd visit someday.  Now I have visited it; this bike project is certainly meeting that objective.  That day there was a family gathering at my folks' house in New Castle, and I was going to ride over there directly from St. Andrew's.  Sarah and the kids would meet me there and I would get a lift back.  In the end it saved me about 30 miles.  I am somewhat ambivalent about doing these types of segments where I ride to the church but only part of the way back.  It feels a bit like cheating; somehow I feel like I really should be riding every mile.  On the other hand, no one is really keeping track, it doesn't detract from the experience as far as I can tell, and it allows me to fit this in with other family obligations.  So, I've come to the conclusion that I should lighten up a bit and take the lift when it is readily available.  I did it a few weeks ago when I rode to St. Paul's from Hopkinton and then got a ride home.  We have several other cheats planned.  Next week we are going to Hanover from Lyme where we will be vacationing; it'll be 20 miles round trip instead of 140.  The cool thing is that riding the shorter version will allow my whole family to join me, so the EBP will be a record 5 people that day.  The following Sunday I am going to ride from Lyme to Woodsville, only about 30 miles, but then ride the 100 miles all the way home to Manchester.  It'll take 70 miles out of what would have been a 200 mile journey.  So I guess a little cheating is OK; I've come to terms with it.

St. Andrew's is a beautiful stone chapel.  The interior beam structure and roof have just been re-finished and it looks stunning.  They have a tradition of having different musicians accompany the organist each Sunday.  Last Sunday it was cellist Dorothy Braker who who's sonorous music beautifully filled the sanctuary.  The Rev. Jay MacLeod was the priest for the day.  He hails from Bedford, England, but grew up in the Seacoast area and leads worship at St. Andrew's occasionally when he is in town.  He spoke of his parish in England, which is Queens Park, a racially and religiously diverse neighborhood of Bedford.  The various religious institutions there work together to minister to the local community.  One interesting program they do is a faith tour for local schools where they visit a Gurdwara (a Sikh place of worship), a Mosque, and All Saints Church.  Hopefully by creating familiarity and knowledge about these institutions they can break down some of the fear and suspicion that later leads to conflict.  He talked about this in light of the Gospel for last Sunday, the story of the Canaanite woman.  In this story Jesus ministered to someone outside of the Israelite (Jewish) community for the first time; very much taboo in that day.  This sermon resonated with me.  I have always believed that all religions are ultimately pursuing the same thing, call it God, call it Allah, call it enlightenment, call it peace, whatever.  We would be very well served if we could put our religions aside and realize that we are all on the same spiritual quest.  How can we as Christians say that the 3, 4, or 5 billion Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists are wrong?  The real mission is to convince people not to follow mindless religious dogma, or the mindless pursuit of stuff, both of which numb us to our true calling.  BTW - All Saints has a great website: http://www.allsaintsbedford.co.uk, I recommend taking a look.  You'll notice that Church is just a small part what they do.

Anyway, let's not get too serious.  This is just a bike ride after all.  And on that note, I'd love to have some company.  I would be happy to meet any and all who are interested in riding with me anywhere along the route.  If you are from one of the towns I am riding to, we could meet a few miles out of town and ride in together.  Or if your home is between Manchester and where I am going we could meet up and you could ride the rest of the way.  Whatever works for you works for me.  I can adjust my speed to match anyone's ability (provided you are not too fast!).  So, if you are interested, or know anyone that is interested, send an e-mail to bengenh+ebp@gmail.com.  I'll check it by mid-week so that we can make arrangements.  I am also trying to get better about publishing my schedule in advance so that people have time to plan.  Which brings me to:

The schedule:

8/21 - St. Thomas, Hanover (from and to Lyme)

8/28 - St. Luke's, Woodsville (from Lyme and to Manchester)

9/4 - St. George's, Durham (most likely from and to Pawtuckaway State Park)

And finally, the stats from this past Sunday:

distance: 61.5 miles

average speed: 17.7 miles / hour

total climb: 2200 feet

average heart rate: 143 beats / min

A really cool '69 Citroen wagon I saw
as I was leaving the church

Catching Up: 6 Churches / 5 Sundays

OK, I know it's been awhile; my apologies.  I've been telling people I am going to get this post done for about 4 weeks now.  I have no excuses really, other than the fact that I am a lot better at riding than writing.  One thing that had my attention In July is the Tour de France.  If you haven't ever watched bike racing, you need to know that it is a fascinating sport where cyclists and teams have to cooperate to have a chance at winning, knowing that only one rider can ultimately cross the line first.  There are many nuances and strategic plays that make it great to watch, and the TV coverage is really good at highlighting the intricacies.  The Tour is the king of bike races.  It runs for 21 days every July, and I have watched it religiously for the past 9 years.  The downside is that for 21 days I spend at least 2 hours in front of the TV, which is very unusual for me; my normal day includes zero hours of TV time.  That consumption of discretionary time takes its toll on many activities, including blogging.  Regardless, I highly recommend checking out the Tour when it happens again next July.

So, what have I been up to?  I'll start out with the rides.  I have ridden 5 Sundays since my last post.  Some were short and simple like a 35 mile round trip to Dunbarton, where I had the pleasure of the company of my son Nick.  Others were somewhat longer like the 70 mile round trip to Exeter on a very hot day, again with Nick.  But, the two milestone rides were done solo over the Fourth of July weekend and the weekend of the 24th.  Both of these rides were up over Franconia Notch, each about 250 miles in total.

The first 250 miler I did the easy way, over the July 4th weekend.  Having Monday off allowed me to stretch things out a bit and make it more manageable.  I left on Saturday relatively early, around 8:30.  Nick helped pull me out of town; he rode with me for the first 10 miles or so.  I cranked my way up route 3 and through the bike path in Franconia Notch State Park, and enjoyed a nice long downhill through Franconia to Sugar Hill, where Sarah was waiting for me at the Sugar Hill Inn when I got there at 5:30.  We had a lovely stay there, including a trip together on a tandem bike up to St. Matthew's Chapel and a cruise around the state park on Sunday.  Monday, after a nice breakfast I climbed back on the fixie and head back south.  There was a lot of climbing over all (10,000 ft) , and it was hot, but it was all manageable since I spread it out over 3 days, with a light day in between the long rides.  I also tried to be smart about stopping and resting when I needed to cool down.  The neat thing is that I could take advantage of Episcopal churches along the route, in this case resting on the back lawn at the Church of the Messiah in North Woodstock (twice) and in the garden at St. Paul's Concord.  It was great to be able to rest and recover on friendly territory and think about the fact that you have 56 homes in New Hampshire in which to do so.

The second 250 miler I did a somewhat harder way.  I decide to get some practice with overnight riding, since before the end of this journey I want to do one of the real long ones (like up to Colebrook) in one straight shot.  Doing so will require starting in the evening on a Saturday and riding through the night to get to the church in time for Sunday services.  I left my house at 11PM Saturday night headed for Whitefield, with a goal of covering the 125 miles in time to arrive for a 9 AM Sunday service.  It was really strange climbing on the bike right at the time when I am used to climbing in bed, but riding at night proved to be really interesting.  First, once I got north of Concord, it was really quiet and I had the whole road to myself.  I could ride in either lane or even right on the yellow line if I wanted.  I could probably count the cars that I saw in the hours between 1 and 5 AM on one hand.  I am used to New Hampshire being quiet, but not this quiet.  Second, the other senses were heightened by the darkness that surrounded me; the smell of the hay in the fields, the sound of critters scurrying in the woods.  But the most interesting thing was the way that I could feel the road beneath me.  If you spend much time on a bike, you know that small changes in slope make a big difference in pedaling effort.  But, with the visibility and peripheral vision limited by the range of my headlight, it was hard to tell the pitch of the road ahead.  But I could feel it.  On the uphills the pedals become heavy, like pushing through syrup, the bike slows down, must be an uphill.  Then as I crest a hill the bike becomes light, and the pedals would push back at me, encouraging me to loosen up and let the crank spin.  After a nice zoom downhill there might be a nice long flat where a nice steady push would deliver steady speed, or it would be back to the heaviness and sluggishness of a climb.  I felt very much in tune with the road as I cranked through the darkness. 

The fatigue of riding all night was non-trivial.  If you have ever had to stay up all night to get something done, you know there is a kind of "witching hour" around 5 AM when you really start running out of steam.  This was no different.  At one point I took a 10 minute nap sprawled out on the asphalt at the Franconia Notch visitors center as park employees were walking past me to start their day.  I had to set an alarm on my phone to make sure it didn't turn into a 2 hour nap.  It was all I could do to get back on the bike and push through the last 9 miles and 700 feet up to get through the notch.  But once I got over the hump figuratively and literally it was a nice cruise downhill into Whitefield.  I began to feel much better.  Of course, there had to be three short but steep nasty little climbs just before I got in to town to make sure that I wasn't all fun and games, however I did manage to make it into the chapel at 9:05.   Afterward there was a great pancake breakfast on the green; then a nice gradual 15 mile climb up to Bretton Woods & the Mount Washington hotel where Sarah met me.  We took the tandem for the 2 mile round trip to the chapel there for a 6:30 PM service, after which I was able to get some much needed sleep.  The next day it was back on the bike to for the 115 mile trip back home, which was getting somewhat routine (or at least less daunting) at this point.  It was uneventful other than having to fight a headwind the whole way, riding through the rain for the last 35 miles, and having to change a flat in a downpour in the parking lot of the Concord state prison.

Now for the important part, the churches I visited:

6/26 - St. John's, Dunbarton:  I got to catch up with the Rev. Janet Lombardo, who used to chair the Mission Resources Committee.  She gave me a hard time about the fact that when we showed up I was out of breath and sweating profusely, and my son Nick hardly looked like he had even been on a bike.  I had heard stories about St. John's hand pumped organ but had never seen it in action.  The organ was as the front of the nave on the right hand side.  On the side of the console was this long lever, (it sort of looks like a tap handle in a bar) and just before every hymn a person from the congregation walked slowly up to the organ from the back of the nave and started pumping.  Once the air was flowing, the organist would commence playing, with the pumper steadily raising and lowering the handle as the hymn went on.  When it was all over, he calmly walked back to his pew.  There was no apparent communication between the pumper and the organist, but they were totally in sync.  Apparently St. John's organ is one of the few hand pumped organs remaining in the country.

The stats: Distance - 34.9 mi | Average Speed - 16.7 mph | Total Climb 2,100 ft | Average Heart Rate - 153

7/3 - St. Matthew's Chapel, Sugar Hill:  St. Matthew's is a very beautiful mountain chapel that I have driven by and even got to go inside once, but not for Sunday services.  We had the pleasure of visiting on the first Sunday of the season for 2011, and the Rev. Brendan Whitaker and warden Barbara Serafini welcomed us warmly.  Sarah and I had ridden up the hill from the Sugar Hill Inn on the tandem bike, which added to the spectacle.  Nick and his girlfriend Olivia joined us as well.  It was a lovely and informal service, highlighted by several church mice scurrying beneath our feet in the pews and up over the altar as Brendan preached.  Since he was talking about the care and stewardship of all of God's creatures, we couldn't very well do anything to discourage the mice, and they seemed pretty intent on worshiping with us.

The stats: Distance - 219 mi (plus approx 20 on the tandem) | Average Speed - 16.0 mph | Total Climb 10,100 ft | Average Heart Rate - 139

7/10 - Sunday off (in Maine visiting my daughter at music camp)

7/17 - Christ Church, Exeter:  I have heard the Rev. John Denson speak at several Diocesan events.  He is a powerful voice in this Diocese and I've wanted to visit him in his home church for quite some time.  Sadly, he is leaving Christ Church to go to another parish in Indianapolis, and I was fortunate to catch him before he departed.  Christ Church is a relatively modern building that has been renovated recently; it is quite a beautiful space with a terrific organ and an organist who can really make it go.  We got to hear a great sermon by The Rev. Annie Thornberg and then got a nice introduction by John.  Nick rode down with me and Sarah drove down and met us for the service.  Afterward we all had nice chats with a number of folks from CCE and I got a bunch of new signatures for my shirt.

The stats: Distance - 71.6 mi | Average Speed - 16.5 mph | Total Climb 3,200 ft | Average Heart Rate - 143

7/24 - The Church of the Transfiguration, Whitefield and the Church of the Transfiguration, Bretton Woods:  I was able to visit two churches in one day since Whitefield has its service at 9 AM and Bretton Woods worships at 6:30 PM; the two buildings are only 15 miles apart.  Whitefield was one that I had visited previously on a Diocesan Council tour, but like Sugar Hill, I had not been there for Sunday service.  It is a very cute little building with a dozen or so pews and a console organ at the back.  The Rev. Keith Owen presided.  He hails from a congregation in Ohio, and has spent the last 18 summers in the summer chapel in Whitefield.  The chapel owns a house in town, and several priests come for the summer to stay in the house for 3 - 4 weeks in exchange for leading Sunday service.  Some of them, like Keith, have been doing it for many many years.  I think it is a coveted gig.  Keith mentioned another of the summer clergy who has been doing it for 34 years.  He was terrifically welcoming and invited me to join him and his family for a pancake breakfast being held on the town green.  It was just what I needed after 10 hours of biking: blueberry pancakes, sausage, beans, juice, coffee, and good conversation.

Later that evening Sarah and I pedaled over on the tandem to the other Church of the Transfiguration summer chapel in Bretton Woods.  This is a much more substantial stone building, similar in size to a lot of the year round churches in the Diocese.  It was built by the widow of Joseph Stickney, the man who built the Mount Washington hotel.  One of the really striking elements are the stained glass windows, all from Tiffany Studios.  The Rev. Susan Buchanan leads service there on Sunday evenings in the summer.  She is the rector at Christ Church, North Conway, just a few miles down route 302.  She gave a very stirring sermon.  We had a nice chat with some folks from the congregation, a number who come up from North Conway, and I was able to get some more signatures for my shirt.

The stats: Distance - 252 mi | Average Speed - 14.9 mph | Total Climb 11,700 ft | Average Heart Rate - 131

7/31 - St. Andrew's Hopkinton:  After a 250 mile odyssey, it was nice to pedal a short 21 miles up to Hopkinton to visit St. Andrew's and the Rev. Kevin Nichols.  I hadn't met Kevin before, but felt like I knew him since Sarah serves with him on the Bishop's search committee.  He is a really great guy and a terrific priest.  He opened his sermon with the question "Have you noticed, Jesus has been locked up for the past six weeks?"  It turns out that the tabernacle behind the altar where they keep the communion bread and wine has been locked for the past 6 weeks and no one has been able to find the key.  He then segued into an interesting discussion of the feeding of the 5000, that Sunday's Gospel.  The good news is that a locksmith is coming shortly.  St. Andrew's looks like a congregational church inside, complete with pew stalls with doors.  I wonder if it previously was a "congo" church.  They have a terrific facility there with a beautiful great hall with a timber frame which I think comes from an old barn.  I have been in this hall a number of times for Diocesan meetings, it was nice to be there for church.   One innovation that we did on this segment of the EBP was for shirt signing.  I wore a T-shirt under the jersey so I could take it off for people to sign it.  Up until now I have been having people sign it on my body, which can be a bit awkward.  I got many more signatures since I was able to lay the shirt on a table and invite people to sign.  One cool thing was as I was leaving I bumped into some kids who wanted to sign my shirt, which they did; the first children's signatures of the project.  The reason I chose Hopkinton that Sunday was that I had to be at my daughter's summer program graduation at St. Paul's school at 11:00 that day.  Fortunately St. Paul's is 5 miles down the road from St. Andrew's, mostly downhill; which made for a nice change from some of the epic journeys of prior weeks.

The stats: Distance - 26.5 mi | Average Speed - 14.6 mph | Total Climb - 1900 ft | Average Heart Rate - 138 bpm

So, that gets me all caught up.  I was off last weekend; at St. Matt's to help out while Bill is on vacation.  Looking back, I have been to 11 churches thus far and have traveled 777 miles.  It has been a fantastic journey.  I have met many wonderful people, seen lots of different ways of worshiping in all kinds of different spaces, and have had some glorious time on the bike beneath sun and stars.  This is an incredible Diocese in an incredible state.  I am so fortunate to be a part of it.

The schedule:

8/14 - St. Andrew's by the Sea, Rye Beach

8/21 - St. Thomas, Hanover

8/28 - St. Luke's Woodsville