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