It’s one o’clock on my first Sunday at LSTC, my first worship of my graduate career. I just met some people, “I think he was from California and she was from Minnesota, or vice versa… we have three Emily’s in our class?”
My head is just spinning from all the names and places, some from out of the country, Africa, India, Europe, and one Canadian! Worship starts and I try to focus, but I keep looking around at all the people, quizzing myself on names. I hear the baptismal font and start to wonder about it, “it’s rather large and I hear that it runs on solar energy, well that is neat and…Focus!”
I start to relax and engage in worship. As we near the end of worship we have communion, and, “we have real bread!” “We also have the choice of intinction and common cup (I think I will be alright here for the next four years)!” We learn a song, “Amen, Amen, Amen,” simple enough. We start to commune as a group, everyone comes forward and approaches as they feel ready; the whole first year class is together shoulder to shoulder.
Communion is taking longer than expected, but we keep singing shoulder to shoulder. It’s my turn to get the Holy meal and as I am returning to stand among my peers, and I am pretty sure we have sang our millionth “Amen,” I has become my family and my home, but most importantly, “this is the body of Christ.”
--Alex LaChapelle
Alex is a commuter Junior in the M.Div. program. He lives in Kenosha, WI, but he has had the experience of spending good amounts of time in New Orleans, Santa Cruz, Oregon, and Denver. He is excited for the upcoming winter and a chance to ski, but also wants the weather to wait till he can play a little more tennis. His fiancé, Jill, and he will be married on August 13, 2011, and as every day approaches, he gets more excited, but more nervous that they haven’t done enough. He is excited to be at LSTC and looks forward to his coming years in this community.
