Chaplain's Class at Canterbury
Wait, what is Chaplain's Class anyway?
I asked that same question when I first heard about it! Chaplain's class is a discussion group that is led by our Chaplain, The Reverend Marc Burnette, every Wednesday evening at 9PM. The first Wednesday of every night we order pizza and watch a movie, and the rest of the month we just have discussions about just about anything and everything. Everyone is always welcome, and it's a lot of fun. It's a great way to make a great community here on campus. The Holy Eucharist follows at 10PM.
Past Discussions
Wednesday September 2
Our First Movie Night! Tonight we watched The Green Mile, with Tom Hanks and Michael Clark Duncan (you can read about the film here if you haven't seen it). Our church mouse, Graham, gave the homily after the film, making an inspiring connection between Michael Clark Duncan's "larger than life" character, and Christ. Duncan's character, John Coffee, was a man with an intimidating physical body, with a big, deep voice and biceps the size of your head. But inside, Coffee was very much a child, afraid of the dark and gentle enough to care for a mouse. Graham talked about Christ being the reverse, as a man described as physically sppearing average, even meek to some, with the greatest, strongest purpose of all inside.
A few times in the film, Coffee calls to Hanks's character, wanting to talk to him amidst the chaos of the prison. Many times, Hanks refuses, being too busy and distracted. Coffee continues to call him until finally he succumbs, and Coffee heals him. Even when we are in the most chaos in our lives, God continues to call us, so that he may heal us.
Wednesday August 26th
This week students brought ideas of what we want Chaplain's class to be like this year. Some were interested in learning more about the history and ritual in the Episcopal Church, sowe opened up the Book of Common Prayer and started talking about the Eucharist: what it means, what it is, and what it feels like.
From there the topics went to forgiveness, practicing joy, and how to conquer our own insecurities and anger. I know, sounds like heavy stuff, but we laughed at funny stories, too.
Every week we're getting to know each other better, and becoming a closer group. Who knows what next week will bring!
Movie Night for March!
This month we watched Wall-E, with homily given by Tyler Richards. Wall-E was a wonderful example of unconditional love, and bringing about change through that love.