Arrival in New York!

After a very long week of graduations, an ordination, packing mania, unpacking mania, and many, many long hours on the road, Molly, Martha (Molly's sister) and I have finally arrived at our new place in New York City!

On the morning of Saturday, May 22nd, Molly graduated with a Masters of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary and a Certificate of Sacred Dance from the Center of Art and Religion in Education. That afternoon, I was ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament according to the faith and order of the United Church of Christ. The following afternoon, I graduated with my Masters of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion.

Immediately thereafter, the packing insanity began! Martha, who is the most brilliant, organized and helpful sister-in-law a guy could ever wish for, created a packing plan and inventory, giving each box its own number, recording its contents and where it would be stored. A number of friends from seminary and from First Congregational Church of Oakland also stopped by to lend a hand in packing boxes and loading the Penske truck. Very early Thursday morning, we hit the road and started heading east. To say it was not easy for us to leave our community in the Bay Area is an understatement.

On Friday night, we arrived at Martha's house in Enid, Oklahoma. She and her husband Alex graciously agreed to take all of Molly and my furniture, and so the next morning we unloaded the furniture, showered, ate, and drove five hours to Molly's parents' house in Atchison, Kansas. We spent about a week in Atchison, spending time with family, storing the rest of our boxes at the homes of various saints from First Presbyterian Church of Atchison, and meeting with Molly's Committee on Preparation for Ministry (CPM). It was her final meeting with her CPM, and she had to preach a sermon for them as well as be examined on a number of theological, biblical and vocational questions. Of course, she impressed them all, and after only five minutes of deliberation (no one had any reservations), they certified her ready to receive a ministerial call.

The morning after the CPM meeting (wow, that was yesterday!), Molly, Martha and I hit the road again, spending the night with our friend and former housemate Danny in Wooster, Ohio. Danny's hospitality was impeccable, as he prepared us a feast of local Northeastern Ohio cuisine for dinner, and a lovely breakfast this morning. After breakfast, we started the final leg of the journey, and arrived in New York City at about 7pm, where we were met by Pastor Fred Anderson of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, who helped us unload the car, let us into our apartment, and gave us a tour of the building.

The apartment is beautiful and cozy, on the tenth floor of the church building, which is on Madison Avenue and 73rd St. I'll post a few pictures of the place that I took this evening--you can't get a sense of the beautiful city views out our windows, but we'll post pictures of them at a later date.

Thanks to all of you who have been thinking of us and praying us through this journey. We have felt your love buoying us up along the way, and we are so relieved to have arrived!