A million years ago when I returned to school to obtain the undergraduate degree that would allow me to enter seminary I was in a great rush. I tested out at every opportunity and in general did not see any sort of formation in my undergraduate experience. As someone in their late thirties, I pretty much felt my true alma mater were the various used and antiquarian bookstores in which I had worked for the previous twenty years. Still think so…
However a friend, blessings be upon him, said, “James, find just one professor whom you admire and then take whatever you can with her, or him.” I ended up following that advice and the truth is the only part of my undergraduate rush I recall at all are those classes I took with Gordon Tappan.
So, when I began seminary I thought I’d do the same. At a reception or a cocktail party or some such event, I no longer recall precisely I met a Graduate Theological Union professor that I really liked. He was quick and brilliant and had a tad more than a hint of sanctity about him, that last being something one does not expect to encounter in a seminary. His name was Louis Weil. I ended up taking four or maybe five classes with him. The only problem for a Unitarian Universalist was that he was an Episcopalian priest and a professor of Liturgics. I ended up learning more about Christian liturgy and particularly the Eucharist than is likely to be good for an atheistic, Buddhist Unitarian Universalist…
All this being a long way around the barn to note that one of the figures I studied with Louis and whom I’ve come to admire, Dom Gregory Dix has found his way into the Anglican liturgical calendar. And today is his feast.
So, a tip of the hat that Anglican Benedictine monk of a papist turn of mind who has a small place in a dark corner of my Buddhist heart.
You did good with your life.
May your name be blessed by the generations.
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