The small old clock radio on the bed stand showed 5:00 AM as it jarred me awake with “NPR News Headlines”. The news of the hour didn’t register. All that I was aware of was how warm and snugly it was in the bed and how cold and dark it was in the bedroom. Kim rolled over long enough to ask if she could sleep a little bit more as I took my shower.

Slowly, I climbed out of bed and downstairs to turn up the heat in the house. Outside, it was three degrees. I took a little longer in the shower than usual as I tried to wake up. As soon as everyone was showered and dressed, we would be hitting the road for Manchester, NH to attend the ordination of an old friend.

As Kim showered, I briefly checked my email and a few blogs. The Speaker of the Connecticut House had recently appointed his predecessor to a $120,000 senior advisory role and the previous nights discussion about politics as usual had continued on long past when I went to bed.

Soon, we were all showered and out the door. Traveling up to New Hampshire in sub-zero weather in January was nothing new for us. We had done it in 2004 and in 2008 in an effort to make our voices heard in the Presidential Primaries. Today, we were going up in a different way, to make our voices heard in celebration, affirmation and support of our friend’s ordination.

Despite the cold, it was an uneventful trip north, stopping only for gas, coffee and bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches on rolls. The town of Manchester, NH looked pretty much the same as it had a year earlier, the only notable difference being a for sale sign on a diner which had hosted many presidential candidates.

While we had never been to Grace Episcopal Church in Manchester, it felt even more familiar. A bright red door greeted us as we arrived and the stained glass and deeper red cushions all reminded me of so many Episcopal churches I’ve visited in the past.

Yet what was even more familiar looking were the faces. Yes, a few of them were mutual friends of our friend being ordained. Yet what was more familiar to me were the faces of the common man. It was almost as if strains of Aaron Copeland’s famous composition had followed these sturdy New Englanders and omnipresent church ladies in from the bitter cold of their daily lives.

My ancestors had scratched a living out of the rock strewn farms of New England and I suspect with a little genealogical investigation, I could of have found at least one distant relative sitting in a pew near me.

This sense of my historical roots was mingled with another sense of history. The old Anglican service, complete with incense, reminded me of the great Christian traditions that have sustained so many of my ancestors as the lowly farmer took comfort from the words of his Priests and Bishops.

The processional hymn was a favorite of mine, “Saint Patrick’s Breastplate”. It is a very long hymn that seems to be rarely sung in its entirety except for very special occasions. This was a very special occasion, and I was glad to add my voice.

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

The bishop celebrating the ordination was The Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson. Bishop Robinson came from farmers that worked the land in Kentucky and he seemed the perfect Bishop for the occasion, bringing together the fanfare for the common man with the fanfare for church celebrations.

Yet Bishop Robinson faces a much more daunting task. As the first openly gay priest to be ordained a Bishop in the Episcopal Church, or in any denomination, he has become the center for the Church’s struggle with the role of homosexuals in the Church. Perhaps some of this is why he is providing the invocation at the Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. He had to rush off to catch a plane to Washington part way through the service.

One of the questions during the ordination was whether Grace felt “called” to be a priest. At times, I’ve considered becoming a priest, or even a monk, yet I’ve never had a clear sense of calling. As I struggle with my own career, I’ve often wondered about being called. Are we all called to do something? If so, what is my calling? How many people have a clear sense of calling? How many people get a chance to celebrate their calling the way Grace and all of us gathered to celebrate her calling?

My mind wandered to President-Elect Obama. Does he have a sense of being called to his role? Does Bishop Robinson have a sense of his calling going beyond the calling of being a Priest and a Bishop to being the focal point of an important discussion in the Church? The Old Testament Lesson was the section from Isaiah where Isaiah says, “Here am I; send me”.

Another important aspect of the service, which is common to so many Episcopal services, is when the celebrant turns to the congregation and asks if everyone will do all in their power to support the person being ordained in their commitment.

I wish that the swearing-in of the elected officials had a similar selection. Chief Justice Roberts, after swearing-in President Obama would then turn to everyone attending the Inauguration and say, “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support this person in upholding the Constitution?”

At Grace’s ordination, we all loudly proclaimed that we would support her, and I hope that all American’s will support President Obama in upholding the Constitution. Yes, we can, and should argue about what it really means to uphold the Constitution, but we should all be engaged in that discussion.

As an aside, through Grace, I’ve met Thomas Beasley on Facebook. Thomas describes himself as a ‘Prison Missioner for the Diocese of Florida and Interim Chaplin at Baker Correctional Work Camp”. Rev. Beasley recently joined Born Again American which seems to be the closest I’ve found to answering that question that I wish Chief Justice Roberts would ask all of us.

This leads to the sermon during Grace’s ordination. The Reverend Matthew R. Lincoln exhorted Grace to “Keep finding new ways to listen”. It seemed like an appropriate quote to Twitter. Kim and I first met online. Kim first met Grace online. Through Grace, I’ve met Rev. Beasley online. The Internet can be a powerful new way to listen.

Grace captured some of this is a beautiful response to an online community that both she and Kim are part of,

I said to my very Jewish best-old-friend-from-middle-school when she called to congratulate me the instant Shabbat was over and she could use the phone, one of the things I love about the 21st century is being told "Mazel tov!" on my ordination as a female Episcopal priest by a gay bishop who's about to go to the inauguration of the biracial President whose middle name is Hussein.

This would be a great summary of the ordination, in and of itself. However, we Episcopalians are used to an exhortation at the end of the service to go forth in the world in peace to do the work God has given us to do. The words of traditional Zimbabwe song that we sang at the end of the Communion brought in some of this sense of going beyond Manchester and beyond our country, out into the whole world.

If you believe, and I believe and we together pray,
The Holy Spirit must come down and set God’s people free.

Getting up at 5:00 AM to drive to New Hampshire, either for political campaigns or to celebrate the ordination of a friend can be difficult, but it can also be very rewarding.

Update:
For those who watched the "We Are One" concert, and didn't see Bishop Robinson, here are a few posts about him not being on HBO:

The invisible, inaudible Bishop Gene Robinson and
We Are (Minus) One.