Selected Sabbatical Calendar
Well rested and with a heart full of gratitude to God and to all the saints of Montreat Presbyterian Church, I have as of today concluded the 12-week sabbatical which I was granted by this phenomenal congregation, who take such good and loving care of their pastor.
I have had the chance to worship in other environments, to read deeply and dabblingly, sometimes thriving in contemplative solitude and sometimes just resting the noggin, all while, blessedly, putting a sock in the preaching organ for a while. I have had time to check in with people whom I rarely get to see who mean the world to me, and I've had a deep, refreshing dive into cultural and artistic treasures--visual, culinary, musical, dramatic, historical--on great stages and in museums vast and intimate.
It has all been, in a wildly overused term, amazing. Yet I am happiest of all to return to my church, home, community, friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors: refreshed, focused, energized, and excited to reconnect with the congregation whom it is my greatest privilege and joy to serve. It's good to be back, and I hope my gratitude, for the sabbatical as well as for being welcomed home, will show in everything I do.
With boundless love and thanks~
Keith
August 2, 2022
Worship Services (selected)
All Souls Cathedral, Asheville, NC
Brick Presbyterian Church, New York, NY
Covenant Presbyterian Church, Asheville, NC
First Presbyterian Church, Bloomington, IN
First Presbyterian Church, Morganton, NC
Hanover Street Presbyterian Church, Wilmington, DE
Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, SC
New Melleray Abbey, Peosta, IA
Northminster Presbyterian Church, Hickory, NC
Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church, Blowing Rock, NC
St. Mary's Church (Anglican), Sanderstead, London, England
St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England
Trinity Presbyterian Church, Hendersonville, NC
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Minneapolis, MN
Books Dabbled, Skimmed, or Devoured (selected)
Daniel Chandler, Semiotics: The Basics
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Selected Works
Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco, The Open Work
Seb Falk, The Light Ages
Matthew Gabriele & David M. Perry, The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe
Sean Hall, This Means This, This Means That: A User's Guide to Semiotics
Christopher Herwig, Soviet Bus Stops
Richard Lischer, The End of Words: The Language of Reconciliation in a Culture of Violence
Bernard McGinn, ed., The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism
Bernard McGinn, The Flowering of Mysticism
Bernard McGinn, The Growth of Mysticism
Brian Patrick McGuire, Bernard of Clairvaux: An Inner Life
Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited
Alice Walker, Overcoming Speechlessness
May 9-12 Hot Springs, NC
Sunday, May 15 7:45, 9:30, 11:00 services, Asheville area
Wednesday, May 18-22 Wilmington, DE
(Time with longtime friends)
May 20 Amythyst Kiah/The Who, Philadelphia, PA
Sunday, May 22 11:00 service, Wilmington, DE
May 23-27 Mepkin Abbey
(Monastic retreat)
Daily schedule:
4:00 A.M. Vigils
6:30 A.M. Lauds
7:30 A.M. Eucharist
8:15 A.M. Terce
12:00 P.M. Sext
6:00 P.M. Vespers
7:30 P.M. Compline
Sunday, May 29 10:00 and 10:55 services, Western NC
June 4-9 NYC
June 4
Ben's Kosher Deli
Circle in the Square Theatre: American Buffalo
Sunday, June 5
11:00 service
Minskoff Theatre: The Lion King
June 6
Museum of the City of New York
Guggenheim Museum
June 7
The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Cloisters
Longacre Theatre: Macbeth
June 8
American Museum of Natural History
Hayden Planetarium
The Metropolitan Opera House: Rigoletto
Sunday, June 12 8:45 & 11:00 A.M.
Preaching at Rumple Memorial Presbyterian Church, Blowing Rock NC
June 12-19 Minneapolis
(Time with close and extended family)
June 14
Young Joni
June 16
University of Minnesota campus
June 17
Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis
June 23
Spiritual Direction (Lake Junaluska)
June 26-July 2 Switzerland
June 27 Strasbourg, France
Strasbourg Cathedrale Notre Dame
June 28-30 Lucerne/Luzern, Switzerland
June 30 Luzern to Interlaken to Zweisseman;
to Montreux aboard the Belle Epoque; to Geneva
June 30-July 2 Geneva, Switzerland
St. Pierre Cathedral (Calvin's church)
July 3
Cricklewood, London
July 3-9 Cotswolds, England
July 4
Moreton-in-Marsh (The Bell Inn)
Stow-on-the-Wold
Moreton-in-Marsh, Cheltenham, Stow-on-the-Wold
St. Edward's Church, Stow-on-the-Wold
Lower Slaughter, Bourton-on-the-Water
July 5
Heart of England Way public footpath:
Moreton-in-Marsh, Bourton on the Hill, Batsford, Blockley,
Church of St Peter and St Paul, Blockley
Chipping Campden, Broad Campden
July 6
Cotswold Way public footpath:
Chipping Campden
Weston Subedge
July 7
Cirencester, Arlington, Bourton-on-the-Water, Bibury
Church of St. Mary, Bibury
Cheltenham - Northleach
Bourton-on-the-Hill
July 8
Monarch's Way public footpath
Donnington, Broadwell, Oddington
Church of St. Nicholas, Oddington
Broadwell: The Green
Broadwell Village Hall
July 9-13 South Croydon, London
(Time with friends from my year in England
serving St. Andrew's Church in 1989-90)
Sunday, July 10
St. Mary's Church (Anglican), Sanderstead, London, England
Meonstoke
July 11
East Grinstead: Standen House
July 12
Wapping Wall, East London
Bermondsey, London
5:00 P.M. Choral Evensong, St. Paul's Cathedral, London
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese
Bridge Theatre, London: The Southbury Child
July 13-16 William Black Lodge
(Preventive self-quarantine)
Sunday, July 17
Indiana University campus
The Irish Lion
July 18-22 New Melleray Abbey
(Monastic retreat)
Daily schedule:
3:30 A.M. Vigils
6:30 A.M. Lauds
7:00 A.M. Eucharist
7:30 A.M. Breakfast
9:15 A.M. Terce
11:45 A.M. Sext
12:00 P.M. Lunch
1:45 P.M. Nones
5:30 P.M. Vespers
6:00 P.M. Supper
7:30 P.M. Compline
July 19 University of Dubuque/Dubuque Seminary campus
July 22-28 Minneapolis
(Time with close and extended family)
Hai Hai
Sunday, July 24 11:00 A.M. service, Minneapolis
Lat14
The Road Home:
July 28
Bloomington, IL - time with close family
July 29
Indianapolis, IN - time with close friends
July 30
Zionsville (IN) Farmer's Market accompanying John Jackson as second guitarist
Indiana University campus, Bloomington, IN (alma mater) - time for reflection
Little Zagreb
Sunday, July 31 10:00 A.M. service, Bloomington, IN
9:30 P.M. Home