Day 1: Settling In

A long time ago, Celtic monks went on long journeys called peregrinatios.  The purpose of these journeys was, of course, Christian ministry of some form or another.  Sts. Boniface and Wilifrid were some of these traveling missionaries.  Like Christian explorers of earlier and later times, they did much more than evangelistic work, often involving diplomacy, what today we would call anthropological work, missionary work and simple exploration.  The point is that they left the functioning and coherent society of Celtic Christianity, which when ranked by late first millennium European standards was fairly organized.  They wandered out into the countryside, seeking the hairy barbarians of the Central European woods.  Behind them often came the governmental power of the Franks or whatever petty kinglet happened to be patronizing them at that point, spreading the fledgling Western civilization.

This was a civilization to countryside shift.  Western civilization has retained its admiration for those who desire to leave the organization of civilization in order to achieve something lasting and beautiful in the countryside.  It was with similar impulses that the founders of Houghton College pulled out of the developing cities of Western New York - Buffalo and Rochester - in order to found a refuge of Christian piety far away from the degrading city.  Similarly, Henry David Thoreau personifies this emphasis on returning to nature, of leaving behind the decadence and depravity of the urbanized life in order to protect an inner spirituality.

However, my personal journey is different.  I grew up in a small town quickly being enveloped in the suburbs. I was caught between a rural life that flourished at times only five miles from town, and an urban life that flourished eight miles north of town.  When it came time to go to college, I chose through a variety of circumstances a college in the middle of the cow pastures.  I was living the Thoreau dream, or perhaps the Peregrinatio dream.

All very well, but is this truly the necessary shift in Christian piety?  Is the countryside always better?  Are cities decadent and corrupt?  I remember throughout my first two years at Houghton feeling a deep sense of relief and enjoyment when I saw the lights of Allentown or Bethlehem and remembered there was more to life than cows and hay and students.  I remember grasping at the conveniences of suburban and urban life - quick access to groceries, music and culture.

So this semester I'm studying in Buffalo.  I'm doing an internship for a historic preservation organization working on preservation efforts in historic churches.  I'm living in the city, driving in the city and working in the city.  I don't really know what to expect, but I know that whatever happens it will be different from my past few years.  Feel free to journey along with me.