Nightwatch

This past weekend, we took a group of middle and high schoolers from St. Aidan's to New York City.  It was a quick trip - left Friday at noon and returned Saturday at 9 p.m.  But full of adventure.  We arrived in time for dinner and ate at a pizza place across from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  I'm not sure if it was really the best pizza in the world, or if I was just starving and thrilled to have arrived safely.

After dinner, we checked into the Cathedral for its Nightwatch program, which is basically a lock-in.  There were about 80 youth from Connecticut, NY, Maryland, and Virginia, some Episcopal and some not.  They started us out with some ice-breakers.  (This is our group watching the Cowboys, Ninjas, Bears tournament -- lock rock, paper, scissors but more of a full-body experience.)

They had a great band of young and very talented musicians that led music for worship.  We started with a singing downstairs in the gym, where we would later spend the night.



(These girls in front are not from our group.  Being good Episcopalians, our youth never found themselves in the front row of anything.)

 They led us into the Cathedral with no light up there except candles and blasted us with the organ.  After hearing a pretty incredible organ demonstration (including an impromtu riff on Twinkle Twinkle and the Pink Panther theme), they put out a labyrinth and for about an hour our group rotated through it with meditative music in the background.  Most of our youth (maybe even all of them) hadn't walked a labyrinth before.  We have one at St. Aidan's, and I love it, but there's definitely a different feel when surrounded by a Cathedral in candlelight.

There was some free time after that, with lots of basketball playing in the gym below.  At about midnight, we gathered back up in the Cathedral for a midnight candlelight Eucharist.  I was the only Episcopal clergy there so got to celebrate, so now I can say I've celebrated communion at a Cathedral.

Lights went out in the gym at 1:30 a.m. and we slept pretty soundly until 7 a.m.  Breakfast, clean-up, and then a tour of the cathedral, which looked very different by day, with sunlight pouring through all those stained glass windowns.

(Can't remember who this was, but the kids were entranced with his bald marble head.)

We met the resident peacocks (not pictured), packed up our stuff, and headed out into the city.

We took a bus to Rockefeller Plaza so we could see the sights along the way, including Central Park.  We had some serious 30 Rock fans in the group.

We walked to Times Square (where we apparently just missed a flash mob) to people watch and of course make an obligatory visit to the M&M store.  Then by subway to Ground Zero where we walked through St. James Chapel to see memorabilia from that time and saw the new buildings going up.  I was filled with emotion in the Chapel and it was odd to think that the youth with us were just babies in 2001.  But how completely that experience has changed the world for them.

A great trip and a fabulous bunch of youth!