I Ain't Talkin' Mississippi

So Oxford, maybe.

I know this is a textbook case of cart-before-horse but I'm less than two years away from graduation and provided all goes well with my discernment process I need to start thinking about Seminary.

Until recently the plan had been to go to ETSS. It's an excellent school, my favorite seminary by far, and has the added bonus of being less than two miles from my apartment. I know the retired provost, the retired dean, several seminarians and a good chunk of the professorial staff. In fact, that's just the problem.

It seems like I know everyone in this town.

I was barely 20 years old when I moved to Austin. Aside from my grandparents I didn't know a soul. Now seven years later the door guys at punk clubs know my dogs by name and I can't go to the grocery store or sit down for brunch without running into some guy or gal I know.

It's not like I'm pulling a Garbo. I don't vant to be left alone (that was the line, btw, not I vant to BE alone) I LOVE Austin, this is MY town. I've spent years making it my town. Plus the people are great, where else can you get a church usher who will offer you a gin and tonic before the 11:15 service or a burly tattooed door guy offer you homedic remedies for your shar pei's dry skin? This place is practically paradise...and yet.

And yet it's all just getting a little claustrophobic for me. I need to get out. I need a change, big time. I need to be someplace I've never been before. That's where Oxford comes in.


If I do a two-year stint at Wycliffe Hall seminary at Oxford I could fulfill my dream of living abroad, I would be able to come back to Austin refreshed, finish with a year at ETSS and be ordained --and happily serve-- in the Diocese of Texas.

The Diocese would then have an Oxford-educated priest on their bench, I'd have a big leg up when applying for future positions, and if I ever do make the permanent move to the other side of the pond I'll have more of a footing there.