It had been sometime since I had visited a parking lot before a National Football League game. In my previous career, and even during seminary, I followed television camera crews into special parking lots and flashed press passes at the media gates. So I guess you could say I had never “tailgated” at a Charger game in my hometown of San Diego or, for that matter, anywhere else.
I saw something called a Ravenswalk at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium, filled with bands, merchants, contests, games, food and fans. Lots of fans. It was the Baltimore Ravens’ home opener and we at the Diocese of Maryland thought we should offer Holy Eucharist in the parking lot for Episcopalians who have to choose between church or football on the handful of Sundays the Ravens are in town.
One of our parishes had done this three seasons ago. The rector then, the Rev. Scott Slater, is now the canon to the ordinary. He encouraged us as we had plans in the works when he joined the staff this summer….
That looks like a strong public witness to me. Do any theologians reading this see any problems with it? It reminds me of padres saying Mass with the hood of a Jeep as an altar.
Ian, speaking not as a theologian but as a pastor, I would worry about the distribution of the eucharist. In any situation where you have people who are well versed in the sacraments at a Mass together with those who have not a clue, you have to watch like a hawk to make sure that participants do not walk away with the sacrament in their hand, unsure what to do with it (? put it in their pocket? take it home? throw it away? eat it? ) I have chased after ‘communicants’ like this more times than I like to remember.
Dan Webster– a long ago classmate of mine.
Eucharist at the tailgate party? I don’t know. Its not like the folks can’t get to church; nor are they anything more than an assemblage of folks, unlike soldiers in the field or evacuees of a natural disaster.
However, if this is a good way to reach the faithful, maybe we should have communion for folks waiting in the wee hours outside Best Buy on Black Friday or communion for the assembled at the release of the next generation IPhone.
Then again, maybe we could get the presiding bishop to go down to a Nascar event
Ah, the U2charist, the Clown Mass, the Tailgate Eucharist… all ideas that come with great promises and then trail off in a haze of sentimental eccentricity. There is a profound difference between receiving the Holy Mysteries before battle at a Liturgy celebrated on the hood of a jeep by necessity and hangin’ with the dudes and dudettes ’round the tailgate before a sporting event. At least, I hope so. I think it is time we stop doing this to the Eucharist.
Sincerest thanks, everybody, for giving me some perspective. I came away rattled from a conversation with a parishioner last week whose son’s family- bigtime hockey people- quit the parish after I said that the Altar takes precedence over the rink on Sunday morning. She suggested the Church needs to adapt to the culture. I suggested– declared, really– that Christians, by example, need to help the culture adapt to Jesus.
The phrase “trail off in a haze of sentimental eccentricity” is going to keep me cheerful for at least a month.
I’d be curious to hear more from about what happened with the family who left Rev. Ian’s parish. I’m puzzled by the apparent need to choose — hockey games aren’t held on Sunday mornings are they? And if the family hits a hockey game on Saturday night, surely they can just sleep in and go to the 11 am service? Help me out here.
#6. Rink time is hard to get often.
Sunday morning practices are therefore not uncommon – if that when you can get the rink.
My guess is that this is just an excuse, though. Adapt to the culture. Please. Larry
What I took from the article was that the Tailgatechrist was intended to reach churched folk who went to a football game instead of Worship. I once joked that I would celebrate Eucharist in the back of an SUV enroute if all the parishioners ditching Worship to go to a NASCAR race would ride together. Joked. It’s a silly concept both ways.
Now, if they set up an “I’ll buy you a soda if you talk with me about Jesus” or “How can we pray for you?” booth, well, then at least you have evangelistic outreach.
But catering to those who consciously choose sport over Worship is missing the mark wildly.
ps – I am still working on my Floydchrist. A hip an happenin’ service driven by the music of Pink Floyd. Stay tuned.
When I first read this report, I held off commenting since my reaction to the piece was so visceral. However, now that time has passed – the 24 hour rule – I can safely affirm that I am still unsure which bothers me more: the Scriptural eis-gesis to justify very poor pastoral practice as “evangelism” or the misunderstanding of the relationship of art & architecture and the Church in history.
In the interests of charity, perhaps I need a 48 hour rule!
Good for you, # 5, Fr. Ian. So few priests ask the culture to conform to Jesus these days. Our rector even tells folks to come back from their holiday or vacation a day early so they can make it to church on Sunday. It’s time our priests, like Fr. Ian, got some cahones and began telling their parishioners that the secular culture is not as important as Jesus. But alas, I’m afraid our national church leaders are much more interested in meshing the church within the culture. Look at all the EPPN emails and lobbying.
For #6 Jon: About the rink on Sunday mornings, #7 is right– ice time is at a premium in most Canadian cities throughout the school year. The parking lot at the one (with two rinks) I drive by enroute to church at 8 am is practically full then. I also told this person the story of my evangelism professor whose son informed him one Saturday night that he couldn’t be in church in the morning because he had a hockey game. The dad said, “No, son, you’ve got church tomorrow, so you can’t be at the game. We’re Christians, and we give the first part of the first day of the week to the Lord.”
The first thing we need to do is ask the Lord to show us the second thing we need to do, and the third, and so on…