TheoBlog.com

This part is a little bit cheesy, I'm afraid. It is a recording of the speeches given at the brief reception held on the lawn of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral right after the ordination service.

You hear words from the Rev. Jeremy Simons (Pastor of the Bryn Athyn Church), the Rt. Rev. Tom Kline (Executive Bishop of the General Church), the Rev. Eric Carswell (Dean of the Theological School), plus from the four newly ordained priests, Rev. Vicentie Nobre, Rev. Scott Frazier, Rev. Mac Frazier (that's me, I'm afraid), and the Rev. Chuck Blair. Chuck has the distinction of closing out this seven part podcast with the words, "pass the ammunition"—which I guess doesn't really cap it all off quite right, but there it is. (I'm not complaining, Chuck! Just "musing"...)

So if you really want to hear a bunch of impromptu speeches, go ahead and listen to: the Reception. I hope you've enjoyed this podcast series. Special thanks goes out to New Church Audio, for providing the original recordings of this event. Next up we will get back to podcasting straight-up sermons.

Posted by Mac at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

This is part six of the seven part podcast of the ordination service in which I and three other men were ordained and welcomed as priests of the New Church. This recording is merely the closing ritual and music at the end of the service. I am including it for the sake of completeness. For the heart of the service, go back to the ordination ceremony, the readings from the Word, and the Bishop's sermon on the various degrees of "the neighbor" we are commanded to love.

One more part to go...

Posted by Mac at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the sermon preached by the Rt. Rev. Thomas Leroy Kline (Tom Kline to most of us), the Executive Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and our ordaining priest. If you haven't already, you should probably also go and listen to the ordination ceremony itself, and certainly to the lessons the sermon was based on.

Or not. Maybe you just want to hear a sermon on The Degrees of the Neighbor.

Posted by Mac at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

This is probably the least interesting of all the recordings from our ordination service. Basically, this is an interlude that was played between the lessons read by we newly ordained ministers (see part 3 of this series of podcasts) and the sermon preached by the Rt. Rev. Thomas L. Kline (which will soon be posted as part 5).

The sound quality of these recordings was better suited to the spoken word than to instrumental music, but nevertheless for the full experience for those who want it, I offer you part four: Interlude.

Posted by Mac at 11:38 AM | Permalink

This is part three of the TheoPod podcast series, "My Ordination". (See parts one and two for more background.) As a first official act as an ordained member of the priesthood of the New Church and as a minister under the General Church of the New Jerusalem, I read the first lesson in the service, right after my actual ordination.

Specifically, I read the first lesson, from Luke 10:24-37. Then my brother, Scott Frazier, read the second lesson, which was the entirety of Mark 16. Finally, Chuck Blair read the third lesson, which was from New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 89-91. The fourth man ordained that day, Vicente Nobre, did not read a lesson; however, he did speak the day before as the valedictorian for our graduating Masters of Divinity class at ANC Theological School. The lessons were chosen by Bishop Kline, who not only ordained us before the lessons, but also preached a sermon after the lessons.

So without further ado, here is part three: Lessons.

Posted by Mac at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (3)

This is part two of seven of the podcast series "My Ordination", introduced in an earlier post. This is the mp3 that contains the actual ordination ceremonies. I was the last of the four. For those who care, here is the complete text of my Confession of Faith and Declaration of Purpose:

I BELIEVE there is a God, and that He is one person: the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Jehovah, in whom is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, and whose Humanity is Divine.

I BELIEVE that the Lord is present with us in His Holy Word, that He reveals Himself to us by means of the Hebrew Law, Prophets and Psalms, by means of the Greek Gospels and Apocalypse, and by means of the Latin Doctrines of the New Church, which together contain a complete revelation of Divine Truth in its own light.

I BELIEVE that the Lord’s purpose in Creation is a heaven from the human race, that He may love us, and lead us into eternal happiness, and that to accomplish this purpose He calls every person to read His Word, to pray to Him, to worship Him, to repent of sins, to lead new lives, to serve the neighbor, and to love the Lord and His children.

FINALLY, I BELIEVE that love and wisdom, good and truth, and charity and faith are all dead unless married, the one to the other, that this marriage is represented by the marriage of one woman with one man, and that when so married they produce lives of service, full of good works which ease the suffering and increase the joy of those who receive them, and of those who do them.

MY PURPOSE in entering the priesthood is to answer the Lord’s call to me to teach His truths and to use those truths to lead to the good of life. Furthermore, I do this so I may cooperate with the Lord in His work of preaching the gospel to the poor, of healing the broken-hearted, of proclaiming liberty to the captives and sight to the blind, of setting free the oppressed, and of proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations, and my purpose is to show people the way into the New Jerusalem, where the tree of life stands.

The order of the ordinations was as follows: Vicente Nobre, Chuck Blair, Scott Frazier (my brother), then Glenn Frazier (me, a.k.a. "Mac").

But enough text. Listen to the ordination.

Posted by Mac at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (4)

For those of you who don't know, I was ordained into the priesthood of the New Church at 11am on Sunday morning, May 28th of 2006. Ordained along with me were Vicente Nobre, Chuck Blair, and my younger brother Scott Frazier. The Rt. Rev. Tom Kline officiated. It took place in the Bryn Athyn Cathedral, in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. It was one of the high points of my life, up there with my wedding and with the birth of each of my children.

I've decided to share the ordination via the podcast. Like all my Ivyland sermons, this one is being "pre-dated", that is, I am posting it to an earlier date in time, as if I had podcasting up and running back when the recorded event actually occurred. You will notice that the date of this post here is May 28. The actual "real" date, as I type this, is July 30th, of the same year. I hope you don't get confused. When I was ordained, there was no TheoPod podcast. But now, it's as if there was! Heh.

Anyway, I went back and forth over whether or not to post the whole thing to the podcast, or just excerpts. I like leaving you in freedom to decide these things for yourself, so here goes: I'm posting the entire thing.

There are seven(!) files, altogether. This post links to the first one, containing the opening music.

Posted by Mac at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (2)