WILLIAM SETH ADAMS

Officiant -- Lisa Rogers of the Therapy Sisters crafted this hymn and chanted the following questions to cap the Sisters' performance at Bill's retirement party.

Congregation response -- "William Seth Adams" -- answered each of Lisa's questions

1. Who was born in Ft. Smith, Arkansas on the seventh day of the sixth month in the year of our Lord nineteen hund-red and forty

2. Who was ordained in the Episcopal Church twenty-se-ven years later

3. Whose young intellect was shaped by images at Bexley Hall, and Universities Washing-ton and Princeton.

4. Who practiced teaching liturgy in Van-cou-ver before becoming the J. Milton Richardson Professor of Liturgics and Anglican Studies in the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the South-west in nineteen hundred and eighty two

5. Though the Fatted Calf is slain when the Prodigal Son re-turns, whose depature do we now honor with lean bar-b-q

6. Who eloquently articulates the relationship between liturgy and jus-tice, and argues for the congruence of exchanging the peace in the litur-gi-cal context

7. Who insists that a failure to italicize Book of Common Prayer, Book of Occasional Serivces, and Hymnal 198-2, is no failure at all but is pro-per and right

8. Who settles disputes by say-ing, "I have the chalk"

9. Who should you ask if you're still un-clear about the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist

10. Who lives by his wits and the golden rule, and the snappy yellow mailbox

11. Who wears loud Hawaiian shirts and qui-et black shoes

12. Who is a closet Jimmy Buffet wan-nabe and thinks he'll spend his retirement chasing Amy all the way to Rockport Bay

13. Who is equally at home in classroom, chapel, workshop, and gar-den, and dance floor all night

14. Who, having moved all the furniture, simply builds more, and is just as skilled at explaining what the furni-ture is for

15. Who has carved out his place in this com-mun-ity and his initials on its fam-ily tree

16. Who sits in the same chair in the cha-pel and always has his prayer book underneath it in the cubby: on the leftside facing forward, second row from front, second seat in from the out-side aisle.

17. Whose eyes look to the Lord our God until he show us his murphy

18. Who is right now thinking to him-self, "I'm about to mildew o-ver here"

19. Of whom will it never be said -- he ended up simply having visit-ed this world

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