Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

How are you doing in your brackets so far?

As much as I appreciate basketball (I did grow up in Kentucky after all), I’m not talking about college hoops here. I'm wondering how folks are doing with the slightly more spiritual bracket of Lent Madness presented by the Rev. Tim Schenck.

A priest in the Diocese of Massachusetts who clearly enjoys a little frivolity now and again, Fr. Tim pairs up the saints of the church in classic March madness fashion. Each day, two of the saints face off, with readers voting for the winner.

As he writes in his blog, “Only one saint will prevail; the rest will taste the bitter agony of defeat. Which, if they were martyred in the first place, merely adds insult to injury.”

I love playing games so this is a great way for me to both learn more about the saints – and to have a little fun. After all, a song worked pretty well for the alphabet, and parables seemed to resonate for Jesus. Why not a little sports bracketing among the saints? 

Plus, it’s good to be human. Too often we place our priests on pedestals and expect them to act, look, talk, and listen better than the rest of us. But really, having been married to one for almost 14 years, I can attest: Priests are people too. 

Seriously, if we want to be in conversation with people in the world, this is one great example of being authentic, faithful and a lot of fun. 

I talked with Fr. Tim via Facebook about Lent Madness. Here are his thoughts:

Why did you start this?

As a sports fan I love the excitement of the NCAA’s March Madness — it’s the only thing that gets me through the sporting doldrums between the Super Bowl and Opening Day of baseball season. But then I thought, why should college basketball fans have all the fun while we’re sitting around giving up chocolate?

What's your goal? What do you hope people will get out of this?

The motivation was really two-fold: to give people an opportunity to get to know a wide range of amazing people who have come before us in the faith and to model the fact that Lenten disciplines need not be dreary. Lent gets a bad rap — why should it be all gloom and doom? After all, what could be more joyful than a season specifically set aside to get closer to the risen Christ?

Any negative feedback?

When I first started this last year my prayer was “Please, God, don’t let this offend anyone. At least not too much.” But so far, so good. I guess it's pretty self-selecting anyway -- if you don't have a sense of humor, chances are you won't find yourself hanging around my blog.

How many people participate?

It's hard to say exactly. We've been pushing a couple of hundred votes per matchup so far in the early rounds. I'm anticipating things will build to a crescendo as we approach the Final Four!

So, thank you, Fr. Tim. And let the saintly smackdown continue!