new church life: november/december 2015
Church as an assistant to the pastor. He became the pastor for the Bryn Athyn
Informal Service in 2013, serving as the primary preacher, scheduling guest
preachers, and providing pastoral leadership for the community associated
with that service. He was ordained into the second (pastoral) degree in 2014
and in that year also became the pastor for Laurel Camp.
“I’ve really enjoyed my work as a minister so far,” he says. “I love teaching
fourth-grade religion in the Bryn Athyn Church School and giving chapels for
the school. I’ve really appreciated getting to work with – and learn from – such
a fine team of clergy and lay people in the Pastor’s Office. Informal church
services are my favorite style of worship, and so I feel very lucky to get to spend
so much of my time serving in that way in the informal service and at Laurel
Camp.”
He concedes, “It is definitely challenging to be in a minority among the
clergy when it comes to my perspective on women in the priesthood, but
I’m glad I had the opportunity to voice my understanding of the doctrines
on this issue in the paper that I presented to the clergy in 2014 (A Doctrinal
Foundation for a Gender Inclusive Clergy in the General Church).”
Now in his fourth year as a minister, he says, “I feel like I’m starting to get
the hang of this job, but I hope to continue to learn how to be a better minister
every year.”
As for personal interests, Solomon notes that as a minister and a father of
five young children, there are a lot of personal interests and hobbies he loves
but has to work hard to find the time for. He still spends some time managing
his Peace of Heaven Music business and the six albums he has produced. You
can find out more about his music at www.solomonkeal.com and hear his
peaceful solo piano music on Pandora radio. His latest musical project is to
continue creating sheet music for his compositions. He still loves composing
and recording when he can find the time.
He also loves building models out of Lego bricks. In 2012 he completed a
two-foot tall model of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral built out of Lego. This year he
began plans for building a Lego model of Glencairn Museum.
“I also love sailing, and even though it’s been over a decade, I hope to get
back on my sunfish sometime soon.” He also likes juggling, and had fun this
past summer teaching some of the children at Laurel how to juggle.
He loves the literary and cinematic genres of science fiction and fantasy,
including the original “Star Wars” movie trilogy, which came out the year he
was born. He is looking forward to taking his children to see “Episode VII”
this Christmas. He’s also enjoying the recent shared fictional Marvel Cinematic
Universe.
He loves the works of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling and Ursula
K. Le Guin, among many others. “I’m hoping someday to write my own works
of fiction, and I have plans for both a time-travel novel, as well as a novel of
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