- Began to feel a little "puny" (as they say in the south) last night, so the day got off to kind of a sluggish start.
- Spent some 80 minutes on the phone (this was previously scheduled) with Bishop Bill Love (Albany), who is my "peer coach" for the first three years of my episcopate.
- Navigated--veritably to the point of nerve synapses being fried--the labyrinthine canons on ordination (Title III), trying to figure out the steps we need to take to get an Army chaplain who wants to be an Episcopal priest through the process as expeditiously as possible. Canons are intended to be clear and unambiguous. When trying to apply them to concrete situations, however, they are often vexingly obscure and complex. (Have I mentioned I'm very much a "forest" person and don't care much for "trees"?)
- Accompanied Archdeacon Denney and Sue Spring, our Diocesan Administrator, to a delightful lunch at the Illini Country Club with Chancellor Rick Velde, at his invitation. Lovely.
- Returned to the office still not feeling very well, but dug back into the Title III canons and came up with a roughed-out path for our Army chaplain. Asked the Archdeacon to put flesh on the bones in advance of next Tuesday's Standing Committee meeting. He excels at stuff like that!
- Returned a phone call to my ELCA counterpart, Bishop Warren Freiheit. He has a rural congregation that has dwindled to the point where they are willing to consider partnering with our congregation in the same town (not much larger). I shall explore whether this is workable.
- Hit the road around 3:30 for St George's, Belleville (an Illinois suburb of St Louis). Met first with the Rector and a committee of parishioners who are coordinating plans for the 2011 Annual Synod of the diocese in October, which St George's is hosting. We reached consensus on the broad strokes of pending decisions regarding times and places of various events.
- Then, after a brief tour of the physical plant, Brenda and I headed into the parish hall for the last of their Lenten soup suppers, after which I offered the reflections I had prepared on Living Into our Messianic Hope. We were back on the road toward Springfield around 8:15.
- Still feel like I'm trying to fight something off. Getting sick is not welcome on my agenda.
The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany
Ten years ago, minus about six weeks, I served as the supply priest for Trinity, Lincoln six days before my consecration as Bishop of Springfield. Today I was there for the final regular scheduled canonical parish visitation of my episcopate. (I have a few more gigs on my calendar: March 7 in Mattoon, the Chrism Mass, the Triduum at the cathedral, May 30 in Cairo, and June 27 back at the cathedral--May 2 is available and not yet spoken for--but the every Sunday routine of my life for the past decade (in a larger sense, for the last 32 years) is at a major flex point.) As much as it could have been in the midst of a pandemic, this morning at Trinity was luminous. We confirmed eight adults, six of them qualifying as "young." My homily had to compete with the sounds of active young children. (I would much rather do that than have no kids in church.) Trinity is one of the exciting points of light in my ministry in the diocese. I took my time getting out of Lincoln because I wante...
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