- Indulged myself a leisurely morning: read the paper, helped Brenda get ready for her trip to Chicago, began laundry, updated the software on my iPad, examined and processed yet another batch of photos from the consecration, took a brisk and long walk (about four miles in a little under and hour).
- Finished refining sermon for tomorrow, and worked a bit on next week's as well. Went by the office to retrieve the tools of my new trade.
- Drove down to O'Fallon and enjoyed the entertaining hospitality of Jack Moelmann (Mission Warden at St Michael's), who is a theater organ aficionado extraordinaire, and has a Rube Goldberg-like installation--pipes, electronics, and acoustic tuned percussion--taking up his entire basement. And he can really play. We were joined later by Bishop's Warden Ann Wilt and her husband Nels, who provided me with some very valuable background information on the history of St Michael's (our newest church plant and the largest mission congregation of the diocese) and what its current challenges are.
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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