- Still "under the weather." Chest and head cold. Email processing and Morning Prayer at home.
- Debriefed with the Archdeacon on sundry pastoral and administrative issues.
- Met with a potential aspirant to Holy Orders. Not only my first visit with him, but my first visit in that genre. I thought it went well.
- Hit the road to Champaign. Talked at length on the phone with two clergy on some pressing issues that affect them. (For the record, I have a wonderful Bluetooth connection between my iPhone and my car's audio system, so I had two hands on the wheel at all times.)
- Lunch with Fr Tim Hallett. He's retiring on Pentecost after 35 years at the Chapel of St John the Divine, so this was my opportunity to do a very informal exit interview as I prepare to colloaborate with the vestry in calling his successor. Nice tour of the University of Illinois campus and the chapel's physical plant. I'm excited about all the good things that can happen in campus ministry.
- More phone conversation, this time with a key lay leader, on the way back to Springfield.
- Stopped by the office long enough to check in briefly with the Archdeacon, process some items that had accumulated on my desk, and head home to ensconce myself in a recliner and try to get well.
- Instead of watching a movie, we are transfixed by keeping up with the tornado warnings that are affecting our area.
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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