- Uusual morning routine ... Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
- No appointments today, so it was a good opportunity to just punch out items on the do-do list:
- Worked on sermons for Maundy Thursday, Easter, and Easter II. As one of those occasions is tomorrow night, it got the most attention. (I seem to settling into a three-week sermon incubation rhythm, so I need to yet get Easter III into the pipeline this week.)
- Processed items that had accumulated on my desktop (my literal desktop, that is) over the last seven days (this is normally a Tuesday task, but I didn't get to it yesterday).
- Wrote a letter to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Belleville seeking permission to use one of his churches for the ordination of Jeff Kozuszek to the priesthood on June 10.
- Returned a phone call and scheduled an appointment with a lay person seeking counsel in discernment for ministry (not necessarily ordained).
- Spoke by phone with another bishop regarding a clergy deployment issue.
- Spoke by phone with Dave Lattan, the chair of the camp board, regarding some details about this coming summer's camp week.
- Responded to emails from a candidate for Holy Orders and from the senior warden of one of our parishes.
- Planned some of the details of the liturgy for my "welcoming and seating" in the cathedral on 15 May.
- Evening Prayer in my office.
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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