Wednesday


  • Sneakers on the asphalt at 6:40am for a 2.8 mile brisk walk on a beautiful morning. So nice for the heat to have abated.
  • Morning Prayer and task planning at home.
  • Phone conversation with a priest/friend in another diocese regarding potential deployment and some "larger church" issues.
  • Carefully reviewed a draft of proposed changes to diocesan canons designed to bring them into conformity with the national canons on clergy discipline (Title IV). This is a complicated and vexed subject.
  • Engaged several details of the planning process for October's regular diocesan Synod. I have a very detail-oriented Administrator who relentlessly makes this "forest" guy look at "trees"!
  • After a substantial amount of soul-searching over the past month or so, I signed the canonical form withholding my consent to the consecration of the bishop-elect of Washington (D.C.). This was not a casual decision; given my recent history in the consent process, my default is always Yes. But Dr Budde, in her parish ministry, both permits and advocates offering Holy Communion to persons who have not been baptized. This is an explicit violation of canon law, and is completely incoherent theologically.
  • Fleshed out the bare outline of my sermon for August 28, when I will be at St Laurence, Effingham.
  • Began work on my article for the September issue of the Current.
  • Lunch appointment with Fr Dick Swan, Priest-in-Charge of St John's, Decatur.
  • Continued work on my Current article. Sent it off to the editor.
  • Looked at what will need to be done in advance of a delegation from the Diocese of Springfield attending the triennial Synod of Province V, to be held in Chicago in April.
  • Created several projects related to my own personal preparation for the regular annual Synod of the diocese in October.
  • Left at 4:30 with the Archdeacon for points south. After dinner at a picturesque Route 66-themed restaurant in Litchfield, we arrived at St Thomas', Glen Carbon in time for a 7pm meeting with members of that congregation and the one to which it has long been yoked, St Bartholomew's, Granite City. Given that the current supply priest arrangement is ending in November, we discussed various possibilities for long-term pastoral leadership in those places. It was a productive time, I think. Got home just before 10:30.

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