Friday

  • Sneakers on asphalt at 6:45am for a 2.5 mile brisk walk. It was a cool 42 degrees at that hour.
  • After a shower, a perusal of the morning paper, and breakfast, I was on the road (Morning Prayer en route) to Rantoul, where Fr Steve Thorp showed me around St Christopher's and the town (including the former Chanute Air Force Base) before we had lunch together at a local diner.
  • Then it was down to Champaign. At Emmanuel, I had a first meeting with a young man in discernment for Holy Orders. After a generation (or two) of seeking (and getting) ministry candidates of "riper years", the cycle is returning to what had previously been the normative pattern of "from college right to seminary." It makes a certain amount of sense that, if we want to have younger people in our churches, we need to have younger clergy. This is a positive development, I think.
  • I then had a nice long chat with Fr Alan Herbst, rector of Emmanuel. As was my meeting with Fr Thorp, this was part of my ongoing "how-are-things-going-for-you-and-how-can-I-help?" project. It was time very well spent.
  • Since the new interim rector at the Chapel of St John the Divine has arrived on the scene only this week, it seemed only meet and right to stop by and greet Fr Rob Nichols. We had a good talk, and I look forward to his valuable work in that critical outreach ministry of our diocese.
  • Fought the Champaign rush hour, but eventually made it back to I-72. Home just past 7pm.

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