Thursday


  • In the office around 8:45, as usual. Spent an hour catching up with the Archdeacon on a range of administrative and pastoral matters (we haven't seen one another since driving home together from General Convention on July 12). 
  • Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Processed some emails. Conferred with the Administrator on various details concerning the upcoming annual Synod of the diocese.
  • Created a first draft working outline of my homily for this Sunday (celebrating St Bartholomew's Day at St Bartholomew's Church in Granite City).
  • Lunch at home.
  • Attended to some details concerning a planned conference for clergy and musicians in November.
  • Exchanged emails with the Bishop of Chicago. Delighted that he will be able to attend to Friday session of our annual Synod in October.
  • Processed another group of emails. This was a frustrating day. Little things kept popping up that made it hard to get traction on my task list.
  • Evening Prayer in the cathedral at 4pm. Then home to change clothes and hit to road to Normal. A parishioner at Christ the King, Normal had several weeks ago invited me to be his guest at a minor league baseball game there. So I joined a group of several members of the Episcopal Parish of McLean County (aka Christ the King, Normal and St Matthew's, Bloomington) to watch the Normal Cornbelters take on the Traverse City Beach Bums. Minor league baseball is fun. The players, all between 19 and 27, are barely paid minimum wage. They do it for the love of the game, and the remote prospect that a scout might see them and sign them to a contract with an actual major league farm team. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spring 2018 House of Bishops, Day 3

Image
We have new stricter social media rules now in the HOB--no photos taken during a session without the permission of those in it. So ... I'm having to be more creative about finding pics for the blog, because I'm not going to take a panoramic group shot and then contact everyone whose balding head shows in the photo! Once again, the day began with Eucharist. This time, though, I took a pass, and opted for a vigorous walk on a brisk morning. Having looked at the liturgy sheet in advance, there were enough triggers that I knew the net spiritual effect for me would be negative. #selfcare  I will say, however, that HOB worship has gotten incrementally less problematic during the tenure of the current Presiding Bishop, and I give props for that. When we convened at 10:15, there were the usual announcements, then a whirlwind set of summary reports from bishop members of the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music (SCLM) and the Task Force on the Study of Marriage. The full report
Read more

The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Image
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
Read more

Saturday (St Charles, King & Martyr)

Substantive phone conversations with the rector of Lincoln, the President of the Standing Committee, and the Canon-to-the-Ordinary. Attended the live-streamed memorial service for a former clergy colleague, and continuing friend, with whom I was in serious conversation about coming to the diocese less than a year ago, who died quickly of COVID at age 66. Then, earlier than I actually needed to, but wanting to get out of town ahead of the snowstorm, I packed up and headed south to Lincoln, where I had time to do some significant reading before hitting the sack.
Read more