Tuesday (O Adonai)

  • Weekly master task planning at home; Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Revised, printed, scanned, and emailed a courtesy letter to a Brazilian priest trying to get a visa to study for a semester at SIU Carbondale. ICE is a bear to work with, we have discovered.
  • Worked on, and essentially completed, travel and lodging arrangements for a trip to Charleston, SC next month. I have been invited to celebrate and preach at the Church of the Holy Communion there on January 13, and we're going to parlay that work into a very brief winter break in a warmish climate by extending the stay until the following Thursday.
  • Met with a seminarian who has roots in this diocese but is currently "unattached" formally to any diocesan ordination process. We discussed various options.
  • Finished tying together some loose ends from my travel arrangement activity.
  • Dashed down to McDonald's for some drive-thru McNuggets, which I consumed in the car en route back to the office.
  • Loaded the Archdeacon and Treasurer into the YFNBmobile and headed for the State Bank of Chesterfield, where we were joined by Fr John Henry and one of the members of St Peter's. Our task was to further the process of the diocese taking direct control of the physical and financial assets of St Peter's in advance of the dissolution of the mission structure at year's end. Regular worship will continue there, but St Peter's will become a chapel of St Paul's, Carlinville. The congregation has dwindled to the point where it is unrealistic to maintain the formal administrative structure of a diocesan mission. This has been a long time coming, and, in the end, it fell to me to make the hard decision, fully aware that there are those who are thereby angered and upset. 
  • Got back to the office around 4:00. After checking voice mail and returning a call to a lawyer who is doing some work for the Putnam Trust (which substantially endows two of our parishes, and of which I am a co-trustee), I spent most of the next hour refining and printing my homily for this Sunday (Christ Church, Springfield).
  • Evening Prayer in the office.

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