Thursday

  • Woke up feeling a great deal better than I had 24 and 48 and 72 hours earlier.
  • Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Took care of a long-delayed response to an administrative/pastoral issue.
  • Refined and printed a working script for this Sunday's homily at St Thomas', Salem.
  • Took a call from the rector of Alton Parish regarding some of the details of my upcoming visit there.
  • Took a call from a colleague bishop who has a parish that would like to engage me as a DEPO bishop.
  • Began refining a working script of my homily for Proper 23, to be delivered in Alton (Trinity Chapel and St Paul's). 
  • Served as a last-minute pinch-hitter celebrant and preacher for the 12:15 Mass in the cathedral chapel. We anticipated the lesser feast of St Francis of Assisi. Fr Roderick was delayed returning from a funeral in another part of town.
  • Takeout lunch from Dynasty, the Chinese place next to Taco Gringo, eaten at home.
  • Finish the work on the Proper 23 sermon I had begun before lunch.
  • Met with Kathy Moore and Brian Maves from the Youth Department over a range of YD-related concerns. Chief among them is the possibility that the youth pilgrimage to England, scheduled for next June, may be in some jeopardy due to lack of pilgrims. It would sadden me greatly if we had to cancel this. It has the potential to be an utterly life-changing time of spiritual growth for the young people who come, exploring our very DNA as Anglican Christians. Yes, it's expensive. We have some resources that can mitigate that expense, but we need to have a clear picture of how many kids are actually interested so we can more intelligents deploy those resources and find new ones. Please help make this happen!
  • Finalized the agenda for the Nashotah House board meeting later this month.
  • Left a voice mail with a fellow member of the Living Church Foundation board regarding next week's meeting in Milwaukee.
  • Evening Prayer in the car en route to by charcoal so we could grill burgers for dinner. But when I got home, rain was threatening, so we cooked them indoors.

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