Tuesday

  • My only day in the office this week, as tomorrow brings more travel.
  • Did some task management while still at home over breakfast. Began to refine my sermon for Ascension the day after tomorrow (as guest preacher at Christ Church in Fitchburg, MA).
  • Arrived at the cathedral/office complex at the usual hour, to find a phalanx of funeral home employees more than two hours ahead of the scheduled 11am requiem for Deacon John Wilson. Morning Prayer got lost in the shuffle, as I was immediately drawn into an array of make-ready tasks.
  • Left two voice mails, one of my own volition and one as part of a volley in response to a message left for me while I was away last week.
  • Conferred with the Archdeacon on an array of pastoral and administrative matters.
  • Finished the better part of refining and printing the Ascension sermon.
  • Presided at the funeral liturgy for Deacon John Wilson, who died last week. John had lived and ministered in the Springfield area since his retirement around two decades ago, though he was canonically resident in the Diocese of Chicago.
  • Ran by the bank for a personal errand.
  • Lunch from Taco Gringo, eaten at home. Took a call from a priest of the diocese over an emerging personal/pastoral matter.
  • Drove down to Chatham to preside of the 2pm committal for Deacon Wilson.
  • Took a returned phone call from one of the messages I had left in the morning.
  • Conferred some more with the Archdeacon.
  • Met with a retired priest who is doing freelance work on retainer for a bishop and diocese. He was in the area and wanted to discuss some clergy deployment concerns.
  • Got some licks in on my sermon for Pentecost (June 8 in Alton).
  • Brief devotions in the cathedral, then home. It was late.

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