Wednesday

  • Task planning at home; Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Did a quick bit of pastoral care by email.
  • Did some planning and made a phone call to advance the cause of a short clergy conference in November (3-4, if that affects you).
  • Spent the rest of the morning taking my Easter IV homily (St George's, Belleville) from the stage of notes-toward-a-message to rough draft of text.
  • Dropped a load off at the cleaners, grabbed some TG to go, and brought it home to eat.
  • Attended to a task (drafting a letter) that I volunteered for when the Communion Partner bishops were together in late February.
  • Took a couple of more small steps forward toward planning a visit to our companion diocese of Peru in July.
  • Tackled the learning curve of WordPress in order to post the videos of this year's Lenten teaching series presentations at St Michael's, O'Fallon. See it here. 
  • Did another bit of pastoral care by email.
  • Took a head-clearing walk west to Spring Street, south to South Grand, west to Second, and back up to the office.
  • Began to rework a sermon for Easter VI from several years ago  for use this year at St James, Marion and St Andrew's, Carbondale.
  • Attended to  chores pertaining to a some people in the ordination process.
  • Took care of a bit of administrivia related to one of our mission congregations.
  • Evening Prayer in the cathedral.

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