Thursday (St Edward B. Pusey)

  • Task planning at home.
  • Devotions and Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Spoke by phone at some length with one of our rectors over some substantive issues.
  • Debriefed with the Archdeacon on a range of issues.
  • Printed, copied, and collated the handout materials for tomorrow mission strategy workshop: Moving Into the Neighborhood, with Carrie Boren Headington.
  • Refined and printed the working text of this Sunday's homily (Emmanuel, Champaign).
  • Lunch from Taco Gringo, eaten at home.
  • Checked in by phone with the widow of one of our retired clergy who recently passed away.
  • Attended to some lodging and transportation details pertaining to a trip to Denver next month to appear as a guest panelist at the annual conference of the Society of Catholic Priests.
  • Worked on developing a homily for St Michael & All Angels, to be delivered on my visitation to St Michael's, O'Fallon on the 27th of this month.
  • Met briefly with the cathedral Provost about an upcoming event.
  • Left the office at 4:15 to retrieve Brenda, then head up to Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport to meet Carrie Headington, the presenter for tomorrow's mission strategy workshop. We had reservations to take her to a nice dinner at one of Springfield's venerable eateries. Sadly, severe weather in northern Illinois interfered with our plans, as her flight from Chicago was boarded and pushed back, but ultimately canceled. After not being able to get to the Amtrak station in time to catch a train, and then not being able to find an available rental car, Carrie's Chicago cab driver offered to drive her to Springfield for an amount roughly equal to her airfare from Dallas, but it seemed the best thing to do. She texted me that her driver is a Muslim from Kyrgyzstan named Ulan. I'm afraid Ulan might have no idea what he's in for by volunteering to share an enclosed space for three-and-a-half hours with the ebullient missioner for evangelism of the Diocese of Dallas!

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