Friday (Oxford Martyrs)

Left the Hampton Inn in Jacksonville by myself at 9:30 to check out the Synod venue. Kept a 10am appointment with Fr Mark Winward, Commander USN, who serves the chaplain corps from his station in Tampa, but it canonically resident here in the diocese. Kept an 11am appointment with someone discerning a potential vocation to the diaconate. Drove back to the hotel to retrieve Bishop Elias, Lucy, and Brenda. We had lunch together at a nearby Applebee's. The Synod convened at 1:30 and recessed at 4:15. In the meantime, we had a bit more drama over the budget than any of us expected, but I believe all will be well. The Synod Mass a few blocks away at Trinity Church celebrated the lesser feast of the "Oxford Martyrs" (Cranmer, Latimer, & Ridley), and was Rite I, Willian service music, and eastward facing--all a kind of liturgical comfort food for Episcopalians. Bishop Elias preached, for which I was grateful. Niee dinner for all back at Hamilton's afterward.

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