Ash Wednesday

  • Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Made a few physical preparations and otherwise organized myself to preside at the 12:15 Ash Wednesday liturgy.
  • Attended to a couple of small details pertaining to an upcoming trip.
  • Sent a substantial email message to the Senior Warden of one of our Eucharistic Communities in transition.
  • Revised, refined, and printed the working text of my homily for Lent I, this Sunday at St Paul's, Pekin.
  • Celebrated and preached the midday Eucharist in the cathedral, at which there were about 40 people present.
  • Ash Wednesday is a fast day for able-bodied Episcopalians, in which category I like to include myself. Nonetheless, lunchtime, it feels to me, of about more than eating. It's about marking the sections of the day. So I went home and drank a bottle of Perrier while watching an episode of The Young Pope.
  • Back in the office, I worked on a substantive and more-sensitive-than-usual email to an individual in the ordination process. It consumed both time and emotional energy.
  • Responded to an email from one of our Rural Deans about goings-on in his deanery.
  • Read and made the difficult decision to round-file a request for financial assistance from an overseas diocese with which we have no prior relationship. It's a worthy cause, but we need to focus on the connections we already have.
  • Moved the ball down the road a bit in planning for a visit to the Diocese of Tabora in July.
  • Evening Prayer in the cathedral. This time I worked through mealtime and and hung around the precincts until the 7pm second liturgy of the day.
  • Reviewed and proposed a couple of corrections to the draft minutes of the last Diocesan Council meeting.
  • Reviewed the annual report of ministry submitted by a military chaplain canonically resident in the diocese. (Such reports are canonically mandated for clergy whose ministry is not otherwise accounted for on a parochial report.)
  • Presided and preached at the 7pm sung Ash Wednesday liturgy.

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