Moving Diagonally

Out the door northbound a little past 8:00. Pulled into the grounds of Nashotah House about 4.5 hours later. Met with Acting Dean Garwood Anderson. Met with Institutional Advancement Director Diane Plantenberg. Preached at the regular weekly Solemn Eucharist. Out to dinner with fellow-director (and Diocese of Springfield priest) Fr Brien Koehler and his wife Terri. 

St Mary's Chapel, Nashotah House -- I Thessalonians 3:6-13 Earlier this month, while on vacation out west, my wife and I drove—in one day, no less—from Big Sky, Montana, near the northwest corner of Yellowstone National Park—up to Belgrade, which is just west of Bozeman, and then westward on I-90 up through Butte and Missoula and across the Idaho panhandle and on into Washington through Spokane, eventually cutting southward to the “Inland Empire” cities of Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland, then across the Columbia River into Oregon, turning westward again through the amazing Columbia Gorge to Portland, and finally the 50 miles or so southward on I-5 to Salem. That was some 750 miles, and we did it in about 14 hours! There was a bit of nostalgia for Brenda and me as we did this, because that route, traveling in the other direction, represented a significant chunk of our journey 31 years ago from our home in Salem to make a new long-term temporary home for our family just a few hun...

Clergy of the diocese are distinguishing themselves in cyberspace of late (guest article on Covenant from Fr Caleb Roberts this morning, and Fr Dave Halt is writing this weeks devotional for The Living Church), so I took some time at home to read and appropriately share. I'm proud of our profile! Plus ... usual task planning. Devotions and Morning Prayer in the cathedral. Prepared to preside and preach at the midday cathedral Mass. It was a little more effort than usual to dig up the propers for the lesser feast of Bishop Charles Chapman Grafton. When he was consecrated Bishop of Fond du Lac in 1888, his chief consecrator was Bishop MacLaren, who was Bishop of Chicago at the time but had been Bishop of Illinois when it covered the whole state. One of the co-consecrators was Bishop Seymour, first Bishop of Springfield. Took the developed outline of my sermon for Proper 18 (September 10) to the "rough draft" stage. Attended to a small bit of administrative work pertain...

Master task planning for the week at home, along with some Nashotah-related stuff. Because we're in an unanticipated transition between deans, the board's workload has increased significantly. Devotions (Angelus and intercessions) and Morning Prayer in the cathedral. The remainder of the morning was consumed by taking the sermon for St Aidan's Day (this Thursday at Nashotah House) that was conceived and hatched last week and supervising its growth to readiness-to-fledge (to continue to avian metaphor). Lunch at home--leftovers. Returned a phone call from one of our rectors over a pastoral/administrative concern. Wrote an 600+-word article for the next issue of the Springfield Current and delivered it to the Communications Coordinator. You can get a preview here . Reviewed and commented on the Diocesan Secretary's draft minutes of last Saturday's Council meeting. Reworked, refined, and printed my sermon for this Sunday, to be delivered at All Saints, Morton....

On the road at 7:15 from my overnight in Effingham. Pulled into the parking lot at St John's, Albion about 90 minutes later. Participated in Word and Sacrament with the dozen or so faithful communicants of that small but vital Eucharistic Community. I think there's an inverse relationship between the size of a congregation and the quality of the post-liturgical spread in the parish hall! And this is a fun bunch to visit with. Back on the road a little past 11 and home at 2:30. Out to dinner (at Cooper's Hawk) with Brenda in the evening to celebrate our 45th wedding anniversary. She had no clue what she was doing that day, and I knew even less, but grace has abounded and we've made it this far.

St John's, Albion -- Matthew 16:16-30 I’m not exactly at the tip of the spear when it comes to awareness of popular culture—a couple of years ago during the Super Bowl I had to admit on Facebook that I had never before heard of the halftime headliner … it was Katy Perry that year … I now know who Katy Perry is, but I didn’t then—like I said, I may have trouble with my knowledge of celebrities, but I don’t exactly live under a rock either. I pay attention to the news, I watch television and movies, I read articles and blog posts, and I do so with my antennae up for how the area of my greatest interest—religion in general, Christianity in particular, Anglicanism even more in particular—I pay attention to how the world I live in every day is perceived and understood by the world “out there.” And what comes through loudly and clearly and consistently is that the world “out there” believes that all religious questions ultimately boil down to one: Does God exist? Now, for me perso...

Up and out at more or less the usual weekday time, even though it's a Saturday. Got to the cathedral/office complex at 9:00. Prepared for the 10am Mass and subsequent Diocesan Council meeting. Presided at both those events, then had a substantive meeting with a lay leader from one of our Eucharistic Communities. Home around 1:30. Since I'm still fighting off whatever it is that has laid me low the last few days, I intentionally took it easy and rest for the afternoon. After dinner, around 7:30, I headed for Effingham, where I am spending the night ahead of moving on the Albion for tomorrow morning's visit to St John's.

Per doctor's orders, slept in a bit. Planned tasks. Got the the office/cathedral complex around 9:30. Feeling much better. Devotions and Morning Prayer in the cathedral. Responded to a couple of late-arriving emails. Conferred with the Administrator and the Communicator over some administrative issues. Dealt by email with an emerging administrative issue in one of our parishes. Got enticed into substantive (and time-consuming) participation in an online discussion thread among authors of the Covenant blog. (Part of my vow to "take [my] share in the councils of the church," right?) Carefully read and commented on a draft agreement to, under our canons, create a Geographic Parish including two of our Eucharistic Communities. Responded by email to a query from one of our clergy about attitudes toward Lutheran orders. Got lunch from El Ranchero Taco joint, a new place that has the footprint of a taco truck but is actually in a small T-building on South Grand just eas...

Usual AM routine: daily task planning at home, devotions and Morning Prayer in the cathedral. Attended substantively to some ongoing Nashotah House business. Being without a Dean makes more work for the Board. Got to work on my homily for Proper 18 (September 10 at Trinity, Yazoo City, MS, which I take care of under the Delegated Episcopal Pastoral Oversight program), taking it from a basic message statement to a developed outline. This took the rest of the morning, and some of the afternoon. Attended the 12:15 Mass for St Bartholomew's Day in the cathedral chapel. Lunch at home. Leftovers. Finished the sermon work I had begun in the morning.  Reviewed and responded to a request for a marital judgment. I was pleased to learn that the plan is for the new marriage to be celebrated and blessed in the context of a Sunday Eucharist. Wrestled earnestly with the readings appointed for next Thursday evening's Eucharist in St Mary's Chapel at Nashotah House. I have been invi...

... and we're back: Task planning (lots of it) at home. 60 items in play for what's left of this week. Returned a call from a lay person living in the southern part of the diocese seeking some pastoral care. Devotions and Morning Prayer in the cathedral. Prepared to preside and preach at the cathedral midday Mass. Conferred briefly with the Communications Coordinator. Culled and cleared accumulated hard copy detritus from my physical desktop. Responded to emails from a couple of clergy whose parishes I will be visiting soon. Edited, refined, and printed the working text of my homily for this Sunday (St John's, Albion). Took a walk in the neighborhood. Celebrated and preached a votive Mass "For the Nation" in the cathedral chapel. The choice seemed appropriate. Lunch from Taco Gringo (it's been a while), eaten at home. Wrote a note of condolence to a former Nashotah trustee whose wife has just died. Called to schedule an appointment with Fr Mike N...