Wednesday (St Nicholas)

  • Task planning at home. Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Conferred with Paige briefly on a website issue.
  • Hand-wrote a note of condolence to a colleague bishop whose wife suddenly died last week.
  • Began a round of telephone tag with one of our clergy.
  • Organized sermon preparation work for the Sundays after Epiphany.
  • Spent a good chunk of quality time with two excellent commentaries on the Gospel of Mark in preparation for preaching at Trinity, Lincoln on the First Sunday after the Epiphany, January 7. I relish opportunities to do this sort of thing, not only for however it helps my preaching, but just to be able to get deep into the weeds on a particular biblical passage. Tonic for the soul.
  • Lunch at home. Leftovers.
  • Shopped for and ordered staff Christmas gifts.
  • Reviewed a proposal from Ancestry.com to digitize, at no cost to us, whatever nodal life event records we have in our archives, plus those of the cathedral. Discussed the proposal with the Dean.
  • Read the latest newsletter of the Illinois Conference of Churches.
  • Read newsletters sent by a couple of our Eucharistic Communities. (So, yes, if you send them, I read them.)
  • Consulted with the Administrator (who is the goddess of all things pertaining to insurance) and then proceeded to apply online for Medicare, Part A. I guess this is a rite of passage, or sorts. I feel older, but not necessarily wiser.
  • Drafted the text of what, God willing, will become the third video installment in the Seven Marks of Christian Disciples series. This one is on "The Narrative Arc of Scripture." In less than 800 words!
  • Evening Prayer in the cathedral.

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