Wednesday (Our Lady of Perpetual Help)

  • Morning Prayer and some planning at home.
  • Retrieved the Chakupewas from the Doubletree at 0930 and drove them down to the diocesan office. For a few minutes we attended to some logistical details about their visit.
  • The four of us (that is, including Brenda and Lucy) walked over to the Stratton Office Building where we were greeting by two members of the Secretary of State's staff (as arranged by Archdeacon Denney), who took us to meet state Rep. Tim Butler, who officially welcomed Bishop Elias to Illinois. 
  • After being led through an underground tunnel that connects the Stratton Building with the Capitol, we were given a generous tour of the Capitol by a staff member who usually does that sort of thing. Even though it's barely three blocks from my office, I hadn't been in the building since my eighth grade class trip in 1965!
  • Afterward, we walked the two blocks over the Illinois National Bank, where I arranged to wire $1000 from my discretionary fund to Bishop Elias toward the purchase of bicycles for his corp os evangelist/catechists.
  • Back to the office on foot (getting pretty hot by that time), then by car to Obed & Isaac's (right across the street from Christ Church) for lunch.
  • Dropped our guests off at their hotel picked up some books from my office, and drove home for the afternoon, where I spent most of my time doing exegetical research on a passage from Mark 8 on which I will be preaching at St Mary's, Robinson on September 16.
  • Picked up Bishop Elias and Lucy and took them on a small shopping errand before joining Dean Andy Hook and Fr David and Mary Ellen Wells for dinner at Saputo's.

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