Moving Diagonally

If I get home from a trip right at bedtime, as I did last night, I still need a winding down period (usually in front of some non-mentally demanding TV) before I can actually go to bed. So I allowed myself a bit of extra time this morning to get up and going. In the office around 9:30. Morning Prayer in the cathedral chapel. Responded to one of our clergy over an administrative issue having to do with the effect of one of our new canons. Reached out by phone to Mother Beth Maynard, rector of Emmanuel, Champaign, where they've had quite a week. She reports that the odor of smoke in the church and parish hall has been successfully ameliorated, and they are planning a full slate of activities for the weekend. #couldhavebeenmuchworse Dealt with two more financial/administrative issues: one having to do with our companion diocese of Tabora, and the other having to do with getting some training for our diocesan exorcist, Fr Andy Hook. Back to draining a small administrative swamp t...

Began the day with a brisk treadmill workout. Task planning at home, MP in the cathedral. Got to work signing and sealing the certificate for tonight's ordination. Took four passes with the hot wax, and one was plenty good enough. Read and responded to an email from the Bishop of Tabora. Devoted more time to an ongoing bit of administrivia that seems to be getting more complex the harder we try to resolve it. Spent about 90 minutes with a commentary on Mark's gospel, focusing on the Passion narrative, all in service of developing a homily for Palm Sunday. Home for lunch on the late side. Leftovers. Registered online for a Communion Partners meeting late next month. Processed a short stack of late-arriving email. Out the door at 3:00 for points east. Met at St John's, Decatur with Fr Mike Newago. Routine check-in regarding his work as Mission Strategy Developer. Presided over a rehearsal, then the liturgy itself. Got Christine Gregory duly ordained to the diacona...

Usual weekday AM routine. MP in the cathedral. Apprised the Archdeacon of last nights could-have-been-so-much-worse fire at Emmanuel, Champaign. Tied down some dangling travel arrangements. Attended to two items that have been in my task system for a long time but have always gotten triaged out on any given day. I've gotten tired of seeing them keep popping up. Both involved small favors for a lay person--one inside the diocese and one outside. Sat with my notes on the readings for Lent III until they gave birth to a homiletical message statement (an indicative mood statement of good news, without any subordinate clauses, negatives, or imperatives--it's a discipline that has served me well). This is in preparation for preaching at St Andrew's, Carbondale on March 4. Began my routine monthly project of writing notes to clergy with nodal evens in the following calendar month. Took an early lunch at home (leftovers) in order to keep a 12:30 physical therapy appointment (...

Task planning over breakfast at home. Briefed the Archdeacon on some of the interesting factoids of my weekend with Ordinariate Catholics in Houston. Confirmed with the Dean that we are on the cathedral's calendar for the Chrism Mass on March 24. Morning Prayer in the cathedral. Responded to a request from two of our "communities" that are not going to be quite "eucharistic" on Epiphany IV and Epiphany V, for homilies of mine that might be read on those occasions when they gather for Morning Prayer. In this context, I did what I was already needing to do anyway, and did some relatively minor but significant surgery on an old homily text for Epiphany V to make it usable at St John's, Decatur on February 4. Dealt with some administrative and financial details on behalf of a couple of our congregations that are experiencing a pastoral hiatus. Reviewed and responded to a draft plan for the celebration of Emmanuel, Champaign's centennial of their build...

Went to church a lot today. Brenda and I attended the 9am liturgy at St Martin's, Houston, to make our communion. (This is the largest parish in the Episcopal Church, and includes among its members former President George and Barbara Bush, all they were not at that service!). Then, we were at the 11:15 High Mass at Our Lady of Walsingham, the cathedral church for the (Roman Catholic) Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter. The liturgy of the Ordinariate (a sort of non-geographic diocese) is an amalgam from a number of different Anglican sources, the Hymnal 1940 was in the pew racks, and all the music had an Anglican style. Lunch was spent catching up with a former Episcopal priest I have known, now about to be an Ordinariate priest. Brief down time, then back to OLW for an exceptionally fine choral evensong (Stanford in C, for those in the know), at which I was privileged to be the preacher. Caught up during the reception with my Nashotah classmate Fr Michael LaRue and...

Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston --Micah 4:1-7, John 9:1-41 I bring you greetings from the clergy and faithful of the Diocese of Springfield: Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I am delighted to be with you here in this cathedral church, to renew a friendship of more than thirty years with your Vicar General, and to make the acquaintance of Bishop Lopes, about whom I have heard so many fine things. We are here during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This is an ecumenical observance that is now more than 100 years old. Its origin can be traced to a Catholic Franciscan religious community, the Graymoor Friars of the Atonement, whose founder established the community while he was yet a priest in the Episcopal Church. Very early on, the Graymoor Friars discerned working toward church unity as their primary charism. One aspect of their apostolate is to operate the Centro Pro Unione in Rome, and it was my privilege to attend a r...

A day of travel: Out the door, packed, with Brenda, around 0900. Caught the 1030 United Express to Chicago, then on to Houston, where we landed at 4:00. Picked up our rental car and made our way to the Crowne Plaza Galleria, where there was a room waiting for us. Got settled, then headed over to the home of our dear and longtime friends, Fr Timothy Perkins and his wife Jody (joined by their daughter Clare and their granddaughter Elise). Fr Perkins is now the Vicar General (kind of like Canon to the Ordinary) of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, a diocese-like structure for Roman Catholics who worship in the Anglican tradition. They've invited me to preach at a Choral Evensong tomorrow at their cathedral.