Moving Diagonally

Usual early-AM weekday routine. Traded emails with Canon Evans on some ordination-process issues. Responded to an email from a colleague bishop over a mutual concern, Attended via multiple emails to a communications process issue. Fleshed out my homiletical message statement for Easter VI (when I am supposed to be, but won't be, visiting St Andrew's, Edwardsville) into a developed sermon outline. Lunched on leftovers. Attended to a routine monthly personal organization tasks tied to the turn of one month into another. Hosted and chair a Zoom meeting of a Communion Partners subcommittee (on fundraising and staffing). Opened the sermon preparation process for Trinity Sunday, which may actually happen at Trinity, Mattoon. Or maybe not. Living in hope. Took an aggressive 65-minute walk. Evening Prayer with Brenda. After dinner: Wrote email greetings to clergy and spouses with nodal events in May. Scheduled for sending on the appropriate day.

The highlights: Attended a 2.5 hour Zoom meeting of the Board of Directors of the Living Church Foundation, of which I am the Secretary. In the eight years or so during which I have served this body, it has never been in as good a shape, in every respect, as it is at this moment. This is very gratifying. Set up, planned, recorded, edited, uploaded, and shared two video presentations: One my now customary midweek pastoral greeting to the diocese, and the other a time of catechesis for those who were scheduled to be confirmed at Emmanuel, Champaign this Sunday--an event that, of course, will not occur due to the pandemic protocols.  Developed my outline of a homily for Easter V (sadly, when I won't be able to visit Redeemer, Cairo) into a rough draft. Attended to an ongoing and still-emerging pastoral issue via email.

Regular weekday early AM routine. Got started on laundry. Set up my first Zoom meeting as a host. (This one is on Thursday, for a subcommittee of the Communion Partners--a gathering that would have happening on Zoom even without the pandemic). Traded emails with Fr John Henry in his capacity as chair of the Commission on Ministry, looking forward to *their* next meeting happening on Zoom, and discussing those who need to be interviewed. Took a phone call from one of our clergy on a couple of technical questions. Scanned a dubious internet domain-name notice that came to my home address, and sent it off to Sue for further investigation. Executed and put back in the mail a land-conveyance agreement for a corner of the property at the daycare facility at St Thomas', Glen Carbon. It's a mutually beneficial agreement with a developer. Scoured my archives for letters-of-agreement with clergy who are not rectors, for the purposes of aiding Canon Evans in the drafting of a new o...

The morning accomplishment was the exegetical work on the readings for Easter VII. The afternoon (and into the early evening) accomplishment was the plotting of sermon preparation tasks from June through November. As I have described before, this is an inordinately detailed and time-consuming project. It involves, for each Sunday, looking in my sermon archives to see whether there is a "vintage" text that lends itself to being reconditioned. If there is, that involves plotting two actions in the two weeks prior to delivery. If there isn't, it means plotting six actions scattered over the six weeks prior to delivery. (I have an abnormally long homiletical gestation process, but it's what works for me.) Also squeezed in a phone conversation with Canon Evans and with the Rector of Alton.

There seems to be an actual weekly routine developing during the lockdown (I know many people complain about one day being indistinguishable from any other, so this is a good thing). Fridays are about doing the finish work on my Sunday homily, setting up for and recording a video of it, editing and uploading the video. Also: planning, recording, editing, and uploading a pastoral greeting to the Eucharistic Community that the pandemic is preventing me from visiting (in this case, St Thomas', Salem). I also had a substantive phone conversation with Canon Evans, and dealt administratively with some issues pertaining to a couple of our seminarians. As a Friday ("day of special devotion") prayer discipline, I did an Ignatian meditation on the gospel reading from the daily office lectionary. Also managed to squeeze a walk in before ordering takeout for dinner.

Today's highlights: 75-minute scheduled phone conversation with a colleague bishop who is savvy about organizational dynamics and processes, picking his brain about an emergent issue. Followed up with some task creation. Continued to work my way through the clergy list, making phone contact just as a pastoral check-in. Sat with my exegetical notes for the propers of Easter VI and eventually got them to cough up a homiletical message statement for the sermon I won't be giving at St Andrew's, Edwardsville. Attended to a handful of smaller administrative and pastoral concerns. 

The highlights: Attended the weekly hour-long video meeting of the Province V bishops, followed by then usual phone conversation with one of them. Spoke by phone at some length with Canon Evans and two clergy of the diocese on an emerging issue. Planned, set up, recorded, edited, and uploaded by weekly video greeting to the diocese during this season of Coronatide. Grew my homiletical message statement for Easter VI (probably not at Redeemer, Cairo) into a developed outline.