Wednesday (O Radix Jesse)

  • Routine daily task planning at home; Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Prepared for my participation in this evening's regular meeting of the Cathedral Chapter. By statute I am a voting member, and it has seemed meet and right to actively share in the deliberations of the group during recent months of financial anxiety and transition. I think it is quite a significant milestone that tonight, for the first time in the memory of anyone there, the Chapter passed an operating budget in which current expenses are funded by current income. There is no more endowment and no anticipated bequests. They have worked very hard and made some very painful decisions. I commend them for their faithfulness. By the way, I am now at liberty to disclose that Fr Keith Roderick has accepted my appointment, with the concurrence of the Chapter, as Provost (priest-in-charge) of St Paul's, beginning March 1.
  • Conceived and hatched a sermon for the First Sunday after Christmas Day (December 30, at Emmanuel, Champaign).
  • Participated in an hour-long conference call in preparation for the the Conciliation conference I am attending next month in connection with the disciplinary process in which I am one of nine respondents.
  • Lunch from China 1, eaten at home.
  • Processed a batch of emails.
  • Prepared (i.e. wrote, printed, signed, scanned, an attached to email) three letters to Vestries/Bishop's Committees of parishes in the Hale Deanery. (Fr Roderick is leaving St Andrew's, Carbondale to come to the cathedral; Fr Jon Griffin is, by his request, standing down from his work at St Mark's, West Frankfort; and Mother Sherry Black is moving from St James, Marion to West Frankfort.) 
  • Spoke by phone with Christopher Wells, Executive Director of the Living Church Foundation, on which I serve as a board member, though I have been a reader of and subscriber to TLC for more than three decades. The publication has improved exponentially under Christopher's leadership, and if you're not familiar with it, I heartily encourage you to become so.
  • Fleshed out, polished, and printed a working script for my Christmas homily at the cathedral (two liturgies Christmas Eve and one in the morning).
  • Reviewed the process for applying for United Thank Offering grants. We are hoping to work with and for our companion diocese of Tabora (Tanzania) in helping Bishop Elias obtain an appropriate vehicle by which to visit his vast diocese.
  • Evening Prayer in the office.
  • After dinner at home, attended the meeting of the cathedral Chapter.

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