The Lord's Day (Pentecost VI)

The Eucharistic Community of St James in Marion is presently celebrating the Eucharist on Sundays at 1pm, given that they share a priest with St Andrew's, Carbondale (Fr Ralph McMichael on an interim basis). So we could enjoy a somewhat leisurely Sunday morning and still be on the road around 9:15 for the three+ hour journey. The Word was preached and the Sacrament administered and then was had a candid but hopeful discussion of the challenges this small congregation faces. The emphasis in today's gospel reading about the need for disciples of Jesus to travel light was apropos. After dinner at Brenda's favorite chain restaurant (Ruby Tuesday) in Litchfield, we got home just past 7:30. Soon thereafter I got a call from Fr John Henry, from church camp where he is serving on the staff this week, informing me that Fr Wayne Shipley, sometime Rector of Carlinville and Vicar of Chesterfield is hospitalized in Springfield with double pneumonia and blood clots in his lungs. So I went on over to Memorial Medical Center and ministered to him sacramentally. Please hold Fr Shipley in your prayers; he is in Intensive Care.

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