Wednesday

Wow. A day back in the office. Seemed exotic.
  • Initial processing of accumulated letters, magazines, promotional pieces, and other detritus from my absence.
  • Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Substantive debriefing conversation with the Archdeacon on an emerging clergy deployment matter. (This is a happy one, which I very much look forward to being able to announce as a done deal.)
  • Wrote out notes to clergy with birthdays and wedding anniversaries in June. The spouse birthdays and ordination anniversaries will have to enjoy the wayside this time around. It's the thought that counts. So ... to all the clergy of the Diocese of Springfield with an ordination anniversary in June (and there are a bunch, which means some are probably reading this): May you experience a fresh sense of the reality and holiness of your vocation. Sing or listen to the Veni creator spiritus, and rekindle the moment in the imagination of your heart. And to the clergy spouses with birthdays: Ad multos annos.
  • Prepared a sermon in my mind for delivery tomorrow night at a special liturgy of Confirmation at Christ Church, Springfield.
  • Lunch at home Leftover Thai food.
  • Refined and printed (and stowed in my car) a working script for this Sunday's (Pentecost) sermon at the Episcopal Parish of Alton (Trinity Chapel and St Paul's Church).
  • Listed all the individual actions to which I will need to attend in preparation for the annual synod of the diocese ("convention" in most other dioceses) in October. Assigned a date to each. Viewed in aggregate, it seems daunting. That's why I break it up into bite-size chunks. Also plunged into making decisions, prompted by an email from the priest of the host parish.
  • Responded to a small stack of emails.
  • Took care of some routine turn-of-the-month personal organization hygiene.
  • Took the time to read an online article that one of our priests had sent me a link to a couple of months ago. The wheels often grind slowly, but they do grind.
  • Evening Prayer in the cathedral.

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