Thursday

Very enjoyable three days and four nights in the Orlando, Florida area with Brenda and some members of my extended family (including some Brazilians). It was warm there. It's cold here. Back to reality.
  • Customary Thursday AM weights and treadmill workout.
  • Task planning and Morning Prayer at home.
  • Culled hard copy items that arrived in my absence. Signed forms transferring clergy to/from canonical residence in the diocese--one inbound, one outbound. 
  • Spoke by phone at some length with a priest of the diocese over an emerging pastoral/missional issue.
  • Spoke by phone with the Secretary of the Nashotah House trustees over an administrative and human relations issue.
  • Spoke by phone with another priest of the diocese over an administrative and human relations issue.
  • Made the necessary preparations to preside and preach at the midday cathedral Eucharist.
  • Spoke by phone with a lay leader in one of our parishes over an issue of continuing concern.
  • Spoke by phone with yet another priest over yet another issue of continuing concern. 
  • Presided and preached at the Mass. Wonderful confluence with Mark's version of the feeding miracle and a passage from I John 4 on God's love for us and our love for one another and how it's all made manifest ... in the Eucharist, I would suggest.
  • Lunch from Taco Gringo, eaten at home.
  • Fleshed out, refined, and printed a working text for this Sunday's homily--once again at St Paul's Cathedral.
  • Responded substantively to an email from a search committee chair from one of our parishes.
  • Responded somewhat less substantively to two somewhat less substantive emails.
  • In the midst of everything else throughout the day, had conversations with the Administrator and the Archdeacon over various concerns that arose.
  • Evening Prayer in the (cold) cathedral.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spring 2018 House of Bishops, Day 3

Image
We have new stricter social media rules now in the HOB--no photos taken during a session without the permission of those in it. So ... I'm having to be more creative about finding pics for the blog, because I'm not going to take a panoramic group shot and then contact everyone whose balding head shows in the photo! Once again, the day began with Eucharist. This time, though, I took a pass, and opted for a vigorous walk on a brisk morning. Having looked at the liturgy sheet in advance, there were enough triggers that I knew the net spiritual effect for me would be negative. #selfcare  I will say, however, that HOB worship has gotten incrementally less problematic during the tenure of the current Presiding Bishop, and I give props for that. When we convened at 10:15, there were the usual announcements, then a whirlwind set of summary reports from bishop members of the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music (SCLM) and the Task Force on the Study of Marriage. The full report
Read more

The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Image
Ten years ago, minus about six weeks, I served as the supply priest for Trinity, Lincoln six days before my consecration as Bishop of Springfield. Today I was there for the final regular scheduled canonical parish visitation of my episcopate. (I have a few more gigs on my calendar: March 7 in Mattoon, the Chrism Mass, the Triduum at the cathedral, May 30 in Cairo, and June 27 back at the cathedral--May 2 is available and not yet spoken for--but the every Sunday routine of my life for the past decade (in a larger sense, for the last 32 years) is at a major flex point.) As much as it could have been in the midst of a pandemic, this morning at Trinity was luminous. We confirmed eight adults, six of them qualifying as "young." My homily had to compete with the sounds of active young children. (I would much rather do that than have no kids in church.) Trinity is one of the exciting points of light in my ministry in the diocese. I took my time getting out of Lincoln because I wante
Read more

Saturday (St Charles, King & Martyr)

Substantive phone conversations with the rector of Lincoln, the President of the Standing Committee, and the Canon-to-the-Ordinary. Attended the live-streamed memorial service for a former clergy colleague, and continuing friend, with whom I was in serious conversation about coming to the diocese less than a year ago, who died quickly of COVID at age 66. Then, earlier than I actually needed to, but wanting to get out of town ahead of the snowstorm, I packed up and headed south to Lincoln, where I had time to do some significant reading before hitting the sack.
Read more