Wednesday (St John of the Cross)

  • Did a good bit of email processing and task organizing while still at home.
  • Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Prepared to preside and preach at the midday Mass.
  • Conceived and hatched a homily for Christmas (eve and morning), St Paul's Cathedral.
  • Attended to an important issue with one of our clergy, via voicemail and text message.
  • Began work on an Ad Clerum (letter to the clergy)
  • Celebrated and preached the regular liturgy in the cathedral chapel, keeping a ferial Wednesday in the Third Week of Advent,
  • Finished the Ad Clerum and delivered it to Sue for  transmission.
  • Lunch from McD's (craving for McNuggets the last couple of days), eaten at home.
  • Since it has been so long since this diocese has ordained a vocational deacon, we're a little rusty. There has been a major reform of the Title III ministry canons since our last diaconal ordination. However, we have one candidate ready to be examined for ordination, and two more in the pipeline, and strong hints of others to follow. So the time has arrived for us to get on this. To this end, I sat down, focused, and drafted a set of "rubrics" (not in the liturgical sense, but as the world of education uses the term) by which to apply the new canons to diaconal ordinands. By way of vetting, I then shared the document electronically with all clergy who are in charge of a Eucharistic Community that has a deacon assigned to it, or where a parishioner is a postulant or candidate for diaconal ordination.
  • Pondered requests from two dioceses for consent to the consecration of a priest whom they have elected to be their next bishop. My default is to say Yes, if for no other reason than to acknowledge the drama and difficulty that surrounded my own consent process six years ago. I certainly can't maintain a "default Yes" policy and expect to withhold consent from electees simply because I have significant theological differences with them. But I do have some non-negotiables, and one of them is a commitment to support the traditional (and currently canonical) practice of reserving Holy Communion for those who have been baptized. By that measure, I withheld consent to one of the elections before me today. I didn't do so lightly.
  • Blew through a handful of smaller action items that had been accumulating.
  • Evening Prayer in the chapel.
  • Attended the regular meeting of the Cathedral Chapter, held following dinner at the home of one of its members.

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