Friday (John Donne)

  • Usual AM routine. Task planning at home; Morning Prayer in the cathedral.
  • Worked with the Administrator to figure out how to make MS Word and our network copier/printer play well with each other to produce liturgy booklets for the Chrism Mass. It was mysterious, laborious, time-eating, and frustrating, but I think we achieved victory.
  • Reviewed and responded to draft minutes from Tuesday's meeting of the Nashotah board.
  • Reviewed and responded to a draft bulletin for this Sunday at St Andrew's, Carbondale.
  • Attended to some technical issues pertaining to the ordination process.
  • Took my morning walk--down Second to South Grand, over to Fifth, and back up.
  • Wrote a note of regret to the Bishop-elect of Indianapolis. With one trip outside the diocese ending the day before her consecration and another one beginning the day after, it's just not coming together for me to be there. I may not be the best example of respecting one's limitations, but I do occasionally succeed.
  • Cleaned up my computer desktop, a routine maintenance chore.
  • Another routine chore--making some organizational tweaks to the month after next (in this case, May).
  • Lunch at home. Leftovers.
  • Brainstormed possibilities for someone I might invite to be the presenter for the scheduled November clergy conference.
  • Began scanning and otherwise processing the accumulated detritus in my physical inbox. While this was going on, I got a phone that, in an unexpected and synchronistic way, led to the solution of my fall clergy conference problem. Details in due course.
  • Before I completed the scanning project, I had a substantive phone conversation with my ELCA counterpart, Bishop John Roth.
  • Took an afternoon walk while doing an Ignatian meditation on the daily office gospel reading for the day. #synergize
  • Certified academic-readiness-for-ordination to the Commission on Ministry for two candidates.
  • Publicized on Facebook our desire to hire a Communications Coordinator.
  • Evening Prayer in the office.

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