Wednesday (George Franklin Seymour)

I was speaking recently with a priest who is discerning a potential call to ministry as a bishop, and remarked to him very prosaically that one of the contrasts between the life of a parish priest and the life of a bishop is the month of December. I have found it every year to be my quietist month, save for the one that I'm on vacation. So, as I remember remarking last year at this time, my ministry-related to-do list is in ebb stage, so I'm filling more of my time with domestic concerns. That said, I did so some major and final work on a post for the Covenant blog scheduled to appear on Holy Innocents Day, read through the psych eval of one of our ordinands, communicated to the Lambeth Conference apparatus that they will need to transfer their invitation to my successor, made another "thank-you" call to a Nashotah House donor, and did my final "macro" sermon preparation task planning exercise--literally for the remainder of my episcopate. That is sobering.

Today is the anniversary of the death of George Franklin Seymour, the first Bishop of Springfield, and therefore my predecessor ten times removed, in 1906. He laid the foundation for much that we still enjoy in the diocese, and I feel like I stand on his shoulders. His ministry and witness were heroic, and I would not be unsupportive of the development of a proper "cult" venerating Bishop Seymour. 

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