This morning Megan and I went Belmont House to do a Eucharist service. We said a short version of the 1962 Mass downstairs in the chapel and then upstairs to a floor with folks with mental impairments to do an even shorter service of worship (complete with Don on peppy keyboard doing "Jesus Love Me" and other hymns familiar to an older generation). It was a really lovely experience. As I was riding down the elevator afterwards with Megan and Don I had to tell them what a luxury it was to have them with me to do this ministry.
Back at COTM we had a flurry of e-mails and phone about administrative matters. There has been a lot of stuff that was put on hold with the mantra "When the New Incumbent Comes" that is suddenly on my shoulders. So now we are moving on all sorts of fronts all at once. It does feel very satisfying, though, to feel like we are making rapid progress on getting stuff under control. We are evening starting to establish important pieces of the leadership infrastructure--not just regular staff meetings and other rituals of connection, but also deeper rhythms of trust and communication. As a result we are already outlining our creative liturgy plans between now and the end of December. It's a beautiful moment!
Speaking of staff meetings, we had a two hour one today--longer than is ideal, but necessary given all the stuff to be discussed and decided.
BTW, have I praised my most excellent ministry team today? They rock. Megan even brought cinnamon buns to the staff meeting!
Doesn't that look inviting? I climbed the first ladder today just to see what was up there--I saw several stages of aluminum ladders. They are all quite dusty, but the actual heights between stages looks entirely doable. I once climbed a truly scary ladder in the Holy Cross bell tower that had me suspended 25 feet or more on nailed-together 2"x4"s that kept springing up and down with every slight movement of my shivering body. Ain't ministry grand?
-t
2 comments:
Do you celebrate the Mass per se at Belmont House? We've been doing a "Communion Service" with the liturgy of the word, distribution, etc, but no consecration. Or so I'm told; I'm supposed to start assisting this autumn.
There are two services that COTM does at Belmont: one is an ecumenical prayer service on Sunday afternoons once every other month and the other is an Anglican Eucharist once a month or so on Thursday mornings.
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