Staff Meeting

Megan (Pastoral Associate), the Parish Administrator, Barbara, and I had an informal Eucharist this morning. The intimacy of such a close quarters liturgy was quite nice, actually, and prayerful. This kind of "staff" Eucharist is likely to become a regular thing for us--really continuing a tradition of the parish that I inherited anyway. Also said Morning Prayer with the crew.

These kinds of intimate prayer moments are suddenly coming a lot to me. Last night I was at Bishop Colin's house for a meeting of young clergy and lay leaders. Because it rained, we ended up having much of our conversation in his living room. There weren't enough chairs, so many of us (including the Bishop and me) ended up sitting on the floor. By that time there was significant sharing of experiences going on and it felt wonderful. The bishop was clearly enjoying the moment as well, and ended the night by reading a passage of scripture, reflecting on it with us, leading us in the Lord's Prayer, and then blessing us. I'm sure these kinds of high-energy conversations about active ministry are much more satisfying to him than many of the things that fill his days.

This morning at church I was still feeling the buzz from that pleasant evening with burgers, ice cream, and ministry talk. No doubt it left me in the perfect frame of mind for all the team building that today involved. After Morning Prayer there was some e-mail and phone calls to deal with. Then Matthew (Director of Music) arrived and we went to lunch at the Pour House. That gave us a chance to tell some stories and enjoy each other's company.

After we got back, Megan joined us again and we had a marathon staff meeting. After we did some planning for upcoming events (including Friday morning's meeting of the Corporation) we did some brainstorming about projects and priorities for near and long term. Lots of great ideas made it onto the flip chart I was using. Some are going to have to wait a bit--others can be implemented easily. For example, our Cantor, Laura, is going to teach the kids some Taize music and then they are going to teach it to the congregation. We are also going to change the position of the organ console slightly and fix some light switches and start working two grant proposals and on and on and on.... Pretty soon it was 5.30 and time to wrap it up--but we all felt as though we had accomplished a great deal. I have a fantastic Ministry Team that is showing every sign of coming to a groove!

I still haven't climbed the belltower--but I will soon. First I have to make a trip to the hardware store so that I have some line to run up the flag pole once I do get up there. I'm also thinking that I should think about getting a safety harness so that I can climb the tower with some security. I'm told that the rungs are very far apart toward the top!

BTW, heard today that there is a rumor going around the parish that I'm only going to stick around for two years. It's untrue, of course, and may simply be based on speculation that I'll leave once Betsy's degree is finished. I suppose I wasn't clear enough in my sermon when I said, "This is my dream job." I should have said, "I'm not going to abandon you!" Anyway, I'm going to squash this rumor on Sunday with a friendly announcement about my intention to stick around for good long while.

Made more progress getting my office organized as well as the house (once I got home). Both are looking more and more like we want them. Really starting to feel at home, now...

Time for bed!

-t