When Clergy Attack

We had our normal monthly meeting of the Eglinton Deanery Association of Pastoral Staff. It's called "Clericus" in other deaneries, but has the EDAPS name here to indicate that Lay Pastoral Staff are included, not not just clergy. At the Parkdale Deanery Clericus we were lucky if two or three of us showed up at once. Here we easily filled the parlor at Grace Church on the Hill with some 20 or 25 Anglican church leader types. Bishop Yu also joined us for today's meeting.

It was a pleasant meeting. Clergy are often professionally isolated from their own kind and therefore get a lot out of these kinds of meetings together. We also tend to be a chatty and very social bunch, too. Yet I often come away from these meetings with real gems to bring back to my own ministries.

The meeting evolved into a fairly free-form question and answer session with the Bishop. I didn't hear anything in all that was said that surprised me much. Nor did I get a helpful response from the group when I asked what was on my mind. Clergy are very good at avoiding unsettling questions like "How do you integrate spiritual and administrative leadership?" Hard to find church people in leadership that really want to engage this question. I've asked many and few have even tried to answer me. This is weird to me since I'm sure everyone in the room has insightful things to say about this dynamic. I think it's a deep vein of spiritual gold to be mined. Have to go at it on my own, I guess.

What really fed me today was saying Mass with my staff (minus Matthew). Sitting in a circle around a table. Very quiet. very meditative. Rang a bell to centre our intentionality. Let the silence be silence. I can see that I can go to some very deep places with this group--which is something I've been longing to do with a prayer group for some years now. You can only do this kind of thing when the group membership is small, stable, and secure enough in their own spirituality to consent to this kind of thing. I think the next step in the evolution may be to remove the chairs entirely and sit on the floor meditation style. I need to find a rug to use first, though, as well some kind of altar. I'm thinking about buying a nice paving stone to use as an altar stone. I could get some nice Dharma cloths in china town, too, to use as an altar cloth. I better stop now before I add incense!

This morning I went to MEC to buy the final pieces of my safety apparatus to climb the bell tower parapet. That included a 50 Meters of climbing rope, two locking carabiners, and a device called a Petzl Shunt. This last one is a way to connect my harness lanyard to a vertical hanging rope. I can slide the clamp up and down the rope easily, but as soon as I apply weight (as by falling) it locks up. I always love looking at climbing equipment. These devices seem too small and lightweight to put the trust of your life into!

I also bought myself a special treat, a Leatherman e303 pocket knife. I've been hankering for a new pocket knife ever since my last one broke. The one I had before that was stolen after I lent it to someone during a barbecue! I find that when I have a pocket knife, I use it. I'm always opening up boxes or reaching for a screwdriver. Now I'm just looking for something to cut...

-t