Another Thursday

This morning I met with a couple getting married here at the church on Monday. I'm assisting at the service, though their minister from home (Vancouver, in this case) will be doing most of the liturgy. It's a pretty straight forward wedding as these things go.

Our monthly Workplace Bible Study went well. It's always nice to get out of the office and get free sandwiches. I like sandwiches.

Today we got another generous gift towards the piano fund. We about 3/4 of the way to the full cost of a baby grand. Not bad considering we hardly did much fund raising! Amazing how people will give when they know where it's going. One of our next priorities will be the chairs. Our current chairs are in bad shape and tend to attack the people sitting in them. Here's a candidate for their replacement...

Comfy looking, heh? These are at The Church of St. Augustine of Canterbury up on Bayview and Eglinton. They were custom made, but still quite reasonably priced. St. Augustine's is quite progressive liturgically, and I can't wait to try some of the things that they have been doing for some time.

These days I still feel like I'm focusing way too much on putting out fires and keeping up with all the stuff that needs to be done rather than thinking strategically. When I came here I had grand ideas about doing leadership retreats and such. In reality it's hard enough just to get a group together for lunch! As it was, I did manage to get the Ministry Team together for a snacks at the Pour House for today's staff meeting. We did manage to plan ahead through Christmas on some matters.

Which brings up an interesting dilemma... Should we decorate the church for Christmas on Advent IV (Dec 23) between the Sunday morning service and the evening Lessons and Carols? Or the 24th (Christmas Eve) before the Pageant?
or the 22nd (Saturday before Advent IV)? Liturgically, the answer is obvious. but I'm told there have been HUGE fights in the parish in the past over this very question. So I'm deliberating on it. Probably going to be the 22nd or the 23rd. I just hate the idea of having Christmas Decorations up during the penitential and preparatory season of Advent! Sigh.

The new rug is gorgeous. We already have all kinds of ideas for how it can be used. but for the time being we are also very protective!

-t