Tune your browsers to:
…to view the digital photos I took Sunday night. You do not need to sign in, no matter how much it looks like you have to. Just click "View Photos". You can sign in, if you'd like, and that will let you accumulate photos, send this album onto others, etc.
Enjoy! Now that I have an Ofoto account I'll try to get more pictures up as time goes on.
Well, it was indeed another long one, but this one was far more normal as weeks go. I was in the office Tuesday through Friday, with small exceptions for hospital visits and the like. Doug was also in on Tuesday, but then he left for a provincial synod meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. That meant I got to do the "Eucharist" (from reserve sacrament) on Thursday morning and his Bible study Thursday night.
I think, overall, I would have preferred to do morning prayer on Thursday and just not worried about the communion part. But I went ahead and did it, and it went mostly well. The congregation (11 of them) seemed very hesitant on a lot of the normal responses, like for the Gospel, but seemed to get back into the rhythm of it by the end.
Monday evening I had dinner with a church family and then went into church to open the ECW meeting in prayer. They meet once a month around speakers, crafts, or other things, and either Doug or I tries to be there for the opening. We then head out, letting the women do their thing without us men types around. (Gee, I wonder if they're plotting mutiny?
Tuesday night was the monthly building committee meeting. We bounced around ideas for what we'd like from a new or newly renovated building. There was not a lot of structure to the meeting, so the actual topics were all over the map and–in my humble opinion–went on much too long. One other thing which bothers me about that group is that no mention of the mission of St. John's is made, and no effort is made to discern around mission. Brainstorming is a good thing, don't get me wrong, but I fear that we'll put the new building together years from now and, shortly thereafter, find out that it isn't what we need. Chances are that will come after I've moved on, but it will still be interesting to follow.
Friday we got a call that a parishioner's husband (also a parishioner himself) had suffered a major stroke the night before. He had been to two hospitals and operated on at the second, but was still unconscious. The surgeon and doctors said they felt he would likely never come out of it. So Friday I left church at noon, drove to Circuit City in Niles, OH, to retrieve my TV, and then to Youngstown to the hospital. I did not catch any of the family on my first visit to ICU, so I had some lunch in the cafeteria and tried again. No luck. I packed it up and returned to church. Later in the afternoon I visited a parishioner who was home-bound and wanted to do the reconciliation service. We talked for 30 minutes, prayed, and I came back to church.
Friday evening Patrick came by the church to look over the existing sound system. Last week the vestry approved the use of some funds to "fix up" or replace the aging equipment. After a movie and pizza (the church has a huge-screen TV in the lounge, to which I connected my laptop) we crawled all around the church. His diagnosis: New system. He recommended stages for replacing things, with the first step being, "Hire Consultant." Patrick stayed over at the apartment on Friday night, and then we both drove up to Erie on Saturday morning.
On Saturday I hung around the folk's house for a while, dropped off my laundry, and then went to the Cathedral for an ordination. Ordinations, actually. Two friends were ordained Deacon, one permanently and one transitionally. It was good to see everyone and nice to process next to my dad, with both of us "done up" as Deacons. The service was also quite nice and very Spirit-filled. Both individuals, I think, are also Spirit-filled and will do quite well in their respective ministries.
Today was, well, today. It is once again rainy and gloomy in the Shenango Valley. Church went well… I preached at both services (see other blog) on end-of-life issues, specifically termination of life support. Hot topic if you have been following the news lately. It was the news that got me fired up earlier in the week and–LO!–there was an "in" in today's Gospel. Jesus healed a blind man, so I was free to begin my rant. 
I've just finished vacuuming and doing a little straightening up, and am beginning to burn some CDs. If I truly plan to buy a new laptop soon I will need everything backed up, and that's a big task. My hope is to have both the old and new one at the same time so that I can copy the data straight over, but we'll see.
I have to get ready shortly to go back into church for the Halloween party. Doug and I are dressing up as Mickey and Goofy. I am, apparently, doing something called the "Pumpkin Prayer" that involves praying while carving a pumpkin. After that it is just basically a social time. For some reason I am not looking forward to it, perhaps because I'm a bit tired and have been at church every day for the past 9 or 10 days. I could use an evening off. Tomorrow, thankfully, is my day off and–as long as no one dies in the next few hours–there is no need for me to go in. It can be a true, all-day day off (with many chores, of course).
I think I will sleep well tonight!
I believe I actually forgot to mention some really good news: The SC/COM has decided to let the Bishop ordain me in December.
See you there!
Well, t'was another interesting week… Much like the week before I was in the office only for a short time, this week on Tuesday morning and Wednesday afternoon. Monday I had off as usual and went off for an early afternoon hike at McConnel's Mill State Park, about an hour south of the apartment. It looks like a lovely trail and, if the weather holds, I will try to get back down there tomorrow for another short hike.
Monday evening was the vestry meeting for October. There isn't too much there to write home about. We did discuss some of (guess whic