Preacher's wish list

I gotta get me one of these.



Except that I'd want to upgrade-- add organist settings, to set pitch and tempo (especially tempo).

Any other features you'd add?

(This cartoon is taken from the Dave Walker Guide to the Church, published by Canterbury Press. It originally appeared in the Church Times.)

Moving Day

So... have you wondered what we've been up to, here? Thought nothing was happening, that life was all boring and business as usual?

Not so much.

St. Alban's Church will be worshipping in a new home - the chapel at The Crossings, Laurel's new senior living facility. The first service at the new location will be at 9 am., Sunday, Jan. 27.

Read the rest here. And pray for us, please, as we begin this adventure in resurrection!

One more reason to love Big Sky Country

Dear Homeland Security,

Take a hike.

Love and Kisses,
Montana

Annual Meetings

I was doing better at blogging more consistently... and then Annual Meeting Season got in the way. I know, for most of my pastor buddies this is a one-time event; but here it becomes a season, like Advent or Epiphany.

So, I've been preparing:

• Encouraging parish leadership to consider their work in the last year, and to write up summaries of that work for presentation to the parish.
• Getting pledge records complete, and budgets ready and approved by vestries for presentation to the parish (the treasurers actually do this; I just monitor the process).
  
• Working with said leadership to select nominees for vestry positions (in the smaller churches, this often means making sure that someone is willing to continue. "You can still do this, right?"). We also elect delegates to diocesan convention.
• Going over an agenda with the Senior Warden, to make sure we've got it all.
• Going through parish records, looking at the numbers from the last year-- how many services, weddings, funerals, and attendance thereto.

Without a parish secretary. TIMES FOUR.

Lord, have mercy. And remind me again, how much I love these people.

Growing up... in stages

The Boy had his first basketball practice last evening. He didn't say so, but his behavior indicated clearly that he was nervous. Very nervous. You could almost hear the voices in his head. "I'm not going to fit in." "I'm going to suck at this." "They'll never let me play." Being the kind and sensitive Mom that I am, I flatly ignored it-- just sent him on over to school, signed forms in hand.

This is not as callous as it sounds. If I'd tried to be sympathetic, asking what was wrong and all, I'd have gotten flat denials and just ticked him off. Our older child needs the verbal support, but this one usually works best if you give him his space.

Of course, practice went fine. He worked hard, and did well enough at the drills ("I was the fourth one to finish the relay thing") that even the young self-deprecating pessimist realized that he will be able to keep up.

After he got home, he got something to eat, and then-- voluntarily, mind you-- cleaned up the kitchen and took a shower. And further, he came out afterward with an armload of clothing. "Can I run a load of laundry?"

No, really. He cleaned. And wanted to do more. Asked permission, even. I have witnesses! Doing chores without being asked, and hygiene without nagging... perhaps The Boy is really growing up.

"Sure, honey. Your sister has a load in the washer, so just put it in the dryer and you're good to go."

So he trots off to the laundry. From the next room, I hear rustling about... and then suddenly the washer lid slams, and he comes bursting back. "Oh, yuck! GROSS!! Oh, I am SO not touching that!!!"

Turns out that the washer was full of his sister's unmentionables.

At his pointed request, she came down and removed the offending articles to the dryer so that he could run his load-- and listened patiently while he told her that "you better come get them when they're dry, because I'm not messing with that stuff."

All right, so perhaps he's not all that grown up after all.

On the other hand, I cannot say that I'm displeased at my 13-year-old being unwilling to touch girl's underwear. Yes... I think I'm really okay with that.

Bumbles and Bugs

That pretty much summarizes yesterday.

Tradition

Seems that our Presiding Bishop sent a Christmas card to all the other bishops. As a result, the leadership in Fort Worth is once again all in a swivet, because of this picture, a print of a painting by artist Janet McKenzie on the front of the card.

Yes, the image is a new way of looking at the Incarnation. It is an artist's interpretation, and a rendering that takes off in a different direction.

But with all due respect, what is heretical about that?

Looking and listening for the meaning of the Gospel, both within and beyond the words of scripture, is part of the ancient faith practice of the church. It is this sort of meditation that inspired Theresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, Anselm, and untold numbers of other faithful Christians to lives of devotion and discipleship.

Friday Five- Resolutions

From Sally at RevGalBlogPals:

Well it had to be didn't it? Love them or hate them, I bet you've been asked about New Year resolutions. So with no more fuss here is this week's Friday Five:

1. Do you make New Year resolutions?
No, not really. It's a time for pausing and taking stock, and I do that, certainly; but I don't make the formal "This year I am going to..." sorts of commitments.

2. Is this something you take seriously, or is it a bit of fun?
As I said, I don't make a big deal of it; but if someone finds the turn of the year as a motivating factor for a healthy beginning, more power to them!

3. Share one goal for 2008.
I'd like to be more intentional about the distribution of my time. Ministry has a way of bleeding over into family time; and, while sometimes that is part of this life, often I could be better about not allowing it to do so.

4. Money is no barrier, share one wild/ impossible dream for 2008
Travel--there are any number of places to go! One of my young friends is on a 6-month tour through wonderful parts of the world, on a program through her university. It's been wonderful to read her emails, and I don't envy her, exactly-- but I would love to see some of the places she's been with my own eyes.

5. Someone wants to publish a story of your year in 2008, what will the title of that book be?
Only God Knows- and God Ain't Tellin'.

That works

The Recipe For Jane Ellen+

3 parts Cleverness 2 parts Happiness 1 part Playfulness Splash of Vitality Serve over ice

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

This is really bizarre.

I can get into the Blogger interface, and even into my account-- hence the posting you see here. I just can't read any blogspot blogs at the moment-- not even my own. Every time I try, I get this:

Google

Error

We're sorry...

... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.

*********************

Update: My resident technogeek diagnosed the problem. Seems that Google must have been having Issues, which he presumes they were able to narrow down to coming from within a range of IP addresses, but not any further than that-- so they put a block on the whole range, until they can get it sorted out. Sort of like if someone discovered a phone problem was coming from somewhere in Montana, but they didn't know where, so they blocked anything with a 406 area code.

At any rate, he reset our router, which gave us a new IP address, which let me back into the Blogspot/Google playground. It's nice to have competent in-house support; thanks, hon!

Happy New Year!

Best wishes for 2008, and a bit of Robert Burns.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o' auld lang syne.

Chorus.
And for auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes
And pu'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary foot
Sin auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl'd i' the burn,
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin auld lang syne.

And there's a hand, my trusty fiere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right guid willy waught,
For auld lang syne.