Promises, Realities and Work

Well there it is.

(i) I promised I'd post something each day on mission.  I failed. Too much going on. Interesting idea.

(ii) I have for years been involved in issues about the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, with some real delights in serving and some successes and failures. I still am. I am involved in the ongoing work of the Church in Haiti, I am leading a group of young people to walk on Lakota land and hear the Lakota who walk with us,  I am involved in my local parish.

I have felt blessed to have served in a whole variety of ways on national and diocesan levels and to have taken a leading part in some decision made by the church.

It appears that I will not serve on the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance at the next convention.  It turns out one has to be an elected member of the House of Deputies to do so.   I am not standing for election this time around because there is a strong field of clergy candidates, some of whom have not had the chance to serve at General Convention yet in part because continuing members (such as myself) have filled the slots.  So I decided not to run. Not having read the fine print (in the joint rules for the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies) I didn't realize that the results of not running and being elected would mean I cannot continue on PB&F. At the time I made that decision I did not know that I would lose my place on PB&F.  Having made the decision, and having reviewed it, I am still convinced that for Delaware it is right that I not run. But there's the facts.  So, the bird lands, and the bird flies away.  

But I am at work in new fields and old. At St. Peter's in the town of Lewes, by the bay and the big water,  we are working on a January conference with the tentative title, "Deeper Mission" exploring the spirituality of charity and the spirituality of development.  

And, in a parallel field to preaching and writing (particularly poetry) I am at work as a print maker.  This week's efforts included this, "Fire man", which echoes both Blake's drawings and Bishop John Robinson's essay on John, Elijah and Jesus, where Elijah (and Jesus by extension) is called "the man of fire."

Here it is.  It is work sufficient for the day I suppose.