"Hark!" Harold the angel sings
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“Hark!”
Harold the angel sings
As our spring 2013 Bible study season ended it was time for the aging retired parish priest to discern.
My weekly schedule had included -- as well as adult Sunday school and preaching at two services about one Sunday in three -- Bible study classes on Tuesday mornings and Wednesday afternoons, sometimes a grief support group and other evening counseling. It wasn’t yet exhausting again, but Harold my guardian angel harkened me back to my life history of gradually taking on more than I could handle until about every four years or so I had to chuck everything and start from scratch. Scratch in the old days meant shedding classes, clubs, memberships and boards and reverting to basic parish ministry, where the cycle would begin again.
For summer 2013 I entered a prayerful listening and discernment process that was concentrated in three silent directed Jesuit retreats at three different Ignatian spiritual centers in the southeast. The outcome is my decisioning.
In retirement, Scratch means back to being priest associate in my home parish, helping out as needed and agreed between the rector and myself. It will be reported in the Holy Nativity newsletter for September. My fall ministries will be
- Preach about one Sunday in three
- Supply when the rector is away
- Help out as needed with funerals, weddings, hospital visits, etc.
- Adult Christian education leading the adult Sunday school class, starts September 8, Sunday after Labor Day
- Assist Wednesday evenings, a new, exciting part of our fall 2013 program
- Offer confirmation classes, starting in October, for adults who are thinking about being confirmed when the bishop comes in February 2014.
- Also new as part of our wonderful Wednesdays, starting September 18, we will offer a weekly one hour ministry - Wednesday Noon Healing, Eucharist & Bible Study with Light Lunch. 11:30 AM convenes in the sanctuary for healing & eucharist, moves to Battin Hall for Bible study & lunch, adjourns 12:30 PM. This new ministry begins Wednesday, September 18 at 11:30 AM in the church. Lunch will be provided, this is not potluck. Replacing my Tuesday morning and Wednesday afternoon Bible seminars, it also offers Wednesday daytime eucharist for folks who can't come Sunday mornings or who can't come out Wednesday night. Far and wide, all are invited and welcome. I will officiate, though Father Steve may back me up from time to time if necessary. Come see and enjoy.
Fall 2013 adult Sunday school class will focus on Genesis and the three creeds, but always flexible and responsive to what the class wants to do.
Bible study during Wednesday lunch may focus on Bible Readings for each upcoming Sunday.
Bible study during Wednesday lunch may focus on Bible Readings for each upcoming Sunday.
T+ in +Time
Clipart pinched online. Thanks, Image Envision.