Midweek Message – October 25th

Worship this Week: We are marking All Saints Day on Sunday, so bring a picture of a loved one who has died who you would like to remember; we will place all the photos on the communion table and light a candle in front of each one. The scripture is 1 Kings 12: 1-17, 25-29, where there are great leadership questions being asked in a divided kingdom. My reflection title is Leadership From the Saints. Questions I am pondering: Who do we listen to? Are we open to learning? Does being a elder or ‘saint’ automatically bring wisdom? It’s only Wednesday, who knows where I will wind up on Sunday.

I’m midway through my second week of Study Leave and thought I’d share what I’ve been up to. While it was very different than what I had planned, these two weeks in my home study gave me the opportunity to get to some things that I often don’t get to in the run of my week.

1. I fine-tuned the Listening Circles Presentation; I’m excited to find out what your response is to it. Here’s a sneak preview of a ‘word cloud’ of your response to my first question: How are you feeling as we gather? As you can see, the dominant feelings were hopeful and curious.
2. I attended the monthly Clergy Lunch where Bill Chambre was the featured speaker. Bill recently returned from Israel/Palestine where he was an Ecumenical Accompanier doing human rights monitoring through www.eappi.org (Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel). Bill will be speaking on November 12th at our church.
3. I met with one of the other participants who was supposed to go on the Israel/Palestine Pilgrimage. I have also spent a great deal of time reading about the Israeli/Palestine conflict, while limiting my news intake to twice a day and usually The Guardian and Al-Jazeera. This blog post was shared with me today and I found it valuable: you can either read it or listen to it.
4. I prepared for a Spiritual Gifts session with the Transition Team.
5. I spent a day with a colleague doing some Advent planning; I’m surprised I haven’t gotten my Sundays mixed up yet, I’m working so far ahead!
6. I did some work in my role as Chair of the Regional Future Directions Committee.
7. I read much of Undivided Love: Navigating Landscapes of Living Faith by Janet Gear in preparation for a webinar next week.
8. I spent some time with a couple of the organizers of the Christmas Magic, talking about marketing and then creating some marketing material.
9. I created a poster of our Behavioural Covenant and sent it off for mounting.
10. I worshipped at the church of my former student.
11. I attended another performance of The Knitting Pilgrim and was just as captivated the second time!
12. I spent some time in pastoral care.