Midweek Message – February 28

How can it be the end of February!

Worship this week is combined Annual Meeting and Worship; all the elements of worship, prayers, scripture, some brief reflections and approval of reports. We will still stream the service/meeting to Facebook Live, but if you want to speak to a report, it would be best if you came in person. A reminder that you can read the report here.

This week, the Thriving Churches Study Groups started, I snapped this photograph this morning while they were discussing their Spiritual Attributes Self-Assessment. It’s wonderful to have two groups exploring this book together as St. James seeks to move into the future.

I described today as Ministry Whiplash to my husband when I got home. Study group this morning, which was interrupted by a man coming into the building ostensibly asking about piano lessons, as I spoke with him, it was apparent that along with being distraught about the anniversary of his mother’s death, he was also using drugs and alcohol. I spent some time in the entryway of the CE building, confident that help was close at hand if I should need it. Then I finalized the bulletin for Sunday, finished off the Power Point, Cathy and I communicated about several things, I exchanged a series of emails about the ecumenical Good Friday service with other clergy, I spent some time on the phone with Ann MacGlashen about her husband’s funeral on Friday, and totally forgot that the craft group meets on Wednesday and I usually go down and spend a few minutes with them, especially when they are having tea… I ran through the piano pieces I am working on and suddenly it was time for my piano lesson. And that’s just today.

The rest of the week involved a variety of things so far:

• A great session with Dean where we played through some of the pieces in More Voices, deciding on which ones would be appropriate for our church and then went out to lunch together and talked about our hopes and dreams for the music in our church. Some of the things we are going to incorporate after Easter Sunday is singing The Lord’s Prayer and Creed, as well as adding an additional hymn, a new one, that we will sing for four weeks, so that we really learn it. Stay tuned!

• Some regional responsibilities from being a United Fresh Start Facilitator
• A Zoom meeting with the Rev. Dr. Ross Bartlett who will be facilitating a mid point review of the Interim Ministry
• Tomorrow I’m meeting with Ralph and Cathy so that they feel confident in their roles on Sunday; I’m meeting with Stephen Fram about the Ecumenical Good Friday Service that we are hosting. It’s going to be very different from other years. It’s going to be a contemplative labyrinth walk in the gym, which will be open from 12-4 on Good Friday. Stay tuned for more details on that too!
• And somewhere in there I have to write a reflection for the funeral on Friday.