Good grief - it's been a month since I posted. Where did the time go? Oh yeah... could be starting our last semester of seminary, or the February that wouldn't quit... push the two together and, well... no posts.
A lot going on. Enjoying the semester and our classes and have managed to stay pretty much on top of assignments... ummmm yeah, finally in my *last* semester I can do it. Why now, I don't know, could be the combination of all kinds of things, but I'm not complaining at this point.
So February:
I taught a two-week class with my classmate the first two Wednesdays of the month, finally wrote my ember day letter to my Bishop, went home for diocesan convention the weekend of the 10th, received our GOE results on the 13th, officiated Evening Prayer and gave a homily on the 15th, had to turn in 4 papers I owed to profs to wrap up my incompletes from last semester in the first two weeks of the month so I worked on those and got them turned in, preached my Senior Sermon on Feb 22nd (which took time and energy to write), planned a baby shower for the 25th for a classmate with the help of another classmate, created a little baby-shower liturgy combining Noonday prayer with Blessing of a Pregnant Woman (seemed to go over well), ran a 1-hour BCP scavenger hunt for an acolyte festival earlier on the 25th, and had to help lead discussion about one of our readings in Theology on March 1st. All that including attending classes, workstudy and a few liturgy assignments.
More on some of these in later posts.
On the G front - we still haven't really talked about the other discussion we had. My month was nuts and we both had Senior sermons to get out of the way. Also, I was trying to figure out what I might say. Do I want to try and go there, or not? That probably deserves it's own post as well.
I now get to add on the: Where the heck will I be going after graduation/job search component to my life. My Bishop still can't say whether anything will be opening up, so while not released from the diocese, instead of being given permission to look around, I now seem to be being encouraged to "actively" look for something elsewhere. Had a little chat with the Bishop the other day so he could check in on where I was regarding placement. I said that I'd been waiting to get GOE results and get the sermon out of the way, but that I had been on the Church Deployment Office (CDO) website and got a rude awakening that not many assistant positions were posted. The general thinking seems to be that because those go through the Rector and don't require a search committee that people tend not to post those, so those openings are more word of mouth. So it seems I need to figure out what diocese I think I might want to go to, and then contact their Church Deployment Officer to find out if they have openings and are willing to talk. My Bishop said that if I think I know where I want to look to let him know because House of Bishops will be meeting in the next couple of weeks and he could try to talk to the Bishop(s) where I want to look, do a little networking.
Another rude awakening last night. I was telling someone recently that I don't want to be the Youth Group Director, I want to be a priest, a generalist, I want experience in a lot of different areas including preaching and celebrating the Eucharist. 1) I don't have experience in leading/organizing a youth group, although I did teach Sunday School for a year. 2) I don't know if that's where my gifts and calling lie. You tell me to figure out how to organize a youth group, and as much as I like children and youth, I feel myself groan inwardly... you ask me to go visit people in the hospital, assisted-living or nursing homes and that doesn't feel like an internal burden, it seems "easier", more natural. Anyway... I'm poking through the few Assistant positions that are listed on the CDO and what is the #1 or #2 responsibility they all list? Yep... they all want their assistant to create, organize, run, or do something with the Youth program at the parish. Urg.
In the last year or so I've discovered how much I love liturgy. I want to be involved in worship planning, a worship committee, etc. I want to officiate at marriages and baptize and help people explore spiritual disciplines, maybe learn about leading retreats or doing spiritual direction. I feel called to old and young and everyone in between. I'm not opposed to hanging with the youth, doing some teaching, maybe confirmation class, maybe go on a mission trip or something, that's fine. I don't think I'd want to be completely disconnected from the youth. I just don't want that to be the main/sole focus of my ministry.
Okay... enough of that for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment