The Rector's Diary~
April, 2008
  • April 26 (Saturday): Visited at Martha Bookman's home with her granddaughter and great-granddaughters,
    moving to town this summer—charming, bright little girls—what a delight!  Worked at the office for a couple
    of hours, then home for Sunday prep.  Discussed with God why exactly he seems to plan thunderstorms on
    just the days we plan church picnics.  He maketh his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust...oh well....

  • April 27 (Friday):  Day off.  Saw Betty off at the airport to Virginia to help her mom for the week, moving
    things from an old family house being sold near Culpeper.  Drove around, out I-10 over to LA, where I
    hadn't been in a long while, listening to Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture—that was a blast.  
    Quiet day.  New sexton's helper started at church:  Kenneth Adams—welcome him!

  • April 24 (Thursday): MP with the staff; answering phone calls; celebrated Holy Communion at 10 in the
    chapel.  Lunch with the Foundation board.  Afternoon meeting with Clark Teel about hurricane
    preparedness. Work with Jan and Karen about membership demographics, getting ready for Vestry retreat.
    A happy visit with daughter Mary in California, with good news about her new job.  Wonderful supper at
    the home of Mary Jane Garth with a great group of parish folk, enjoying being together in her exquisite home.

  • April 23 (Wednesday):  Preached at All Saints School morning chapel on  Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch
    (Acts 8:26 ff.), leaving it to the classroom teachers to explain about eunuchs.... Morning Prayer with staff
    and work in the office rest of the morning.  School board exec committee meeting at lunch, then back to the
    church to help Hannah get started with the web site pages for the Youth group (smarky77.org).  Good and
    hopeful phone visit with our best prospect for assistant rector, now prayerfully considering...  We should all
    be praying, too!  Interview with a likely candidate for a part-time sexton's helper.  Home briefly and then
    back for Evening Prayer (preached on St. Mark's day propers) and wonderful supper (Chicken spaghetti—
    the ninth sacrament of the Episcopal Church after coffee...) and outstanding evening at St. Mark's Lights Up
    Your Life, the second night of our spring extravaganza—about 75 people there and huge well done's all
    around, but especially to Kim McAtee for masterful leadership and Beki Burton for two nights of hilariously
    fine Friends of the Groom script productions.  Carl Vitanza makes a very credible Prodigal Son.  Hmmm....

  • April 22 (Tuesday):  Morning Prayer and office work on staff planning, confirmation curriculum, trying to
    find a doctor interested in a mission to southeast Mexico this summer (still looking—anyone know a doc,
    especially if they habla Español?), and Every Member Canvass plans.  Holy Communion at noon--
    wonderful little congregation; it always surprises me that more people don't take advantage of these mid-
    week services.  Meeting at All Saints with administration.  At home for an hour, got to work on setting up a
    web site for St. Mark's youth group, which will attach to the parish web site.  To church for Evening Prayer,
    lovely supper (lasagna!!!) and a wonderful evening learning about the church windows (thank you Nan
    Nelson, Kathleen Boudreaux and Betty Fuller!) and the story they tell, and seeing our talented folks
    expressing their creativity. A blessed day.

  • April 21 (Monday: San Jacinto Day!):  Lovely day:  Morning Prayer and staff meeting, followed by getting
    ready for vestry and staff planning day next month.  Lunch with Pat Murphy working on growing the
    Stewardship Committee and Every Member Canvass for next fall.  Meeting with youth minister Hannah
    Overall, then interviews with a new nursery worker and a potential sexton's helper.  Met with Mickey H.,
    our auditor for the 2007 accounting, who started work today.  Last minute preparations for the Vestry,
    followed by the Vestry meeting at 5:30.  Enjoyed "introducing" Hannah O. to the Vestry, many of whom
    have known her since she were knee-high to a crawdad.  Good vestry meeting, with creative ideas and
    some workable answers to our puzzles.  Very favoritest moment: Laurie Kent ragging Gerald Condon about
    not being in church Sunday--priceless!  And to think they actually pay me to do this job!    

  • April 20 Sunday/Easter V):  Excellent services and Sunday School, with Dean Calcote off to Tyler after the
    early service for the week doing school visits.  Meeting with the Parent Advisory Board after services,
    reviewing plans for the Youth Ministry and briefing them on Hannah Overall's new role as full-time Youth
    Minister.  That group has done a yeoman job seeing the youth work of the parish through the past couple of
    years and we all have much for which to be grateful to them as Hannah takes over the direction of that
    work.  Home to a nap, then to service at 6:00.
  • April 19 (Saturday):  Working at home: sermon, Sunday School, prep for the vestry retreat in a couple of
    weeks.  Wedding at 4:00 for Aaron and Deanna Gibson--lovely couple and nice families with lots of kids--
    what fun.  A beautiful day.

  • April 18 (Friday):  Day off.  Very fine rehearsal for the wedding for Aaron Gibson and Deanna Harvik, on
    whom may God pour his blessings.

  • April 17 (Thursday):  Morning Prayer, phone work, Ante-Communion at 10:00.  Communications
    committee at lunchtime, planning more developments for the newsletter, web pages, and taping/ webcasting  
    the Sunday services, or at least the sermons.  (Make your husband listen to the sermon when he gets home
    from hunting all weekend and leaving you with the kids!!!...)  Several good short visits--Thursday seems to
    be visit day at the office, then to the hospitals for calls, and home.

  • April 16 (Wednesday):  Celebrated Holy Communion at All Saints School for chapel, then to office.  Good
    meeting with Karen Rush about Christian Education plans, then phone work rest of the morning.  Office visit
    with Janeal Neilsen about campus ministry at Lamar and work on their budget for 2009.  Evening Prayer
    and sermon at 6:00, followed by nice bbq chicken supper and movie night--Evan Almighty--some very
    good laughs and a nice crowd.  Finished article for the Revelations for May.

  • April 15 (Tuesday):  Home most of the day; writing articles and phone work from home.  Good visit with
    Janeal Neilsen about campus work at Lamar.  The diocesan college ministry has asked that we help with
    supervision of the work there again, and glad to do it.  Evening to the annual banquet for Some Other Place,
    being the 40th anniversary celebration for that wonderful ministry, guests of the Ritchies.  Mindful of how
    much we need to expand our volunteer effort there as soon as we can.

  • April 14 (Monday):  Morning Prayer and excellent staff meeting, followed by another hour's work with Kim
    McAtee on plans for confirmation classes next school year.  Answering phone calls til lunch, then a meeting
    with Hannah Overall about youth group.  Final wedding preparation meeting with Deanna Harvik and her
    finance Aaron Gibson.  Executive Committee meeting at 5:00, then to supper with Betty and others at Chris
    Stedman's, an altogether lovely evening.  Home tired and happy.

  • April 13 (Sunday/ Easter IV):  Good Shepherd Sunday: the Clergy are not your shepherds--they are your
    sheep dogs; ergo, the collars....  Good services, and excellent acolyte team fully deployed on the new
    schedule, with flags in procession for the first time in a while.  Jolly good!  Several visitors at the late service,
    and good discussion of 1st Corinthians 1 in Sunday School.  Deep thanks to Jim Debes for taking 90 (!)
    photo shots of members for the parish digital photo collection--way to go, y'all!  Planning for next years'
    confirmation classes at lunch, and home to a nice nap. That's what God had in mind for a Sunday afternoon!
  • April 12 (Saturday):  Betty off to the Ethridge's for the E.C.W. Convocation retreat; quiet day at home and
    some time to work on plans for Christian education programs next year.  To the Symphony in the evening,
    thanks to Jim and Kathe Hendricks' gift of their tickets--excellent performance. Especially loved the
    Rachmaninoff and seeing half the parish there.  Do those count as parish calls?

  • April 11 (Friday):  Celebrated Holy Communion for the Friday early group--my first time with them
    (finally!), followed by a quick breakfast and very stimulating conversation on political moralities and other
    deep stuff.  Upstairs to the breakfast ministry and a wonderful crew feeding a hall full of folks, a really good
    sermon by George Main and some pretty fair singing. Brief visits in the office and then home for rest of the
    day off.  Evening at Mike and Denise Truncale's meeting Symphony board members and a candidate for the
    conductor--what fine people and what a blessing for Beaumont!

  • April 10 (Thursday):  Morning Prayer, quick visit with Nancy McGrade about church business and fixing up
    the rectory for our long sought-for assistant rector (may whom God provide!), then to All Saints to teach the
    8th grade religion class on the subject of "Cults."  Good discussion, great kids!  Lunch on the run, then pre-
    surgical visit with a parishioner at Memorial Baptist, and so back to the office.  Phone replies and letters.  A
    call inquiring about baptism for a new little one: come to church and let's talk about it--you don't want to
    make promises to God you don't plan to keep!  That's why we do baptisms with the whole congregation at
    the Sunday Liturgy--we are all in this together.

  • April 9 (Wednesday):  Preached at All Saints School chapel Morning Prayer.  Busy day in the office after
    staff prayers, mostly with phone work: two brides, four priests, a couple of bishop candidates, an Elliott
    lecturer, a seminarian, a realtor ...and a partridge in a pear tree.... Evening Prayer (Dietrich Bonhoeffer day),
    lasagna--we almost ran out!!!--and movie night, A Night with the King; the small but faithful crowd holding
    steady and the popcorn holding out.  Worked some on plans for further developing the youth group and
    confirmation program next fall.  This gets to be more fun every day!  

  • April 8 (Tuesday):  Late to the office, sleeping off a stomach bug.  Office visit with a parishioner interested in
    making an addition to the church’s endowments.  Christian Education Committee at lunchtime.  Celebrated
    Holy Communion—St. Tikhon of Russia’s day (first time I ever did that).  Office meetings with Hannah
    Overall, our new full-time (as of April 15) parish Youth Minister; then with a member about the acolyte
    program.  Office meeting with Jerome Wells about the upcoming month’s music program, then home and
    grateful to be.  Worked on the web site.

  • April 7 (Monday):  early breakfast in Houston with Dr. Christopher Seitz from Toronto, director of the
    Anglican Communion Institute and Dr. Philip Turner, followed by a long meeting with Bishop Wimberly and
    others about means to enhance relations among the churches of the Anglican Communion.  Good phone visit
    with John Scott about seeking new volunteers for ministry at Some Other Place.  Late quick stop by the
    church office and then home, weary.

  • April 6 (Sunday Easter III):  lovely services, and a good attendance at Sunday School despite the post-
    Easter season.  Dean Calcote out after early service for a week of school visitations around Austin.
  • April 5 (Saturday):  spent a fine day visiting with a possible candidate for assistant rector and his very lovely
    wife. Enjoyed the Herb Fest and spent more than I should on a new set of wind chimes.

  • April 4 (Friday): day off.  Evening at the All Saints’ Carnival kickoff party at the Rockin’ A Café, guest of
    the Leister’s.  Got to wear my new boots.  Joe Clark has unheralded gifts as a disc jockey!

  • April 3 (Thursday):  Office work through the morning; more work on a new acolyte manual.  Missed clericus
    (monthly convocational clergy meeting ) to meet with Hannah Overall and interviewing committee (J. Clark,
    V. Holcombe, J. Strouse) for considering her as new full-time youth director.  Excellent interview and good
    feeling all around about plans for growing the youth ministry.

  • April 2 (Wednesday):  Very full day of meetings concluding with an hour with our excellent Acolyte
    Director, Alma Martin, working on plans for the acolyte teams and positions, wanting to add the church and
    national flags to our processions on Sundays, if we can get enough acolytes to be in attendance.  Evening
    Prayer with about 30 present, great fried chicken supper and the inauguration of the new popcorn machine
    for viewing our first movie night, “The Prince of Egypt.” What fun—the little girls down front were
    mesmerized.

  • April 1 (Tuesday):  This is the first day we're going to try this online diary.  May it prove more interesting
    than just getting me in trouble with somebody!  The popcorn machine arrived (whew!).  Most of the AM on
    the phone trying to find a priest in another state to refer a member’s loved one to for counseling.  Holy
    Communion at noon, then to Nancy Neild’s to take home communion in the afternoon.  At home tonight
    working on the new acolyte manual.
  • April 30 (Wednesday):  Breakfast with David Cook, discussing the need for work on planned giving and the
    foundation.  Morning Prayer with staff, office work til after noon.  Helped Hannah work out an online
    discussion board for the youth group.  Errands and then home for finishing plans on the vestry retreat coming
    up and phone work through early evening.  Wow—there went April!

  • April 29 (Tuesday):  Led morning chapel service and preached at All Saints School—on St. Paul as a
    recovering bully (the change from persecutor to apostle).  We are all in recovery, one way or another, aren't
    we?  Morning Prayer with staff.  Disappointing news that our prospective curate has felt his call back to his
    home area on the east coast rather than here after graduation.  God bless him anyway, and us as the search
    continues.  Celebrated Holy Communion, highlighted with my eyeglasses' lens popping out just as I read the
    St. Matthew 6:22ff ("the eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is healthy..."), providing an edifying
    spectacle and the easiest sermon illustration ever in 34 years of preaching.  Met with boys of the 5th grade
    class at All Saints School in the afternoon, getting to know them and talking about teamwork.  Supper at
    Mazzio's with Hannah O. and the St. Mark's Youth new Planning Pod setting plans for the next few weeks
    and summer.  

  • April 28 (Monday):  Morning Prayer and staff meeting.  Missing Tim, who is on well-deserved vacation for
    the week—he is such a gift to us.  Phone  work from the office, lunch, meeting with Hannah O. for youth.  
    Met with Ninette Teel about altar guild and other matters.  Attended All Saints School board of trustees
    meeting—I love to listen to Steve McGrade's (The Chairman) enthusiasm. So many blessings.

  • April 27 (Sunday/Easter VI):  Excellent services this morning, preaching on what it means for Jesus to give
    us his Spirit, a God we can trust.  Afterwards, a truly lovely indoor picnic in the Gilbert Building in
    celebration of our "St. Mark's Lights Up our Lives" spring festival.  OK, I wimped out about our procession
    to bless the oaks for Rogation Day—the mixed signals about the weather and having the picnic indoors just
    did that in.  Always next year...but the way everyone came together to make the weeknight program shape
    up and the picnic shine was too fine for words.  Well done, everybody!  Home for the evening, with Dean
    taking the service; a little phone work looking for helpers for Some Other Place and other needs, and a bit
    of work on the web pages, and so to rest.