So the past couple of weeks have been like no other. It all started with a car accident...mine. On may way home Wednesday night two weeks ago, the combination of an ambulance behind me and deer suddenly appearing in front of me ended with my car pointing the wrong way on teh highway and the driver's side flush against the guard rail. The whole story is more detailed, but after two weeks of telling the story, I've gotten better at summarizing in.
In the following week, between the details involved in having totaled a car (and buying a new one), my mother being hospitalized for a kidney stone (she's doing well), church tasks (like a day at a hospital in DC and the general sermon-writing, planning and pastoral stuff), visit from my future in-laws (a nice respite in the midst of it all) and Annual Conference (where I was, by the way, ordained)...it was just, well, packed.
Annual Conference this year was a different experience for me since I was on the worship committee. I must say that despite the huge amount of work it all took, there was something nice about being able to watch all the happenings of AC from our worship room, on closed-circuit TV. Every once in a while, an important vote would happen, and out of our little side room would come rushing a few of us, hurrying to get in a seat to vote.
The issues that seemed the most interesting this year involved the selection of our conference's candidate for the episcopacy (we chose Peggy Johnson, who happens to be the wife of a past pastor at Jefferson) and a spat between the bishop and the Board of Ordained ministry that cause a stir over the nominations report. The long and short of that one is that sometimes trying to replace a bunch of longtime members of a committee (especially when they've asked to stay on) even at best looks a little suspicious. Some late night negotiations were held Friday night and Saturday a revised proposal was submitted to the AC (adding a few more long-time BOOM members to the new group). But for those who heard a bit of what happened behind the scenes, it's a bit disappointing. Dynamics even in church leadership are not always as mature and loving as we might like.
But, after some late nights at AC setting up for worship services, and after three years of seminary, three years of porbationary period as a commissioned minister in the UMC, I was finally ordained this past Saturday! And what a treat to have been able to have both my father and grandfather stand with me as my clergy sponsors! Just awesome!
And of course things continue with no break...this week I've got to finally nail down some details about summer programming, updates to our summer worship, and finally getting our website back on line. I had this grand idea of finding a better website program than I had, but I don't know I can at this point...so...I'll have to suck it up and just use what works for now!
Off for the night...and up again for an early morning and busy week! Well, what's left of it!
Sarah
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