The Episcopal Church has a new (allegedly) improved tool in place for helping clergy and parishes get to know one another. What was called the Church Deployment Office is now called the Office of Transition Ministry. The CDO Profile is about to be replaced by an OTM Portfolio. The CDO Profile was clunky, to be sure, but it was familiar clunky--it was clunky whose limitations I understood and came to embrace the same way I once embraced my ancient 3-speed Raleigh bicycle.
The OTM Portfolio has a lot of bells and whistles that the CDO, created as it was more than 20 years ago, could not support. One of the things it lets you do is to reference a website. I'm going to put a bunch of sermons and other kinds of writing into entries in this blog, so that people who are searching my OTM Portfolio can learn more about me and get a better sense of how I have used writing and preaching to share the Good News of Jesus.
If you're reading this, please say a prayer for me, that I will be open to God's guidance in this time of discernment. I love being a priest, and, in the last several months as I have been "between cures" and here in Central Florida with my husband, I continue to discover that it is a rich and beautiful gift to celebrate the Eucharist with God's people. It is an honor and a challenge to preach the Word to people who long to grow spiritually. It is a joy to pray with somebody in the hospital, or to sit with a candidate for ordination who is seeking spiritual direction. It is energizing to teach people who are eager to know the Christian faith better. I can do these things even though I am not presently rector of a parish.
But I miss the contours of life as rector of a parish. I love the long view that comes with parish life, the way that the community is comprised often of three or more generations of families. I miss the rhythm of planning meaningful liturgy and Christian Formation. I miss sitting with vestry members and others who have a vision for where the parish needs to focus its energies to be authentic and effective for a particular time and place. I miss the pleasure of watching somebody "nibble around the edges" of the community for a while, then, as they are welcomed and encouraged, plunge into the very center of parish life, eager to share newly-recognized spiritual gifts.
I don't know what God has in store for me next. I pray to remain wide open to God's guidance, and not so focused on or tied to my own conception of what the next steps are to be in my life that I ignore the Spirit's clear and often surprising invitation to something new and wonderful.
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