The wholly silly and solemn joy

It's Lent again. 

A time to sort out the wholly silly from solemn joy.

Solemn joy

My day so far has been Morning Prayer using the Church of England's Common Worship book for the daily office.

For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those been trained by it.  (Hebrews 12:10 - 11 -- I'm using the RSV, a Christmas gift from my parents in 1963; the year of USMC training, civil rights activity, the assassination of JFK, and my decision to offer myself for ordination -- busy year)

This Lent I'm doing the morning office alongside some spiritual reading -- Evelyn Underhil's "Inner Grace and Outward Sign." It's a retreat she offered in 1927 in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. 

I'm doing Underhill slowly. A few paragraphs at a time. Today's included this.

What am I for? Just what this place (the crypt, the cathedral) which has taken us into its heart is for: to express in my life something of the glory, power, and unchanging beauty of God by my very existence, by my love and my actions.

Later I'll attend Evening Prayer and Mass at Saint Paul's, Seattle.  I always feel a bit "off" receiving the ashes at days end. 

Wholly Silly: Lent, Trenton Thunder, and Pork Roll

Episcopal New Service helped me sort out Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to dust; In Jesus' Love, We put our trust

Yes, really!

There was also the article about "drive through ashes." I assume "Ashes to go" will show up shortly.

On the First Things web site George Weigel did a tongue in cheek piece -- "Pork Roll, Lent, and Catholic Identity." It caught my attention. I went to a few Trenton Thunder games. I know the only store in Seattle that sells Taylor Pork Roll. 

Here's a bit of Weigel's posting.

"A few weeks before Ash Wednesday, an Associated Press squib with Lenten implications appeared in the Washington Post sports section:

YANKEES: New York’s Class AA affiliate in Trenton, N.J., will change its name from the Thunder to the Pork Roll on Fridays this season. The pork roll is a New Jersey staple, served on breakfast sandwiches and as a burger topping.

For those unfortunates who didn’t grow up in the I-95 corridor between the Holland Tunnel and the southern outskirts of Baltimore, I venture to explain.

“Taylor Pork Roll,” also known as “Taylor Ham” south and west of the Delaware River, is a compound of the ground-up and sugar-cured bits of a pig of which the pig has no cause to be proud, tightly encased in a canvas wrapper. Fried or grilled, it’s salty and greasy and a lot of other wonderful things frowned on by the food police. ... But only the perfidious Yankees—“the Yanqui enemy of mankind,” as the Sandinista national anthem in 1980s Nicaragua neatly put it—would have a farm team that changed its name to “Trenton Pork Roll” on Fridays.

Ad primum, pork roll was always consumed as a post-Mass treat on Sundays, and rigorously avoided on Fridays. Ad secundum, flaunting pork roll in the face of devout Catholics by emblazoning it on jerseys at Arm & Hammer Park on Fridays is an invitation to the divine wrath, to which the Thunder/Pork Roll is already vulnerable because of its major league affiliation.

So in solidarity with fellow Catholics in the Diocese of Trenton, I propose that we all continue the Lenten practice of Friday abstinence from meat, which commences on February 16 this year, until such time as the Thunder/Pork Roll’s management acknowledges its miscue and switches the name-switch to Sundays. (If the Thunder wish to become the Trenton Fish Fry on Fridays, fine by me, although as a marketing tool that would likely work better in Wisconsin.)"

I think I'll wear my hat to the Eucharist tonight. 

Back to solemn joy

As I'm writing this the news is about the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. They don't have a count yet.

"It's a horrific situation. It's just a horrible day for us" said Broward County Public Schools Supt. Robert Runcie 

I'm stepping aside from offering any moral guidance -- posting signs that this is a "no gun zone" or arranging gun safety classes for teachers. I guess I'm tired of all the self righteousness. It seems that much of the way in which the nation and the Episcopal Church deals with moral guidance is a contribution to our inability to talk with each other and our failures to find a way forward.

Maybe ascetical practice and guidance might be useful.

Most holy and merciful Father:
We confess to you and to one another,
and to the whole communion of saints
in heaven and on earth,
that we have sinned by our own fault
in thought, word, and deed;
by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

So, I return to Underhill - A reminder of what each of us and our parish churches are for --

What am I for? Just what this place which has taken us into its heart is for: to express in my life something of the glory, power, and unchanging beauty of God by my very existence, by my love and my actions. I am here to add to the praise offered by the world, to fit into God's scheme, and to translate something of His spiritual reality into the terms of human life. For this I must accept discipline, submit my will, use my talents, kill all self-interest, and cooperate with my fellow human beings.

  

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent

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I'm your priest: Pathways of grace

I'm your priest. I'm with you to point you toward, to train and coach you in the ways of, and to administer the sacraments of, the pathways of grace. 

Last week Michelle Heyne and I lead the Parish Development Clinic. There were four participants. Each was the rector of a parish -- in Georgia, Kentucky, and Arizona; ranging in size, one had an average attendance of 71 another of 400; city, rural, suburban. 

A rather minor piece of what we did was to offer two short statements. Each a bit of self-definition rooted in Anglican ascetical theology and practice. Both included a phrase: "the pathways of grace."

The pathways of grace

I've used the expression for decades. I have no idea whether I picked it up from someone else or it came to me on its own. I Goggled it a few minutes ago -- 1,4800,000 results. I guess I'm adding one more. The top results all seemed a bit new age or fundie to me. Off-putting for me. But I like the phrase.

The way I use it is to guide the baptized as they accept increased responsibly for their spiritual life as members of the Body of Christ. I also use it to stress the way in which a priest might function effectively and faithfully.  

We don't save ourselves. We don't resolve the polarity of individual identity and being part of a community by our own will. 

But what we can do is give ourselves to the spiritual practices that offer us grace and health. We can live in the practices and ways of our ancient wisdom. 

At Morning Prayer each day the second reading was from one of Evelyn Underhill's retreats for priests. 

For the real saint is neither a special creation nor a spiritual freak. He is just a human being in whom has been fulfilled the great aspiration of St. Augustine – “My life shall be a real life, being wholly full of Thee.” And as that real life, the interior union with God grows, so too does the saints’ self-­identification with humanity grow. They do not stand aside wrapped in delightful prayers and feeling pure and agreeable to God. They go right down into the mess; and there, right down in the mess, they are able to radiate God because they possess Him. And that, above all else, is the priestly work that wins and heals souls.  From Concerning the Inner Life, Evelyn Underhill. 

How do we get to that "real life?"  Or in the words of today's collect how is it that we are "changed into his likeness from glory to glory?"  We know, of course, that we get there by grace and faith, by what Underhill called the work of the Divine Charity. 

And there is a part we are to play. We are to give ourselves to the pathways of grace. We are to invest ourselves in what Bruce Reed called "reliable sources of extra-dependence." He meant things such as the Scriptures, the Body of Christ, the sacraments, the traditional spiritual practices and the priest.

At one point we brainstormed the pathways that came first to mind. We were just trying to identify a few examples, so we stopped with the one page. Here it is:

So, one of the statements we offered was for a baptized person, especially one ready to grow in the inner life:

Your task is to place yourself in the pathways of grace. Begin with the Rule of the Church - Sunday Eucharist, Daily Office, and personal devotions/reflection that fit your temperament and circumstances. These are things you can give yourself to. They are of the church's ancient wisdom. They are a reliable means of grace.  

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Daily Office: parish - individual – cathedral – monastic - seminary

There are five primary settings in which we Anglicans say the Daily Office.

1. Parish
2. Individual
3. Cathedral
4. Monastic communities
5. Seminary

1. Parish

Thomas Cranmer placed Morning and Evening Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer for its daily use in parish churches.

The Anglican ascetical system is a Prayer Book spirituality. A weekly practice of Eucharist and a daily practice of the Prayers of the Church (Daily Office). The Prayer Book is 2/3 plus about the Eucharist and the Office. Our system assumes that with these practices as “the ground” we engage an individual practice of personal devotion and reflection as fits our circumstances and temperament. This ascetical system gets called by various names --the Threefold Rule of Prayer, the Benedictine triangle, the Prayer Book pattern of prayer.

This is a spirituality of the parish as a microcosm of the Body of Christ and its engagement in common prayer.

Our life in community, our reflection, and our service are nurtured from the soil of Office and Eucharist. The daily connection with Scripture and common prayer and the weekly receiving of Body and Blood orient us to the ways of eternity and feed us for “real life.”  St. Paul must have observed a comparable set of practices. Paul also knew that it all was God’s doing. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8: 26 – 27). From In Your Holy Spirit: Shaping the Parish Through Spiritual Practice, Robert A. Gallagher, Ascension Press, 2011

If the parish priest gives herself to it, the parish will have a public Office. Evelyn Underhill expressed it this way:

The priest’s life of prayer, his communion with God, it’s not only his primary obligation to the church; it is also the only condition under which the work of the Christian ministry can be properly done. ... for his business is to lead men out towards eternity; and how can he do this, unless it is a country in which he is at home? He is required to represent the peace of God in a trouble society; but that is impossible, if he is not in the habit of restoring to the deeps of the spirit where His Presence dwells. ...A priest’s life of prayer is, in a peculiar sense, part of the great mystery of the Incarnation. It’s meant to be one of the channels by and through which the Eternal God, manifested in time, acts within the human world; reaches out, seeks, touches, and transforms human souls. His real position in the parish is that of a dedicated agent of the Divine Love. . ... (pp. 2, 3) 

 The priest’s own devotional life – this is decisive. The primary way in which he can lead his people to pray is by doing it himself. The spirit of prayer is far more easily caught then taught. ... The priest who prays often in his own church, for whom it is a spiritual home, the place where he meets God, he’s the only one who has any chance of persuading his people to pray in their own church. ... So to, the saying of Matins and Evensong in church is the most valuable help to the same end. Even though the priest may often do this alone, the very fact that he does it counts. It is an act of devotion to God, done for his people; and if it entails a sacrifice of convenience or time, all the better. (pp. 18, 19)  

From The Parish Priest and the Life of Prayer, Evelyn Underhill, 1937 

2. Individual

It has become more common for individuals to say the Office in some form on their own. Some do it with an emphasis on “daily, others with an emphasis on “the hours.”

There are on-line versions, books of the Prayer Book Offices with all the readings within the book, and, of course, there’s the Book of Common Prayer along with a Bible.

I usually do Morning Prayer at home (after coffee and the NY Times on Kindle) and Evening Prayer at my parish. I have done it using my phone on the bus or at the coffee shop. And on those occasions when I have gone the day without saying the Office I have said a short form from memory in my bed ("Guide us waking, O Lord, and guard us sleeping; that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep we may rest in peace.")

The parish church can provide training and coaching to assist people as they say the Office on their own.

The parish can support people in using the Daily Office by:

Showing people several web sites on the Daily Office. Have the parish web site link to the Daily Office on the web.

 Producing short forms lifted from elements of the Office in the Prayer Book

 Making it easy for members to purchase a copy of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) or the Daily Office Book from Church Publishing (includes the Four Offices, all the readings and psalms). Offer inexpensive copies of the pew type and take orders for higher quality copies. Do the same with the Bible. Offer options from among the translations approved for use in the Episcopal Church.

 Integrating training and coaching on individual use in a variety of programs.

 Supporting individual use by parish communal use. 

From In Your Holy Spirit: Shaping the Parish Through Spiritual Practice, pp 46, 47

3, 4, and 5. The Office in cathedrals, monastic communities and seminaries

We can be thankful that these places offer daily adoration and prayer. They share with the parishes and individuals the holy work of daily prayer. On occasion many of us have participated in the offerings of cathedrals and monastic communities. The cathedral setting can cause our spirits to soar. The monastic house can bring us to a deeper place. And the seminaries could in what they do provide the church with priests ready, as Underhill put it, to lead people out towards eternity; a country in which the priest is at home.

However, if we use any of the three as our mental model for the parish’s saying of the Office, we will get things wrong. They end up becoming barriers to the parish’s prayer life.

The parish church is not a cathedral nor a monastic community nor a seminary. When we use those mental models, consciously or unconsciously, we will create problems in our parish’s ascetical life. The most common problem is that we dismiss doing the Office in the parish as requiring too much work, being too complex, or requiring more people than we will have gather day by day.

We see the cathedral mental model in play when the parish does a very special Evensong a few times each year and offers no public worship most days of the week.

The monastic office is commonly four to seven services each day. It’s usually more elaborate with antiphons and singing. The enrichment that works for a monastic community can be problematic in a parish. Some of the clergy having lost touch with why the Offices are in the Prayer Book talk about doing the Office as a monastic practice. In our tradition it is above all else a parish practice; a normal thing for any parish to do.

In some cases, thinking of the Office as a “monastic practice” becomes a way to dismiss its use in the parish. In other cases, priests create an artificial monasticism in the parish’s Office – the BCP is replaced with some “richer” book, many antiphons are added, and the service gets longer and longer. It becomes less accessible to most parishioners and difficult for the person attending occasionally. And, it disconnects us from the church’s Book; which in turn makes what we are doing less sustainable over time. The parish church can learn a great deal by studying Saint Benedict and seeking to apply his insights about life in community to the parish. But the parish is not a monastic house. I knew a rector who was an associate of Holy Cross and imposed that community's breviary on his parish. His claim was that the book was based on the BCP. True enough. But it was not the church's book. The canons and rubrics of the Prayer Book are there, in part, to help priests avoid the temptation of clericalism.

Finally, the practice in some seminaries of daily Morning and Evening Prayer, offered at the same time each day, is both part of the Church’s daily offering to God and a soaking of the future priests in the stuff of holiness. However, they need specific guidance in how to translate the Office into a parish setting.

So, focus your ascetical guidance on helping individuals live in the Rule of the Church grounded in Eucharist and Office and in offering a daily public office.

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Resources

Postings about the Office on Means of Grace, Hope of Glory

Daily Office Synergy 

Introducing the Daily Office into a parish's DNA    

Daily Office: the priority of worship   

The Office: Daily, the Hours    

Parish development resources: Episcopal Ethos, the Daily Office    

A life, not a program    

Developmental Initiatives on the Daily Office: action planning tools

Equipping Individuals to Use the Office

A Public Daily Office

Books

Fill All Things: The Spiritual Dynamics of the Parish Church. Sections on the Office include – The threefold rule of prayer (the Prayer Book Pattern) pp. 56 – 57, the Daily Office relationship with the Eucharist pp. 59 – 60, on pages 169 -  178 thoughts on why people say the Office, its place in parish development, how to strengthen and promote the office, quotes from various writers, stories of parishes saying the Office, and a poem by Amy Hunter.

In Your Holy Spirit: Traditional Spiritual Practices in Today’s Christian Life – pp. 43 – offers an understanding of the place of the Office in the person’s spiritual life and specific suggestions about how people can say the office in a way that takes into account their personality and life circumstances.

In Your Holy Spirit: Shaping the Parish through Spiritual Practice – Eucharist and Office pp 21 – 22, “The Daily Practice: The Prayers of the Church” pp. 43 – 51 including the primary elements, individual use, parish communal use, the importance of experimenting and innovating, and ways in which we undercut the parish’s saying of the Office.

Practicing Prayer: A Handbook – Offers ways to engage the Office along with a variety of personal devotions.

Improving our preaching

In your parish development efforts you'll want to give special attention to the Sunday experience of the congregations in the parish -- graceful and grounding Liturgy, good preaching, and a relaxed social time. In general you want a climate that is centered and not rushed, anxious, or overloaded with things to do. 

This is about improving your preaching

Things that don't help

1. Assuming that what you hear as they shake your hand and leave is the whole truth.

Most clergy know to not understand politeness as feedback. Newer or pugnacious clergy may make the mistake of asking the person to "say more."  It's just not the time or place.

2. Open gatherings to discuss the sermon

These may be very useful for educational purposes. Also, as a way for people who are naturally more articulate to have an opportunity to bring that capacity to bear in relationship to biblical and theological issues. Such sessions work best when the purpose is limited and clear -- to explore the content of the sermon and the associated propers. We muddle that if we are also seeking feedback. It's also an example of a practice that because it's a "hit" when done the first few times the rector decides to make it a frequent event. One parish I know did it every Sunday. Overkill! A caution - you can undercut the receptive stance of those listening if they know that at coffee hour their going to be asked to discuss the sermon.

3. Clergy gatherings to critique last week's and prepare next week's sermon

These are mostly done in larger parishes. The sessions are likely to have some positive impact on the preaching. That's especially true if the sessions are primarily focused preparing for the upcoming sermons. 

However, if you're seeking constructive feedback it helps to keep in mind that clergy who work together will have a necessary hesitation in offering any "negative" feedback. Bring a lay person into the conversation on occasion isn't likely to be much help either. If it's open to anyone things can easily turn contentious as someone with a bone-to-pick turns things augmentative. If it's restricted then the message is, well "restricted."

Things to try

1. Use a structured feedback process. 

a. Occasionally ask everyone at the Eucharist (or a smaller group) to fill out a feedback form.

b. Have a four week process in which you use a coach/facilitator to gather and present the feedback of a selected group.

c. Don't do the above too frequently. You can cut across the needed receptivity in the congregation. You can also overwhelm your own ability to receive the feedback.

d. There are two processes offered below and several feedback forms.

2. If the parish has several celebrations of the Eucharist during the week -- consider dropping the practice of offering a homily at all celebrations. In most parishes they simply aren't that good. Allow the focus to be on the Eucharist itself. Consider varying the masses a bit -- Wednesday with healing liturgy, Thursday with more contemplative style (longer silence at beginning and after readings), Friday with a brief homily and the expectation that it will be well done. 

Two processes for feedback 

One   Two

Four feedback forms

One   Two   Three   Four

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Feed my sheep - the 21st c. parish priest

Today was the Feast of the Confession of St. Peter. At Evening Prayer Fr. Rob read from John -- Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep, follow me. (John 21:15-22).

What does it mean for a parish priest living in the 21st Century to feed the sheep? What does that look like?

1. Think eternal and paradoxical 

In the broadest sense I'd suggest it means preparing people to live here and now in light of the End, the Resurrection of the Body. 

The Catechism says -- 

Q. What do we mean by the resurrection of the body?

A. We mean that God will raise us from death in the fullness of our being, that we may live with Christ in the communion of the saints.

John Macquarrie wrote, "The end, we have seen reason to believe, would be a commonwealth of free, responsible beings united in love."

They each point us to God's resolution to one of our primary struggles -- 

-what all societies struggle with: the polarity of individualism and community/commitment

-and what each person struggles with: how to be a self and also be in relationship with others.

The church's ancient response to it all is that we get to share in the divine life, we get to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity 

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. ...

And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is greater, or less than another;
But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal.
So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.

Us too. 

So, teach all that and all shall be well. Right?

Not really. But it is step one.

2. Focus on the primary oscillation of the baptized

There are two main things to hold in mind.

All the baptized live within a cycle between renewal and apostolate. Renewal in baptismal identity & purpose and an apostolate in daily life. We become light so we may share light. We are fed so we may feed. The pastoral call is to engage people in their own renewal. 

and

For most of the baptized the journey into maturity is lived in the routines of daily life -- at work, with family & friends, and in civic life. So, we need to move from the natural drawing of our attention into "institutionalism" (in which the parish programs and life are at the center) to "The Body of Christ" (in which our focus is the organic rhythms of the Body). Benedict's idea of being "a school of the Lord's service" may be useful as an image. But in this case it is a school in which we train and coach people so they may be light in family and friendships, at work, in civic life and in the church. 

3. Manage the "demand system"

The "demand system" of all parishes will be around the institutional needs and wants. In part because when you're the vicar you become acutely aware of every leak. And also because the majority of every parish will consist of the stable and static, the tentative, immature, and those just beginning to experiment with taking responsibility in partnership with the church for their spiritual life. Most of them when asked about the use of parish resources, especially the priest's time, will either offer a conventional response such as "visit the sick" or "create a program to help the homeless"  or say "fix the leak."  Many will go on to wonder why the vicar gets a full time salary for such little work.

How can we effectively address the problem? Stephen Covey wrote, "The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities."  Another way of saying it is -- don't allow the existing demand system to drive you; create a new demand system. Scheduling a public daily office Monday through Saturday will create a new expectation; a demand upon your time. It will force other things to wait. That of course is the point Benedict was making. Publicly and well in advance schedule quiet days and times available for hearing confessions in Lent and Advent. 

4. Train and coach

Saint Paul saw the process of spiritual growth as being like an athlete. If you are to run the race you need training and coaching.

Most parish work in adult formation totally ignores Paul's way. We lecture and allow questions (if there is time). We offer an Instructed Eucharist instead of a Eucharistic Practices program. We teach the history of the Prayer Book instead of how to say the Office on your own at home. 

We will not get this right until we change the mental model in our head.

And -- the mental model won't really change until you behave differently. So, two hints

Designing and implementing the training/coaching

Always include a significant element of experiential education and consider changing the order in which you do things. For example, when teaching about baptism, do this -

-Invite them to gather in groups of three and each share a story related to their own baptism (about 5 minutes each)

-ask them to gather at the font

-pour water into the font

-bless the water using the prayer from the Baptismal rite

-tell them of the tradition of connecting with your baptism by putting your hand into the water and blessing yourself

-and then have them one-by-one, slowly do it.

-if the numbers allow for it you may have them softly sing a hymn or you could read a series of quotes about baptism

-Have them talk in the groups of three about this experience - what they felt, thought; any memories that came to mind. Invite anyone who wants to to share with the whole group.

Only then might you offer a few thoughts on the meaning of baptism or a bit of interesting liturgical history about the sacrament. 

Have a plan for acting upon a pastoral strategy.

You need to begin with a framework such as Thornton's Remnant Theory or my Shape of the Parish model. It also works if you use other models such as Renewal-Apostolate Cycle or Benedictine Promise.

The Remnant and Shape of the Parish models assume the people of the parish are in a variety of different places in their journey; that they are in different stages of Christian proficiency.

Both assume that a significant way in which you can shape the climate of the parish is by nurturing those at the center - the Remnant, the Apostolic. They are likely to be fed by being able to join in the Office frequently and by going on retreat. A form of group spiritual guidance might be useful. And they will often be served by being able to participate in activities that are primarily directed toward the next group.

The parish probably has a few people ready to progress in their spiritual life. Have an offering on living by Rule and developing your own spiritual discipline. A couple of three session modules of a three year Adult Foundations Course -- this year it might be 1) Benedictine Spirituality and 2) exploring your ministry in workplace and civic life, with family and friends.

There may also be a few people in an experimenting phase. Don't ask them to serve on the vestry (even if they are willing). Sit with them. Ask them about their spiritual life line and current spiritual practices. Ask them about their hopes and longings. Get a sense of their readiness. Some will need milk, others will be ready for meat (these are biblical images 1 Cor 3.2, not political statements). Some will drift back into immature or tentative places, others may move quickly in a progressing sacramental phase.

Don't fuss about those who are immature or tentative. And certainly don't obsess about the very occasional attender. There really isn't much you can do for them until they are ready. Accept and love them.

Therefore, sit down now and place on the parish schedule a spiritual retreat at a monastic house for those interested, times for confessions during Advent and Lent, a two session program on developing your spiritual discipline, an Anglican Spiritual Practices course for fall, the two or three modules of the Adult Foundations Course for the coming year. Also schedule some time in the coming weeks to develop an attractive way of inviting people to participate -- posters around the parish, stories of people who have gone in the past, a special page on the parish web site for each activity, etc.

5. Get a workable image in your mind regarding time use

Keep working at changing the demand system until you get close to: 

• 25% -- worship

Weekday Office and Eucharist

Sunday Eucharists

Preparation

Possible the single most important thing you can do to feed the sheep is to pray with the Remnant/the Apostolic.

• 50% -- providing training and coaching for the baptized in the stuff of Christian proficiency

What counts here -- the person goes away from the time with you with an increased ability to say the Office, participate in the Eucharist, use a form of personal devotions that fits their personality and circumstances, make moral decisions, see the ways in which they are and can be "light" in work, with family and friends, in civic life, 

 

Your weekly enewletter message counts if it is really s form of moral and spiritual guidance. If it is plugging parish programs or fund raising -- not so much.

• 15% -- institutional attention 

Parish administration and leadership. Vestry and committee meetings, reports, being on diocesan committees.

• 10% -- personal pastoral attention

Visiting the sick, being with people in crisis

This will vary depending on the size of the parish and your gifts.

These things do overlap. You may find yourself doing some important spiritual guidance at the bed side of a cancer patient or you may just be holding a hand (not a bad thing to do).So, it helps to be honest with yourself. Experiment with the percentages in your own situation. What does it tell you?

Suppose you are a vicar serving a parish part time. Say 20 hours/week - Sunday and some time on two other days. The "demand system" that you've created includes serving on two diocesan committees that meet monthly, a monthly vestry meeting and a monthly meeting with the wardens, and being on the board of the town's homeless shelter. That last has you at the shelter for a few hours every week. What do you do?

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The pictures are from All Saints Chapel, Saint Paul's, Seattle