Postulancy

I was granted postulancy by our bishop about a month ago. This was the final endorsement necessary for my application to seminary. My family and I will be going to Sewanee in a few weeks for my "official visit". This will be the time when I interview at the school and that will hopefully lead to being enrolled this coming August.

We've almost been too busy for me to get excited about it all... Our third son, Joshua Andrew, was born on January 15th and between him and work and interning at San Jose Episcopal and raising our 7 and 9 year olds, we've been stretched!

Our diocesan convention was also last month. It was a good convention, which means that it was mostly boring and uneventful. That's how a convention should be. An exciting convention in today's Episcopal church could easily mean controversy and dissention, so I will take boring any day. The best part of the event was the several short films that were shown highlighting parishes around the diocese, these were particularly gratifying because they showcased the incredible ministry and worship activities of some of our smaller churches. They really showed how effective a parish can be in spite of small congregations. Another wonderful part of the convention was the granting of full parish status to Ressurection Episcopal church on Fort Caroline Road in Jacksonville. This parish had been struggling as a mission for years and to see them return to parish status was heavenly.

Finally, I finished a three part series adult education class at San Jose yesterday morning. Part of my intership requirement is teaching. As someone who lives somewhere between the lay and ordained worlds of the church, I chose to present three sessions on the priesthood. The first two Sundays were lecture based classes on the history and variety of the priesthood in all cultures and also more specifically in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The final session was the story of my discernment. I guess I do like talking about myself more than I probably should, but I hope that the class shed some light on the trials and doubts that all Christians face as they try to listen to God's voice calling them.

God's peace be with you,

Jon