Church of Our Savior

Well, I had a nice break for a few weeks after the preaching conference, but now I'm back to work. My internship is at the lovely Church of Our Savior in south Jacksonville, right on the St. John's river. The parish is really nice, with a friendly and welcoming congregation and great clergy leadership. The church does a lot of outreach, especially with feeding and clothing the poor and they also have incredible programming for children and youth. Their vacation Bible school last week had 135 kids and around 70 adult volunteers.

There are five worship services each week, which are mostly traditional Rite I and Rite II services from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. They do, however, have a healing service during the week and the Sunday night service is contemplative. During my time here I have been able to preach a few times and to serve at the altar. Both of these activities are a treat for me and I appreciate the opportunities.

My clergy mentors are Father John and Mother Ronnie. Fr. John is a loving and gentle priest who has worked in parish ministry for over 25 years. He has been very generous with his time; sharing both the blessings and the challenges of ministry with me. His congregation love him very much and their appreciation for his ministry is obvious. Mtr. Ronnie is an old friend from my home parish who went to seminary about 4 years before me. She has matured into a wonderful priest and it has been great to talk to her about the fun and the struggles of her first few years of ministry.

I am so pleased to have been assigned to COOS for the summer, it is a great blessing!