Clergy Conference

On Monday and Tuesday of this week the Diocese of Southern Virginia had its annual fall clergy conference. It was my first. It's a good time to be starting out in my diocese. We seem to have passed through the division and hostility of recent years, and people seem ready to start fresh with a new bishop and a new attitude. The energy in the room was positive. I was glad to be there, partly because it was another signpost that I have reached the destination of priesthood, and although the journey of discernment will continue, a lot of the hazing and hoop jumping of the ordination process is now over.

Bishop Eugene Sutton from Maryland led us in a couple of sessions on spirituality and prayer and the importance of clergy being in communion with God and having an active prayer life. He inspired me. He emphasized centering prayer, something that I struggle with, and stressed listening prayer instead of prayer in which we simply tell God what we want God to do.

We also had two presentations from Matthew Moretz of Father Matthew Presents on UTube who talked about the need for the Episcopal Church to be present in the virtual world. He gave me a lot to think about. Even though I don't aspire to making videos like he does, listening to him made me think about what ministry in cyberspace might look like. Food for thought.

Clergy Conference was renewing, but I haven't had a day off in awhile, so today I've been cranky and sad. Hopefully I'll get a sermon written tomorrow so that I can take Friday off.