Anyone up for a chat thread?

[The Liturgist]

Hey, have any of you ever been to Lambeth Palace or met either the current Archbishop of Canterbury, or his predecessor Dr. Rowan Williams?

 

[Paidiske]

No to either. One of the priests who studied at college with me had his doctorate supervised by +Rowan, and that's as close as I get to that particular genius.

How is everyone travelling through pandemic-related stuff? I think, of everything we've been through, in some ways this last week has been the hardest, as the government moved to ban non-vaccinated people from all sorts of public gatherings, including church.

 

[The Liturgist]

No to either. One of the priests who studied at college with me had his doctorate supervised by +Rowan, and that's as close as I get to that particular genius.

How is everyone travelling through pandemic-related stuff? I think, of everything we've been through, in some ways this last week has been the hardest, as the government moved to ban non-vaccinated people from all sorts of public gatherings, including church.

That’s horrible.

In the US things are going well and I was going to go in for a booster shot today on my Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which was just authorized for the elderly and at risk (and the illness I have been battling has me in the at risk group), but I am exhausted and I think I will do it in the morning.

 

[Paidiske]

It's beyond horrible. The concession churches managed to win is that we will be able to welcome everyone back after a week; just about every other business or venue has to wait until December.

Hope you get some good rest!

 

[Shane R]

I have not met either of the aforementioned Archbishops of Canterbury but a friend gifted me a Rowan Williams book the other day, for which I am very grateful.

When it arrives I'll add it to the stack of 6 books that already occupy my night stand. I do read them but the stack never seems to completely empty.

 

[Paidiske]

I've read a lot of +Rowan's work, and all of it has been both sound and brilliant. I do think he is one of the great minds of his generation in our church.

Ah, yes, the to-read pile. I saw a meme the other day that said something like, "I do fully intend to read all the books I've bought. I'm on track to do so by my 879th birthday." That speaks to me.

 

[Shane R]

It didn't help moving to a town with a fantastic used bookstore. This place is two full floors of inventory and nothing costs more than $10. The lady that runs the place probably has more books than the two branch libraries close to me combined. Every subject one could imagine and a whole corner of children's books as well. I take my kids in there about once a month.

 

[Deegie]

I'm afraid my pile has outgrown the nightstand and now occupies a significant portion of the floor as well. I have this awful habit of always being in the process of reading at least four or five books simultaneously.

 

[The Liturgist]

It didn't help moving to a town with a fantastic used bookstore. This place is two full floors of inventory and nothing costs more than $10. The lady that runs the place probably has more books than the two branch libraries close to me combined. Every subject one could imagine and a whole corner of children's books as well. I take my kids in there about once a month.

reminds me of Powells in Portland, where, when I visited it in 2001, I know it was like this for another decade at least, the bookstore had a huge inventory on several floors and in multiple buildings, with used and new books stocked next to each other on the same shelf, and all the acoutrements such as the obligatory cafe we associated with Borders, memory eternal, and the “old” Barnes and Noble, in in 90s and 00s

 

[The Liturgist]

I'm afraid my pile has outgrown the nightstand and now occupies a significant portion of the floor as well. I have this awful habit of always being in the process of reading at least four or five books simultaneously.

Due to ebooks, rather than this improving things, I now find myself moving through hundreds of books concurrently.

 

[Deegie]

Oh, goodness. That's a lot! I just can't get into reading ebooks myself. There's something about holding a paper copy that I'm not quite ready to give up. (Although I do use Bible software with a library of thousands of books to facilitate searching, as well as linking each volume to the same passage.)

 

[The Liturgist]

Oh, goodness. That's a lot! I just can't get into reading ebooks myself. There's something about holding a paper copy that I'm not quite ready to give up. (Although I do use Bible software with a library of thousands of books to facilitate searching, as well as linking each volume to the same passage.)

I have a degenerative disease of connective tissue which makes paper books less comfortable to handle than historically. I am looking to back up my entire library into PDF Format.

 

[Paidiske]

I will buy ebooks for work purposes (often so much cheaper than the paper copies!) but to read for pleasure I still prefer paper.

 

[seeking.IAM]

I just want to pop in here to recognize and thank clergy for the difficult job you do. As Senior Warden of my parish, I just got skewered for 25 minutes in a haranguing phone call from a parishioner upset over church matters. All the time, I kept thinking Christians sure can be a complicated lot, and poor Father has to deal with all of us all the time. Thank you and God bless you for your patience and for all you do. Forgive those of us in the pew when we are so unnecessarily complicated.

 

[Tigger45]

Amen, thanks for the reminder that October is Pastor appreciation month \o/

 

[Paidiske]

Thanks, seeking. I appreciate that today, when my lot are all being incredibly fragile over government-imposed Covid rules.

 

[Deegie]

Yes, definitely thanks! And I'm sorry you had to endure that telephone call. I've had times when I have felt rather negative about some of the people in my congregation. But then God finds a way to remind me that they are the ones I'm called to love. And most of them really do have good hearts. They sometimes just need help letting other people see that. LOL.

 

[Paidiske]

The priest who supervised my first curacy, once told me that the people who were most difficult, were generally that way because they really cared about the church and its life. So I do try to remember that!

Bullying is another matter, and trying to love your lay bully/ies is a particularly costly exercise. It's why I was only in my last parish three years.

 

[Deegie]

The priest who supervised my first curacy, once told me that the people who were most difficult, were generally that way because they really cared about the church and its life. So I do try to remember that!

I very much like that way of thinking about it. Thanks!

Bullying is another matter, and trying to love your lay bully/ies is a particularly costly exercise. It's why I was only in my last parish three years.

I am so sorry. I have seen that happen with colleagues of mine as well. I have learned a lot of lessons through their troubles.

 

[Shane R]

Paidiske, are you still in Melbourne? They made the news at Anglican.ink: Melbourne synod to debate eliminating retirement age for parish clergy - Anglican Ink © 2021