St. Simon’s on the Sound and the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast are joining with Episcopalians (and any one else!) from all around to commit to reading the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles beginning the Last Sunday after Epiphany  –  Feb 11, 2018 – and continuing until Pentecost Sunday. Daily reading schedules will be provided, along with a wealth of resources to help facilitate the practice of reading the Bible daily.

Please go to http://www.goodbookclub.org/ for all the details. Here at St. Simon’s we will be forming reading/prayer partners, discussion groups, blog posts, and reading schedules for everyone. Stay tuned for more info and please consider joining us! Invite a friend too!

The title of this post may seem strange for a blog primarily focused on issues of faith, prayer, religion, and my boring life. But bear with me.
Recently the New York Times published a fascinating series of articles on the impact of autonomous or driver-less cars and trucks. You can find it HERE. The Times looked at this technological revolution in transportation from many angles – transportation of goods, how cities will change (picture no street signs, and parking only on the perimeter of town – for the driverless cars of course), how expectations of employers may shift to include your commute time since you are not having to worry about driving. There is a lot of speculation and visioning and legalities and the like to encompass as this technology moves forward. One thing I think is for sure – it’s coming.

The one area I haven’t seen or heard anyone talk about regarding driverless cars is the church. Today in most churches programming often has to be geared around the reality that an increasing number of our parishioners don’t drive at night (or drive at all – more on that in a moment). We want to include all demographics in the things we offer, discipleship and formation, fellowship and fun, worship and service, but driving restrictions are just as difficult to, pardon the pun, navigate as are things like work schedules and child care. I currently teach a Bible study on Acts and offer the same class in the morning and in the evening, knowing neither of those times alone would attract all those interested. In fact they are attended in almost equal numbers. I would much prefer more intergenerational gatherings, but with weekends so jam packed for young families, doing so on Saturday or Sunday doesn’t really help much, and if we offer them on a weeknight we are eliminating participation from a decent number of folks whose presence would greatly enhance the event.

While driverless cars would be really wonderful in helping reduce or eliminate driving distracted or driving under the influence, I like to also consider how they could reopen church programming to a segment of faithful people who currently cannot drive at night. 
In addition, every church struggles with transportation of elderly to Sunday morning worship when many of them are no longer able to drive at all. They have lost their independence and it is heart breaking when we are not able to consistently provide rides to church. I imagine a pool of parishioners with driverless cars who drop off their owners and then go pick up those who no longer have a way to church! What a difference this could make in their lives, the ability once again to go shopping, doctor appointments, visit friends, and worship

without being dependent on someone else to drive them!
Technology now exists where the home bound can watch church on their computer or TV. And that’s great. But Christianity at its core is an incarnational faith – God became one of us in the birth of Jesus. Flesh and blood contact matters. Being in the room or worship space with other believers is important, being able to attend formation classes and to participate in service ministries to others are huge aspects of discipleship. I can’t wait for the day when those who feel sidelined yet have much to contribute and a great desire to be in the midst of their fellow parishioners will be able to safely and regularly with the advent of this technology.

I say – bring it on! And hurry up! After all, we all know this technology is really not new….

Headed home. No way I can “retreat” with such a monster storm headed to Florida. The path looks better for panhandle right now but we all know those models are just educated guesses.

Either way lives are already being lost and incredible damage will continue along Irma’s path. Walked their beautiful labyrinth this morning praying for all victims of Harvey and Irma. May God be with you.

The retreat center is really lovely and I wish I could have stayed and prayed more with the sisters in their gorgeous chapel.

The pic is of the labyrinth which sits at the gate of the cemetery. Oldest grave I saw was from 1905!

At long last I am on retreat! I begin a silent retreat this evening (September 4). To help ME behave, I am turning off all social media access, text messaging, emails and calls. Only Jennifer will be able to reach me. However I do plan to make several blog posts during the week. My blog (I hope) will automatically post links to new blog posts to Facebook and Twitter, although I will not see any comments anyone posts on those sites until I return this weekend.
Meanwhile if you access the blog itself (itinerantpriest.org) and want an email notification whenever a new post is made, you can subscribe to such alerts on the left side of the blog main page.
Let the silence begin! Most of the time will be spent in prayer, study, and writing. God bless and stay safe everyone!

I have been trying to write about my father’s death. He died in July. I have a lot of stuff bubbling around my mind around his death, and have put some of it down. But it is much harder than I thought to keep it coherent and meaningful. I know what the title will be (Seven Last Words), but it is turning out to be pretty challenging to complete. So here is a little piece of it, maybe posting this will get me going on the rest.