The Bishop is coming, the Bishop is coming...!

A few weeks ago His Grace, our Bishop MARK, set a date to visit our little Parish, September 21-23 to be exact, and so ready or not here he comes.

It's not that fearful at all. OK, I'm lying. I am a little bit nervous, but we're getting everything into high gear and preparations are under way. There are things to be cleaned, arrangements to be made, and services to be prepared. In a certain way there are things that needed to be done anyway that a visit by the Bishop will get done with a renewed intensity. We're having an all church clean up day in a few weeks and we'll soon be in proper trim and ready to go.

Perhaps all of this sounds desperate but its really not. Sometimes Orthodox Christian just need a jolt, even a crisis, to get them to do what they should have been doing all along. A good Priest can use these events to help the Parish discover some of its own inner strength and goodness, its ability to rise to the occasion and the realization of how good things can be when we put our hearts and hands together. The people of St. Elias will shine not because of me or the events but because they have it in them but they just don't always know how to let it flow.

It will also be good for the people of St. Elias to have a whole weekend with our Bishop. We need to understand our connection to the larger church that he embodies and I know that he'll impress people with his presence. Our Bishop speaks of his being "drafted" into the episcopacy and that's probably true in one sense but I think as he continues on that people are also seeing why it was that he, and not some other Priest, was drafted in the first place. A modest first rounder is still a first rounder.

The question is, and my pride is showing up here, will we impress? I think we will. We've made some significant progress in the past two years and there is a sense of hope for our future. I think we're at that place where the snowball is just starting to roll at the top of the hill before it picks up speed and snow in its descent. There are people at St. Elias who are Orthodox to the core and have real dreams for St. Elias' future and the willingness to put their money where their mouth is. We've got a ways to go but we're starting to get there and I know he'll see that as well.

And now to the paperwork and phone calls...