A BLESSED DAY IN RENO

Today’s parish visit to Trinity, Reno was heartwarming and fun. I wanted to say it was the best parish visit since . . .. (some time way back there) but when I tried to calculate that, I saw it was the best Sunday parish visit since last Sunday at St. Jude’s, which was also just wonderful. It would not be possible to say which visit was more full of grace. The truth is: I love visiting our parishes. And the joy of today’s visit was set up by yesterday installing Fr. Dick Snyder at Coventry Cross, Minden and attending a well-planned, well-executed creative contemplative All Souls Eucharist at St. Peter’s, Carson City last night.

At, 7:45, we had a good traditional Rite I Prayer I Eucharist. I forgot the Prayer of Humble Access again. But I really like the manual acts for Rite I Prayer I. Then we had the Children’s Eucharist. Trinity does the bar none best Children’s Eucharist I’ve ever seen. Rev. Kathy and Rev. Stefani created it a few years ago. Rev. Liz has now picked up the torch and is doing a great job with the able support of Rev. Rick.

After that we had a short, fast-talking, but highly productive meeting of the Profile Committee as we advanced the ball on the search process. Trinity does a solid search. They did it last time and they’re doing it again.

We were scheduled for Confirmations at the Principal Service but it turned out there was also a little boy who was there to be baptized. I gather the family had not been on top of the communications side of the event. So the church wasn’t expecting it, but the altar guild swung into action, Fr. John was flexible, and we made it happen.

One snag. I hate it when I tear up during my own sermons. At least it wasn’t during my own words. It happened when I was quoting Czeslaw Milosz and Ted Kooser.

Then we had the Parish Forum Q&A. I probably over answered all the questions but the questions were so good I couldn’t help it. I then had a short meeting with Fr. John and Fr. Rick about our hope to form a Lutheran/ Episcopal partnership for a statewide public policy network. Looks promising.

I the course of the day, I received gifts such as protein bars from a member concerned for my health because I look tired and a vinyl album of Alice’s Restaurant.

I packed the car and strolled through the park toward Java Jungle. As I was crossing the bridge a homeless guy called, “Bishop? Hey Bishop, is that you?” I stopped. We hugged and he told me about how his life has been since we’d met at Trinity on a previous visit. Urban ministry. Our conversation meant a lot to both of us.

Now here I am at Java Jungle about to catch up on e-mail. But I had to stop first to say, even though the sky has turned grey, it’s a blessed day here in Reno.