Pondering a Change
I stayed home from work today. I had a doctor's appointment this morning and one the procedures performed was a cytoscopy. If you know what that it is, then you might appreciate my feeling a bit violated. If you don't know what that is, then don't ask. The good news is that results were normal.
I'm using this time off from work to ponder whether to stay at my current parish or not. It's a tough decision as I am involved with so many ministries at the parish, and while I shy away from such terms as "pillar of the church," I do consider myself a go-to person on a lot of things. The problem is, what to do when you lose faith in your shepherd to lead the flock? Such is the case here.
Our pastor is a baby boomer who has lost his faith. He has no reverence towards the Eucharist and has tried on several occasions to eliminate our adoration chapel. He removed offering the precious blood out of convenience from two of our Sunday masses and eliminated the cantor from one. He directs couples wanting to get married, but waiting for an annulment to just get married by a justice of the peace until the anulment comes through. His entire focus is on building a new church to replace our stately old one under the guise that we need more room.
What has been our saving grace these last few years has been that we had a strong associate pastor and a pastoral council that had some backbone. Now we have lost both. The strong members of the council got fed up with the pastor's backdoor maneuvers and left.
I pray for my pastor's conversion. And I pray that I make a wise decision in this regard. Part of me is telling me to run like the wind from this fallen leadership...the other part seems to be urging me to stay and try to provide support for the faithful until we get a new pastor in who knows how many years. I'm leaning towards the former.
Your prayers are appreciated.
I'm using this time off from work to ponder whether to stay at my current parish or not. It's a tough decision as I am involved with so many ministries at the parish, and while I shy away from such terms as "pillar of the church," I do consider myself a go-to person on a lot of things. The problem is, what to do when you lose faith in your shepherd to lead the flock? Such is the case here.
Our pastor is a baby boomer who has lost his faith. He has no reverence towards the Eucharist and has tried on several occasions to eliminate our adoration chapel. He removed offering the precious blood out of convenience from two of our Sunday masses and eliminated the cantor from one. He directs couples wanting to get married, but waiting for an annulment to just get married by a justice of the peace until the anulment comes through. His entire focus is on building a new church to replace our stately old one under the guise that we need more room.
What has been our saving grace these last few years has been that we had a strong associate pastor and a pastoral council that had some backbone. Now we have lost both. The strong members of the council got fed up with the pastor's backdoor maneuvers and left.
I pray for my pastor's conversion. And I pray that I make a wise decision in this regard. Part of me is telling me to run like the wind from this fallen leadership...the other part seems to be urging me to stay and try to provide support for the faithful until we get a new pastor in who knows how many years. I'm leaning towards the former.
Your prayers are appreciated.
posted by David Jackson | 2:09 PM
1 Comments:
I posted your dilemma on my blog along with my comments. I am curious what my readers will suggest.
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