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I paid my first parish visit today...it was remarkably like a social visit, but with prayer. We chatted for a very long time...oh, so long. I very much enjoyed the visit, but I'll have to learn how to finish these things. I'll never get anything done otherwise! Just as I thought we were finished, and was ready to move for the door, she pulled an apple pie out of the oven...and I don't walk away from apple pie. I'm glad that my first visit was with someone so chatty because it demystified the parish visit for me. I think such visits are vitally important to the life of a parish...if a priest doesn't pay regular visits to his congregation, will he really be able to relate to a parishioner who's in serious crisis? Sitting across the kitchen table, chatting about whatever, builds a trust and connection that's tough to establish during coffee hour. I think that parish visiting can be extended even further to include visits to workplaces. Of course it's not always possible or appropriate (most surgeons would balk at having a priest in the operating room), but the pastoral benefit would be amazing. People spend a huge amount of time at work, yet most clergy have little concept what that work is actually about. It creates a sense that work is secular, outside of God's interest. I suppose I've made it clear in previous posts that I believe otherwise...what a person does for a living is immensely important to who they are and how they function in God's kingdom. It'd be easy enough to meet a parishioner for lunch and afterward go back to the office...perhaps just for a few minutes to get a feel for the atmosphere of the place. If the parishioner feels weird about having his or her priest drop in, worried that coworkers might think there's something odd about it, then the priest can be introduced as a friend (which one hopes a priest is anyhow). I got this idea from interviewing a fascinating Episcopal priest, Fr. Armand Larive. He'd written an excellent book, and I was writing about it and him for The Living Church magazine. I know that at least a couple of clergy read this blog...what do you think? Do you pay visits to workplaces? If not, how do you think your parish would react to the idea? In academic news, I stopped by Trinity yesterday to pick up some papers and the department's video camera (to videotape the liturgy and one of my sermons). While I was there I found out my grades from last term...another raft of straight A's! Huzzah! It feels so odd looking at a grade report and seeing a GPA of 4.0...whose grades are these? |
