Parson to Person
Part three of season two - an 'imaginative/non-fictional' series. Earlier segments can be found in the archives. The entire document will be made available in one location soon.
Roger passed away Monday of the following week. Peggy, Liz and Greg were at his side. As I sat planning his funeral in my den, I thumbed through notes he had left specifically for this occasion including scripture passages he wanted me to read. Roger’s young faith grew leaps and bounds in vitality during his year long battle with cancer. It was heroic.
The vibration of my cell phone, ringing on the desk, startled me.
“Brian? It’s Dan. Lois told me I would catch you on your cell.”
Dan was the District Superintendent with our denomination, and had become a pretty good friend to me over the course of ‘the debacle’, as Sarah and I called it.
“I have very good news, my friend. I think the cloud has lifted. Last night the Committee voted unanimously to support you. We contacted the chairman of your board this morning and told him. He assured me that your entire board is, well, on board, with this decision. So, we’re officially closing the Duke’s complaint. I’ve put a call into Jay and Evelyn Dukes to tell them it’s over as far as we’re concerned. They are out of town for Christmas, so I have yet to have that conversation.”
I was completely surprised. I offered a rather mechanical ‘God is good’ and a ‘thank you’ before we ended our call. I was at a loss for words. A pessimist streak within my personality, one that I try actively to suppress, kicked into hyperactivity. ‘Sure, I wonder what kind of passive-aggressive mayhem the Dukes will spin before they finally leave’, I worried. Next, my thoughts raced to Lois. I recalled Dan’s words, ‘Lois told me I would catch you on your cell.’ The truth was that I was pretty routinely ‘out of the office’ now for the deterioration of my trust where Lois was concerned. During the last year I felt as if she had joined league with the Dukes and the Wrights. Could I trust her going forward? She had been the church secretary there longer than I had been the pastor. Could I terminate her employment without creating a whole new uproar?
Then a whole new level of pessimism crept in. Maybe I had resigned myself, on some level, that this thing was headed towards my eventually resigning from Covenant and seeking a new start somewhere else.
Roger passed away Monday of the following week. Peggy, Liz and Greg were at his side. As I sat planning his funeral in my den, I thumbed through notes he had left specifically for this occasion including scripture passages he wanted me to read. Roger’s young faith grew leaps and bounds in vitality during his year long battle with cancer. It was heroic.
The vibration of my cell phone, ringing on the desk, startled me.
“Brian? It’s Dan. Lois told me I would catch you on your cell.”
Dan was the District Superintendent with our denomination, and had become a pretty good friend to me over the course of ‘the debacle’, as Sarah and I called it.
“I have very good news, my friend. I think the cloud has lifted. Last night the Committee voted unanimously to support you. We contacted the chairman of your board this morning and told him. He assured me that your entire board is, well, on board, with this decision. So, we’re officially closing the Duke’s complaint. I’ve put a call into Jay and Evelyn Dukes to tell them it’s over as far as we’re concerned. They are out of town for Christmas, so I have yet to have that conversation.”
I was completely surprised. I offered a rather mechanical ‘God is good’ and a ‘thank you’ before we ended our call. I was at a loss for words. A pessimist streak within my personality, one that I try actively to suppress, kicked into hyperactivity. ‘Sure, I wonder what kind of passive-aggressive mayhem the Dukes will spin before they finally leave’, I worried. Next, my thoughts raced to Lois. I recalled Dan’s words, ‘Lois told me I would catch you on your cell.’ The truth was that I was pretty routinely ‘out of the office’ now for the deterioration of my trust where Lois was concerned. During the last year I felt as if she had joined league with the Dukes and the Wrights. Could I trust her going forward? She had been the church secretary there longer than I had been the pastor. Could I terminate her employment without creating a whole new uproar?
Then a whole new level of pessimism crept in. Maybe I had resigned myself, on some level, that this thing was headed towards my eventually resigning from Covenant and seeking a new start somewhere else.
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