Re: [FrTonyBlog] [Fr. Tony Clavier] Local Choice

[Thomas Rightmyer]

        As people move they are faced with the question Fr. Tony raises.  Some people are successful in findng a church like the one they left - same denominarion, same size, same welcome. Others are not so successful.

 

        Until I was 50 the choice was made for me. When I lived at home I went to the church where my father was priest. When I was in seminary I went to my field work assignment. When I was ordained I went where I was sent or where I was called by the people and the bishop. At age 50, burned out by deaths in family and parish I resigned and we moved to Durham where I could work on a biographical directory of the Church of England clergy - a continuing project.

 

        We visited all the Episcopal churches in town and felt most at home at St. Philip's, the older downtown church. I ws welcomed as a volunteer priest associate and took my place in the rotation.  Later I ws called to supply and interim ministry in other parts of the diocese but my family continued to attend St. Philip's and I went there when I had no other responsibilities. Shortly after we moved to Durham I was invited to help with the General Ordination Examinations and did so for 12 years.

 

        When that job ended in April, 2002, I continued as part time interim in Smithfield, NC, through Christmas and we then moved to Asheville. I had remained canonically resident in Western NC and when we came to town a friend invited me to volunteer to help him at one of the smaller churches. In the fall I was invited to be part time priest at a small congregation an hour down the mountain and helped there for 18 months.  Since then I have taken on a regular volunteer position with the diocesan  ministry to the homeless in Asheville Sunday afternoons.  It is a relief not to have a regular Sunday responsibility. I am free to visit a number of local churches and have done so.

 

        Tom Rightmyer  trig...@juno.com  Asheville, NC

 

       

 

On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:43:03 -0700 (PDT) "Fr. Tony Clavier" <anthony...@gmail.com> writes:

An old friend wrote to me about how one decides on a local church community in which to share faith and practice in the light of ancient and present divisions in the church.