Writings, blog slowdown, and a July archive of saints and stories

I keep waiting for my latest piece for the Episcopal Café to come out -- I turned it in July 11 -- but the Lambeth pieces have priority these days and my essay was not related to Lambeth, at least not in the narrow sense. (We columnists write on whatever we please, and then the Café editors publish as it seems appropriate.)

Luiz's monthly essay is up today, though, and it is not an As the Anglican World Turns one. It is a short, beautiful reflection about art as ministry.

You can also visit Luiz's Lambeth art blog here.

There was also a non-Lambeth essay the other day (can you tell I have Lambeth Overload?) on the subject of waiting. Very pertinent to Lambeth, of course, but with broader, daily application.

Anyway, I'll be back on blog when my Episcopal Café essay comes out, to post a link to it. Writer's vanity. (Also, I have a photo of +Maya with her nose in an English teacup, but have run into a technological delay. It's not Her Grace's fault, or that of her brothers, the canine bishops. It's Life As Usual.) Other than that, I am taking either a break or a slowdown here for a couple of weeks.



I have to focus on some writing projects, and I'm also going out of town for a bit in the middle of that period of time. The intrepid Mother of Acts of Hope (age almost 90) and I are meeting up partway between where she and Father of Acts of Hope live and where I live. We will be attending a performance by a cousin of mine in Our Nation's Capital and having some family time. I'll stay on briefly to visit friends and then head back here. The hordes return to campus mid-August (very uncivilized -- whatever happened to having school start after Labor Day?) and I am jealously guarding my solitude.

I also have to proofread a stack of pages from the forthcoming new edition of my book on prayer, catch up on my other blog, the one I have neglected this year and which serves the constituency of the diocesan anti-racism committee, keep working on the planning committee for the conference on the racial history of our diocese and do some course planning both for Guilford and for the theology module of the diocesan deacon formation program, which I am about to start teaching. Also I'm feeling moved to pray more, for the Lambeth gathering and in general, just taking time to be still and open to the Spirit. So, something's got to give.

I've also been musing about my blogging habits, both those present here and the comments I leave (and don't leave -- I have been writing comments and then deciding not to post them more and more often) but I will write about that when I have something coherent and thoughtful to say.

Meanwhile, have a look at this.

And in case you don't have enough to catch up on here on this season's blogging, the whole month of July 2007, complete with saints and sermons, is here. (Like all blog archives, it is in reverse chronological order.) Lots of fabulous women saints in July. And the month ends with the great Ignatius of Loyola, or Iñigo, as he was known in the Basque Country where he was born.

Oh, and speaking of writer's vanity: Dennis kindly left a note in the comments to this post informing me that an excerpt from of my Episcopal Café essay on women as global church was picked up by yesterday's Lambeth Witness. Lambeth Witness is Integrity's daily publication during the Lambeth gathering. The excerpt is on page 2 under the title "Some Guiding Questions." The full, original essay is here.

Off I go. Send a few prayers my way!

Or good vibrations, if prayer isn't your thing.

Thank you.