Mea Culpa

Hello my friends - and I do apologize for being away from the blog for so long.  There is much to tell to try to catch up on life on Andros so here goes

The last time I wrote we were entering Lent and here we are thru Lent and Easter and coming up on the Ascension.  As I mentioned before, the priest shortage is a major problem here and we had no priest through Lent.  I found it challenging to preach about the need to repent without being able to offer the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  For me, there were two highlights in Lent this year.  The first was Ash Wed.

Prior to Lent beginning we ask everyone to return their palms from last year and we gather them up for a Pallm Burning to create the ashes.  In prior years I would just do this by myself to collect the ashes for our annual ecumenical Ash Wed service with the Anglicans.  This year I did something different.

We are having our Primary School children meet for CCD on a monthly basis this year.  Rather than a weekly one hour class after school in each of the townships, we collect all the kids and have a monthly class that lasts for about 3 hours on a Saturday morning -- basically we do 3 lessons in that one session.

For the class right before Ash Wed we gathered up our palms and brought them to class.  We explained the penitential use of ashes historically, sackcloth and ashes, etc.  Then we took the kids and our basket of palms out into the yard.  I had a broiling pan with a few palms and, once I got that aflame, each child took a handful of palms and dumped them into the fire - it was a rather well organized system of kids going from the fire to the basket and soon the flames were roaring.  Once it all died down we went back inside to let them cool while I did another lesson.  At the end of the session I poured the ashes (still rather warm) into a coffee can and we headed home.  THEY had made ashes for Ash Wed.

It occured to me that having to do an Ash Wed service at three parishes we started at 9AM, then 12, then 3PM, followed by the ecumenical service at 7PM at the Anglican church.  Kids who lived south would be in school and not able to attend the 9AM service.  So I called the principal, told him about having made ashes with the kids and would he mind if I stopped at the school around 10:30 to give the kids that helped make the ashes, ashes.  He said no problem, so we had a plan (but his and mine were a bit different)

So we do the 9AM, then head over to Behring Point Primary School for my six kids at that school who had helped make the ashes.  It was then that I learned the Principal had called a special assembly and all 81 kids were expecting to get ashes!  Ginni and I did a quick mental adjustment of what I was going to do and I pulled off a 10 minute spontaneous explanation of why we use ashes like this - used Job sitting in sackcloth and ashes as an example - then we all said the Lord's Prayer and Ginni led them in song as they each processed up to get ashes -- little pre-K kids, wide-eyed and innocent; and the older ones, and even the teachers and the principal!  As we left I shook my head and wondered what the mother of the 7th Day Adventist child was going to say when her child came home with ashes.  I also was a bit overwhelmed with the privelidge I have in being able to minister to these kids like this - it was an awesome experience.

The second highlight of Lent for me was also in CCD.  As a Deacon I cannot hear confession or forgive sin.  Yet without a priest I was struggling with the lack of a penitential service of some kind.  What I came up with is what I call a 'Signing Service'.  After a lesson about the sacrament of reconciliation and our need to forgive each other, and be sorry for our sins I brought out my broiling pan once again, but this time full of sand.  Next to it was a pile of vigil candles and a sheet of paper with the words I AM SORRY down the left column.  As we sang an appropriate song, each child came up, lit a candle and stuck it into the sand, then signed their name next to I AM SORRY.  After all the kids had come up the church was aglow with the candle light and I did a little 'from darkness to light' explanation of being reconciled to God because we are sorry for our sins.  It wasn't confession, but it did the job I think and I was kind of tickled that I pulled off a penitential service like this one.

As Lent came to an end I kept wondering about having a priest for Easter.  We hadn't had one for Christmas and I had an RCIA candidate that expected to recieve the sacraments.  Well I got the phone call, and there was nobody to send - no priest for Easter.  A bit miffed I asked if I could look for a priest and was told to go for it.  After a half dozen emails to Boston contacts one idea of my pastor in Norwood paid off.  He suggested I contact the Director of the Priest Personnel Board.  On occasion a priest may be between assignments, or be home from a St. James Society mission assignment, and I might just luck out.  Well it turns out that the Director himself was able to come.   I was thrilled he could join us and, he did a wonderful job.  He was with us for all of Holy Week, washing feet on Holy Thursday, venerating the cross on Good Friday, the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday.  All the while he was online with the Cardinal back in Boston working on an upcoming Boston Priest Pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  He was a busy man but it was great to have him with us. 

During his stay we were able to coordinate a conference call with Archbishop Pinder to talk about the feasibility of Boston loaning a priest to Nassau for a few years.  As Director of the Priest Personnel Board, he promised to carry a letter to the Cardinal with Archbishop Pinder's request.  Keep that one in your prayers, we sure could use the help.

The Easter season has been a joy - the 2nd week of Easter is our annual clergy retreat and it was great to spend the week with clergy from all the islands.  Ginni headed home to the US to get in some nursing and earn some much-needed money for us while I was on retreat.  On that point I should share that the VNA that Ginni does her hospice work for has changed their policy on nurses that work the way Ginni does, requiring more frequent work days.  This means that after 25 years, Gin has had to resign.  She will miss the nursing but not the admin part of the job.

On another front - while we minister here, we are also building our new chapel in North Andros.  I have written about this before but we are well on our way.  Thanks to Deacon Paul Rooney at St. Anthony in Cohasset and Deacon Fran Corbett at Immaculate Conception in Weymouth and all my friends at St. Timothy in Norwood, the mission appeals we have done have given us what we need to get this effort off the ground.  Bulldozers have cleared the land and we have just completed laying the foundation.  Phase two will be the construction of the walls and roof and that should start in a few weeks while we await materials.  Then the interior work will begin.  If all goes well we should be done late summer.  But lets not count our chickens just yet -- Murphy's Law is very real when it comes to construction.  Lets just praise God we've completed the foundation!

Much more to share but its time to head out for CCD.  Pray its not quite so long before my next post
Till then - Peace