welcome (back) to the real world

This past Wednesday was my first day at All Saints. The rector is currently on a sabbatical, so I'm being temporarily supervised by the associate rector, Liz (which is awesome!). I'm so fortunate to have as a mentor someone about my age who knows what I'm going through.

Here are a few pictures from getting settled into my office:

Name plate--fancy!

Notes from 3 years of seminary classes--invaluable resources!

Actually hung up my diploma :o)

My Episcopowl, wearing a green deacon's stole because it's ordinary time.

Also, I'm listed on the clergy page of the church website! 

Today was my first Sunday back at All Saints. Last night I slept horribly, complete with a nightmare that in retrospect was pretty hilarious: 

         I was serving in the church and there were a lot of young pierced and tattooed visitors there who weren't typically church-going people. They were all sitting to one side of the altar. During the service I received a phone call from a friend I hadn't heard from in a while, so I went to the side of the church where I couldn't be seen and answered the call (yes, in the middle of the service--give me a break, it was a dream). I lost track of time and came back from the phone call as they were processing for the Gospel (which I was supposed to read). However, the young visitors hid the Gospel book from me so I wasn't able to read it, and so the whole service after that was a train wreck. And then my alarm went off. [side note: When I told Liz about it, she said, "Oh, you had your first Saturday dream!" What?! They didn't warn me about this in seminary...]

Clearly (and fortunately), this is not what ended up happening this morning. I attempted to keep the 8 o'clockers on their feet (as in, I read the wrong Gospel) and I left out a prayer for the departed (a tradition for this parish) right before the dismissal, but other than that I don't think I messed up too badly. In between the 8 and 10:30 services I went with another Deacon to visit someone in the hospital and give her Communion, and we ended up giving Communion to the nurse and tech who were in the room as well, so that was awesome.  

The best part of the morning was seeing so many new and familiar faces. It was so good to catch up on what had been going on the past three years (the youth who were 8th graders when I left are now going to be seniors!!!). I felt warmly welcomed and very much loved. It's good to be back.