a week to go

The Vestry meeting is a week from today. I'm not going to tempt fate and say the Vestry vote. It can't come soon enough. It has been a rough couple of weeks. Its been harder to be patient the last few then the ones leading up to the last vote. At least for me I'm sure its because of my continuing anger at how the handled the last meeting. Dan is a lot more calm than I am, but then he's gotten to speak with all the offending parties. He has met with 7 vestry members, 3 don't need to meet with him, and one he is playing phone tag with. She's not real concerned about meeting with him and was already going to vote for him to continue. In the last week they have decided who the new vestry member is and Dan has contacted him. He has been given the reports, the resume, and the spiritual autobiography to bring him up to date. We aren't sure if he is going to meet with Dan or not. He told Dan that all his experience with Dan has been positive and if our deacon, rector, and the discernment committee think he should continue that was good enough for him. Thus by Dan's count he has at least 8 votes from people that have said they'll vote for him to continue. He only needs 2/3 of the 12 vestry members hence 8 votes. YEA!!! But of course we'll be anxious until its on paper.

All of the 'uncertains' but one apologized to Dan. They apologized for not being ready to vote last month. They all gave different reasons...none of them very good, but they apologized. The one that didn't said basically "tough, I wasn't ready to vote". He has been givinging us an extordinary amount of aggrevations since he joined the vestry in January.

If any of you are interested in reading the official guidelines from the Diocese of East Carolina here is a link http://www.diocese-eastcarolina.org/Web%20Images/OrdinationtoPriesthood.pdf
It describes what will happen if the Vestry approves him to continue. Briefly after the Bishop there is the physical exam, a psych evaluation, and various forms to complete before August 31st.