Workshops Galore
My favorite weeks are those without any special events, when I can visit all four of our offices on a normal schedule and spend the majority of my day working on the many administrative tasks that weigh on me. That, however, has not been the story of August. These are all worthwhile endeavors, of course, they just make my weeks feel a little more frenetic.
Last week, Mr. Ramos (our new school Principal) and I spent a day together at the retreat center in Federal Way. The Archdiocese is piloting a new requirement that all new Pastor/Principal combinations (either because the Pastor OR the Principal is new to the combo) spend a day together, talking about how they want to work together and getting any big issues or disconnects out of the way. Mr. Ramos and I have been doing a lot of meeting during July, so we were already most of the way down that road, but I still found the day helpful. And I find it very helpful to see how attentive the Archdiocesan Office of Catholic Schools is being to the Pastor/Principal relationship. They have seen how key that relationship is to the success (or dumpster fire) of a school, and they are taking concrete actions to put these on solid footings.
This week on Wednesday, I (and about 7 other people from Whatcom County) spent the day at “Advocate Refresher” training. When someone gets divorced, the Church will do an investigation to determine whether there was something wrong at the moment of the vows which would have invalidated the marriage and caused it never to have come into effect (e.g. one of the people getting married never actually believed that fidelity was an important aspect of marriage). This is commonly referred to as an “annulment”. Well, an annulment is a legal procedure involving the Archdiocesan court (called the “Tribunal”) and you need lawyers to march these procedures through court. The Archdiocese trains law “Advocates” to serve as some of these lawyers, helping local parishioners prepare their evidence and cases and then present them to the Tribunal. (This is a Church court, though, so we also try to pastorally minister to people during the entire procedure.) This is a complicated enough job that all Advocates are required to go through a refresher training every 3rd year. Though priests are not required to go through Advocate training, I find it helpful and try to stay up-to-date. Thank you to all of our Whatcom County Advocates for all of your work for our parishioners!
And finally, on Thursday, I attended a clergy lunch hosted by the Interfaith Coalition. Interfaith Coalition is a collaborative effort of many churches and faith communities in Whatcom County, looking to take on common projects. Most recently, you might remember that they ran temporary housing for homeless families with children. Before that, they started up Unity Care Northwest. Right now, Interfaith has spun off most of its direct ministries, so it is reinvesting in the local clergy to see where our relationships and conversations direct us, and hopefully that will result in a new ministry inspired by the Holy Spirit. I have very few opportunities to interact with non-Catholic clergy, so I am glad I went. We were also given a presentation on the Potluck Project, the latest initiative of the organization that was started by Fr. Bill Treacy of this Archdiocese.
Again, all of these were important and worthwhile workshops, and I am going to keep making time for them. I just wish I had 9 days in a week, so I could attend them and do all my admin. I’m sure none of you can relate. 😉
Fr. Moore 