Weblogs: August 2006 Archives

I returned from a one week trip to Pasadena to lead a interim start up retreat, meet with as many members of the Throop Memorial Congregation as I could, and lead the worship service on Sunday.  It was a good trip. 

1. The congregation is a middle sized church with a small membership.  The congregation has a very large building, in addition to its sanctuary and large parish hall, it has class room space for 100 young people and adequate office space for minister, administrator and religious educator, and one office being used for storage.  The congregation has a number of programs, and the space is rented out to many community groups, including a Montessori school.  The building was built for a much larger congregation, so with two Sunday worship services the building could easily house a 500 member congregation.  The congregation is multi generational, with the common pattern of lacking a critical mass  of young adults.  (It goes have a critical mass of school aged youth.)  There are nine people on staff, including the quarter time youth advisor, child care worker, custodian, handy man, administrator, religious educator,  two quarter time musicians, and soon there will be an Interim Minister.  This is a congregation with a lot of potential. 

2. Pasadena reminds me of Cambridge(the one in Massachusetts.) Both have about the same population, and just a scattering of high rise buildings.  Most of the "downtown" is two or three story buildings, and the many church buildings are not diminished by high rise commercial structures.  Pasadena is an art and theatre center for the Los Angeles area.  The cost of housing also reminds me of Cambridge, I found an apartment nearby in Los Angeles for a little less than I was finding in Pasadena.  Pasadena like Cambridge is part of huge Metropolitan area, so it operates like a small city inside a big urban sprawl.  Pasadena is about the same distance to the beach as Cambridge, but much closer to the Mountains.

3.  The weather while I was there was much dryer than Florida.

A mountain picnic table not far from Pasadena.

Off to Burbank.

I got to the airport early because that is what the airport advisories said that is what we should do. Being here during code orange was pretty much the same as the last time I flew out of here in June (for St. Louis to go to GA.) The early morning crowds for the first flights of the morning were orderly, security was routine. I don't usually carry any liquids in my check in, so that was no problem. The laptop went through without having to be turned on. I have a camera and a radio in the checked baggage. I hear that it was okay last week as well.

Marjorie's friend in came down from Philadelphia on Saturday, she will be with Marjorie until I get back. She did experience more than usual hassle at security. I think a lot of it has to do with the airport, and what we expect. If I was coming back by way of LAX (Los Angeles's big airport) I would look forward to a lot of stress, but I don't anticipate to much problems going through Burbank. Some of the big city airports are always on the verge of breaking down. Tampa serves a big metropolitan area (Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater and the Gulf Coast sprawl) but does it with some degree of efficiency. I am just barely a frequent traveller, about nine flights a year, but I do notice that some airports are bottlenecks and some handle traffic efficiently.

Is it all management? Or were some airports built to handle traffic and crowds better than others? It is something to think about, especially when we hear ambitious ministers who want to turn old First Unitarian with its fair to middling size parking lot and its modest social hall into a megachurch. There may be limits imposed on our organizations by the buildings we build, limits that we can not overcome without major revisioning of physical plant.

Wednesday morning I will fly to Pasadena.  I will be spending several days with the congregation of the Universalist Society of Pasadena (Throop Memorial)

Last Spring, after my spouse, the Rev. Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley received a call to the San Diego church I was offered the interim ministry of this historic Universalist congregation.  Marjorie's surgery was in late May, and it quite to our shock and surprise the gall bladder that was removed was involved with cancer.  First things first,  June and July Marjorie was recovering from surgery and she needed support and hands on support.  Her daughter and sister flew down to Tampa from New York and Philadelphia respectively so that I could go to General Assembly.  During the summer there have been others who have been with Marjorie while I preached somewhere, or did some writing. 

Now Marjorie is recovering, she has driven her car, and she is up and about and looking good.  The radiology treatments will be ending soon, and the chemotherapy is not having the awful side effects that we were worried about. 

Last month I made the decision that I could go to Pasadena for several days for consultations, in August, September and October.  We arranged for one of Marjorie's friends or sisters to come down while I was gone.  Now it looks like I might go out to Pasadena for several weeks in October.  In the last week I have begun to plan the interim with Pasadena,  which just a few short weeks ago I assumed would be winter before I began. 

Marjorie's doctors are quite pleased with her recovery and response to treatment.  Big evaluations coming up in several weeks.

I will try to write from Pasadena, but I will be busy with meetings.