Getting closer

Yesterday's meeting with the Bishop went well. He joked about the way in which the same phrases appear over and over in the psychologist's reports, obviously generated by the program that scores the tests. He also outlined more clearly than before how the process will go for me (assuming the COM approves). I will be a postulant for about a year while I'm away on fellowship writing my book. During that time I'll do my field education, probably (if the Bishop of that Diocese is on board) at the Cathedral in the city where I'll be working. That would involve spending 10-15 hours a week working in the parish in various ways, such as preaching, being a Lay Eucharistic Visitor, and teaching. By the time I leave for the new job in the summer of '06, I will be a candidate. That would last for six months to a year, allowing me to prepare for the General Ordination Exam (bleah!). I would return here for ordination to the diaconate and then again for ordination to the priesthood. So if there are no hitches, I'll be a priest by the end of 2007.

The Bishop also explained how things will go on Saturday. I'll meet with the COM in two different groups, which will question me in different areas -- the exact nature of that questioning to be determined in their meeting the night before. It should last two hours at the outside. After that I'll have to wait -- possibly for an appreciable period of time, the Bishop warned -- for a written report detailing what the COM would like to see me do during postulancy. I told him that if I get nervous because I haven't heard anything, I can always just ask the member of the COM who is a fellow-parishioner.