Julie’s News from Maryland

This afternoon while I was sitting at my desk looking at the readings for next week’s sermon, the intercom rang.  I answered the line and it was a call from one of the office staff.  She informed me that on line 1 was a man who was calling to ask where our church stood on the Gene Robinson issue.  She mentioned that he is not a parishioner, but someone from the neighborhood, so if I didn’t want to take his call she would tell him that I wasn’t available.  I decided that I was now too deeply curious to let this call slip away, so I took it.

The man introduced himself and told me that he wasn’t a parishioner but that he lived in the neighborhood and wanted to know where our church stood on the ordination of Gene Robinson as bishop.  I asked him what he knew about the issue and he informed me that he had followed it a bit in the news and that he had recently met Bishop Robinson at a local event. 

Having no idea what this call was about or whether I was about to get lambasted for having the ‘wrong’ answer, I tried to be reasonably vague, but still honest.  I responded that, in general, our congregation was very open and welcoming to our gay and lesbian neighbors and that most of the parish supported Bishop Robinson’s consecration.  I added, rather quickly, that if we were to ask each person in the parish that we would probably find a wide range of opinions, from those that are very troubled to those that are thrilled that Gene was elected bishop, but that as a general rule, most people in this congregation are supportive and positive about Gene.

He then went on to tell me the reason that he was calling.  You see, he is retired, has been for some years, and lately has been working at Circuit City just to have something to do.  We talked briefly about Circuit City going out of business, and then he told me that he had 3 computer monitors that were each just a couple of years old that were sitting in his basement taking up space and he was looking for a church that might be able to use them.  Really.  That’s why he was calling.

He said that if we needed them we could just stop by to get them.  I thanked him for the offer and told him that I’d check with the school to see if they had any need for them and that I’d get back to him.

And this is why they pay me the big bucks.