I’m back at Lake Logan, near Asheville, North Carolina, for the final bit of my bishop training with the College for Bishops of TEC. It’s classic American ‘camp in the woods’ stuff. In that American way, I’m part of the Class of 2009 and there’s a mixture of Canadians and Irish along with the Americans. For them, it’s a canonical requirement that they are part of this programme in the first three years in episcopal ministry. For me, it’s the quality of the training – and the opportunity of building a network of relationships.
Today we have been doing ‘Critical Incidents’ – dealing with congregational issues and sharing with one another how we get on. In my experience, it’s not just how you intervene. It’s when … and all that my experience has taught me is that the only times you don’t intervene too late are the times when you intervene too early.
Meanwhile, I’m keeping a weather eye, as it were, on the ash cloud and hoping that it moves away to the south. On the way over here, I got caught by the weather and had to spend the night in Chicago – arriving 24 hours later than I intended.