Friends,

You all know that during worship I just don’t sit in quiet prayer when I’m not doing stuff, right? Don’t get me wrong, I do that too, but I also spend a lot of time noticing who is in the pews, going over names, and seeing who is new. Back in February, I noticed someone who looked like the epitome of a seminarian trying to not look like a seminarian. He wore casual clothes, but used all of the correct books, sang enthusiastically, and clearly knew when to stand, sit, kneel, bow and cross himself. I was not surprised when I got an e-mail from him a few days later saying that he is indeed a senior at Virginia Theological Seminary and was looking for a spot to volunteer until his graduation in May.

This intrepid student of theology was Cory Irwin, and his timing could not have been better. To be honest, when he asked to volunteer the first thought I had was that I did not have time to deal with drama or walk an insecure seminarian through the ropes while we were gearing up for the busiest season of the year. Cory doesn’t seem particularly dramatic, but seminary is a weird time, and well-oriented seminarians ready for ministry are as common as unicorns. It’s not that seminary isn’t a good thing. It is, but expecting a senior seminarian to hit the ground running, is like expecting someone who just finished a marathon to compete in a 5k.

I was scrambling to get our confirmation classes planned which were going to start in Lent, and I had some serious gaps in my plan. I insisted on having meals and childcare for our Sunday and Wednesday sessions, but I shot myself in the foot. The adults going through confirmation were the same group I would have reached out to help with watching littles and helping with the programming for the older kids. I was running out of people to ask, and I was in conversations with our leaders about what to do if we simply couldn’t find anyone. I thought my ambitious Lenten/Confirmation plan was going to have to be scaled back.

I scheduled a meeting with Cory at the pastry shop, and I gave an exhaustive list of every empty volunteer slot that I was losing sleep over, and he shrugged and said, “I can do that.” I didn’t know which part he meant, but he meant all of it. He was just going to show up, help me set up tables every Sunday morning before worship, do two services, help with Sunday School, and watch a group of children during confirmation class until about one thirty. Then on Wednesday’s he was in charge of about twenty-five children from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm after being in class all day. Oh yeah, he also just helps me with Day School chapel and goes to staff meeting for the experience. I was convinced this was too good to be true, and there was going to be some issue, but nope. Cory is the real deal. He did everything he committed to do, and managed to be a pastoral presence in a new church that was getting ready to be very busy. The timing of his arrival, dedication and faithful ministry felt like divine intervention, and I remain grateful that the Church is about to get such a wonderful new priest.

We were lucky to have Cory when we did, and some of the serendipity of this can be better understood if you knew a bit about the process of going through seminary, what a transitional deacon is, and the process of becoming a priest. That is long and mostly boring, so I’ll save it for another article. The highlights are that Cory was a seminarian at Falls Church in his second year of seminary, which completed his requirement for the Seminary. Cory was sent to Seminary from the Diocese of Indianapolis, where he is from and will return for at least one year to serve as a curate (baby priest) at a large Church in Indianapolis. Many seminarians are ordained deacons their senior year of seminary, because you must serve as a deacon for six months before becoming a priest. This means they can get ordained right after seminary and start serving as a priest right away. We caught Cory just at the right time where he needed a place to serve as a deacon, but wasn’t already embedded in a congregation.

In addition to my many asks of Cory in our first meeting. I gave him a short list of things that I insisted on him doing. This list of demands was comprised of standard stuff, like show up if you say you are going to do something, but I did throw in one atypical demand, which is that he attend the St. Luke’s BBQ on May 4th. His last Sunday with us will be on May 5th, so this worked out well. I’m not sure if he is going to be on Team Pork or Team Chicken yet, but he will be there, and we will have the chance to give him our thanks.

Cory is good at a lot of things. He has a PhD in Education, he jumped into our Church community without any hiccups or awkwardness, but the clearest sign that he will be a good leader is when he got a vacuum out and started cleaning the rug after a confirmation class without being asked. It doesn’t matter how much talent and dedication you have, if you are not willing to love and serve the people you are leading. Cory is faithful, competent, and appears to genuinely want to serve God and his neighbor in the name of Christ, and we should try to send him off right. We have not paid him anything as of this moment, and we are gathering funds to help him get started in his new life after seminary. Below is a link if you would like to help us with this send-off gift, and be sure you select “Cory’s purse” in the drop down menu or send a check to the office with “purse” in the memo.

https://abundant.co/saintlukesalexva/give

Blessings,

Nick