[Magdalen] No mail...

cady soukup cadyasoukup at gmail.com
Sat Apr 21 13:58:33 UTC 2018


April has been a disorienting month, from the weather to whatever. Too much?

The Downers Grove Soukup sibs finally got together to inter our father next
to our mother in their chosen cemetery in the Chicago area  Fairmount
cemetery, surrounded by Cook County Forest Preserve, overlooking Long John
Slough and the Little Red Schoolhouse section of the preserve. It was
lovely, and blustery.

Anne flew in from Switzerland, where she is now Madame Le President of tpg
(Transportation Publique de Geneve), the public transport system for the
Geneva Canton in Switzerland. She loves the job! Tpg is moving to
sustainable energy public transportation for all sections of the canton.
Pete transitioned from a substitute teacher in the Cook and Du Page county
school systems (he is also a professional musician in the Chicago area,
trombone) back to a tech network sales person (after Dad died and no onger
needed daily care).  Peg is a retired legal aide. Bill, who lives in
Georgia, decided to opt out of our family. We respect his desire.

The brand new Culpepr Region of the Diocese of Virginia had its first
meeting. Yes, I was elected chair. Of the five lay and six clergy members
present (representing 7 of the 10 chueches in the region), 3 of the lay and
3 of the clergy now are officers/reps. Several of the churches do not have
web sites or official email addresses. Several of the small churches are
struggling. We have a whole new focus, with new directives from the diocese.

The spring executive board of the diocese met with the region presidents.
The presidents had a working lunch with bishop Shannon Johnston. The top
Big Diocese Issues have largely been addressed, so it is time to pay
attention to the next levels of issues. Like finding a suffragan bishop.
More changes.

As of April 1, the contract on which I work for CMS reorganized, so my job
description, team, and supervisory structure all changed. With those
changes are updates to the tools and the procedures by which we get
permission/approvals to perform updates and solve problems in the online
product (web pages for the kidney disease section of Medicare initiatives,
predating the Affordable Care Act by almost 20 years, so it should be more
“mature” than it is).

The ultimate goal is to move away from Microsoft and Oracle products and
into open source and cloud products, a multi year goal.

The transition to the new tech company, Perspecta (perspectacle, whose logo
looks ike a monocle) began on April 1. I now have 4 work related laptos on
my desk,  3 for HP>HPE>DXC Tech>Perspecta, 2 of which must be returned,
each of which needs several hours of fiddling to get functiona (for the
newest Perspecta DELL) or nonfunctional (for the HP>HPE>DXC Tech HP laptops
that must be sent back). BAH!

Our choir codirector (PhD FAGO organist JanPiet Knijff) has us singing all
new music each Sunday, some of it breathtaking. But it requires even more
active brain cells to read, mark, inwardly digest, and sing properly. I am
now the only tenor in our choir. It is fun, joyful, and nerve wracking, as
attempting to do music well is.

It is Easter season. This year, I have been gobsmacked by the realization
of the maassive change that was the first Easter season, when the
rabbi/leader of the small flock of disciples and families disappeared, and
his group was left bereft, walking forward into a new world of the missing
physical presence of their leader, first learning to trust in the mystical
presence of the risen lord. With another change “yet to come” when their
leader rose to heaven, leaving them without even that comfort. How could
mere mortals navigate the shoals of doubt to keep their leader’s message
alive, even traveling to other countries to do so. Even with the given
sructure of the church, it is still difficult to navigate the shoals of
selfinterest, change, indifference, and so many difficult elements of our
society today.

Moving forward into daily change,

May our loving god find and be with you where you are   +  gentle hugs
cady



On Saturday, April 21, 2018, Ginga Wilder <gingawilder at gmail.com> wrote:

> Until this one and another, I had not received email from Magdalen's since
> April 18.  I have noticed that just a handful of folks are posting to
> Magdalen now, dwindling in the last few years.  Don't know what that might
> mean.  Perhaps Facebook is taking the place of email groups???  I am online
> constantly perusing various news and updating when appropriate because I
> keep the Facebook page for Good Shepherd, Summerville and also our webpage.
>
> Email is no longer the communication format of choice for my friends.  I
> don't do twitter or instagram.
>
> Love to all my Magdalen buds.
> Ginga
>
> On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 11:21 PM, Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > I’ve had a few.
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 20, 2018 at 9:13 PM Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > ...from Maddie’s since Wednesday. Anybody else?
> > >
> > --
> > Ann
> >
> > The Rev. Ann Markle
> > Buffalo, NY
> > www.onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com
> >
>


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