[Magdalen] Updates it is!

[Marilyn Cepeda]

Retirement is wonderful!  I am totally in favor of enjoying retirement!  I
am so glad that we did the travel we did while we were healthy and
physically able to do it!  Congrats!

Marilyn (Owens, Palmero) Cepeda


On Wed, Jan 8, 2025 at 5:19 PM Suzie Buchanan <buchanan.suzie at gmail.com>
wrote:

> As someone who has also missed this list, and who is getting more leary of
> Facebook by the day . . .
>
> My husband Rick and I live in the foothills of western North Carolina,
> where he is retired (first from the Navy, and then as IT staff of Union
> Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond and then in Charlotte NC) and I continue
> to work.  I'm in my 8th year as the Rector of St. James in Lenoir, and have
> loved every minute in this parish.  It's not large, but it is healthy and
> kind and known around the community as "you're that church that helps
> people!" There is a breadth of spiritual journeys and people are gentle
> with each other's faith.  But I'm also now past the 30 year mark in
> ordained ministry (thus eligible for full retirement) and am pondering it.
> My ideal might be to spend a few years in part-time ministry so I can also
> spend a little more time with Rick before we get much older.  Our Canon to
> the Ordinary has talked with me about one part-time spot open that actually
> might be a fit, so I am beginning to explore that as a real option.
>
> Hurricane Helene spared us the worst here in our area - we got a lot of
> wind and rain, (and about a week or so without power) but none of the life
> altering flooding that hit so much of the more western mountain area.   But
> it has been hard as a diocese and we continue the work of recovery.  I'm on
> the Standing Committee and there has been a need for a lot of flexibility
> in diocesan plans and where/how we spend money.  There has been a
> remarkable influx of donations, however, from other places and the diocese
> has been able to respond in creative and very helpful ways.  I found myself
> the hub of donations of handmade quilts (don't ask about the single
> facebook post I put out, that went viral!).  I've been able to distribute
> about 400 quilts already to hurricane victims and still have about 100 more
> on hand to get out the door.  That's not counting the overflow of baby/crib
> quilts.  Seems like many many people wanted to donate those, but there
> really wasn't as much need for them as for bed sized ones!
>
> My son and his wife and their two kids moved to Hawaii a number of years
> back, so I head out there once a year.  Fortunately I'm able to do supply
> work for two weeks there which helps pay for the plane fare - and that
> church usually has a place for me to stay, and they now have a car for me
> to borrow.  For those on the list from VA (Susan, Michael, Grace  . . .
> others?) I supply for Dwight Brown there in Hawaii, who had spent so many
> years in Berryville just down the road from my first parish work in
> Winchester, lo so many years ago.
>
> My daughter is still in New Hampshire, so I also get up there once a year.
> And my three step-kids are all in the Boston area.
>
> We're getting ready for our first snow here in three years.  My prayers are
> focused on our unhoused population here (we've been going around the last
> few days with lots of extra cold weather gear to hand out) and with
> everyone in the Los Angeles area.  What devastation is occuring there now!
> It is heartbreaking.
>
> Now - I need to start taking the Christmas tree down!
>
> blessings
> Suzie
>