During this year I would like to share with you some excerpts from the Journal I kept while in Oregon, especially in John Day and Baker City. They are little snippets you will find here from time to time.
Nonetheless
it was a breath-taking drive from Bend to the Columbia River, and then onto
Route 84 along the mighty Columbia, with those awesome hills on the Washington
side of the river. Then down to Pendelton, where we stayed overnight, in order
for the Bishop to install the new Pastor there, a Nigerian
priest. Our Indy 500
took place on Sunday afternoon during a spectacularly beautiful day. Since the
Bishop had to continue on in his journey to Bend, he had another three hours to
drive, so he dropped me off at my new home at St Elizabeth of Hungary in John
Day, and after going around the place, inspecting the Rectory, visiting the
Church and the Parish Hall, I asked for his blessing and he left me on my own,
as the new Pastor of John Day. He picked up a Coca Cola from the refrigerator
and simply said ‘Father Julian, you’re on your own now.’ It suddenly dawned on me
that I was now on my own, as a Pastor for the first time in my life. There
I would spend two and a half years, reviving a community that was almost
dormant. (More to come)
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