ministerial duties

I had a tough choice to make yesterday when I was rushing to meet a non-professional commitment I had with the gay men's chorus, and came across a scene where I was called to ministry. I chose the chorus commitment but even today I'm torn about my choice. Here's what happened.

I was attending a meeting of our Membership Team. We started at 5 and I made sure everyone knew that I needed to leave at 6. At about 6:10 I was able to get away. As I was leaving the meeting place I heard the screech and slam of a car crash out at the street. As I got to the street I saw that the driveway was blocked, and worse as I saw the two people getting out of the car I realized they were two women from my church.

I got out of my car and went to see what was going on. Both the women were OK. They had been making a left turn into the driveway and a car coming toward them had hit the rear of the car. After some initial inquiries and assessment I made the choice to go on to my appointment. I went back into the meeting I had left and told the other church members what had happened and got one of them to come out and wait with the women. And then I left. I learned today that one of the women had gone to the emergency room for an x-ray and then been released.

It's exactly the kind of circumstance when ministerial presence is called for: organizing, comforting, mediating, gathering and sharing information. I would have liked to have been involved, and wish I could have. But the situation shows that ministers like everyone else, have limited resources of presence and the need to balance obligations to their call and to their personal life.