Norfolk, VA
July 1986
The parish's rector entered treatment for alcoholism in late June. The Rt. Rev. C. Charles Vache, Bishop of Southern Virginia asked Emmanuel Church if they would lend me to Christ and St. Luke's to preside and preach at the Sunday services during July and do some teaching in the congregation about addictive disease.
We offered forums each Sunday on what treatment is, how they could respond to their rector to support him going forward and other topics on co-dependence including why so many other leaders in the parish had suffered from the same malady.Several members of the parish subsequently sought recovery for themselves and Father Samuel did return to serve the congregation for several more years.
At the end of my term, on August 1st, the congregation installed air conditioning in the church for the first time. I had lost 8 pounds during July, all of it between 8 and 12 on Sunday morning.