the intersection of life and grace

From today’s Priests and Deacons Update:

“At the meeting of the Standing Committee today (Oct 30) Bishop Dan Herzog and Bishop Dave Bena advised the members that they each intend to retire in early 2007.

“We have both prayerfully considered what God’s will is, and believe that this is the right time to pass on the apostolic ministry.

We have discussed this with Bishop William Love, the Coadjutor of the Diocese, and he is ready to assume leadership as Ninth Bishop of Albany. By the time we retire on January 31, over ten months will have elapsed since his election.

Bishop Bill was for some time a member of the Standing Committee and the Diocesan Council and therefore well acquainted with the vision and operations of the diocese. Since March he has been able to participate in many meetings, ministries and events along side us. He is an able leader, committed to Christ and His kingdom.

Each of us has been especially blessed by having a supportive and prayerful wife. Carol Herzog and MaryEllen Bena have sacrificed time and companionship so we could carry out this ministry. Words are inadequate to express our gratitude.

Both of us have been blessed to labor together in this portion of the Lord’s vineyard. We have been particularly blessed by our fellow disciples, both lay and ordained. Both of us are deeply grateful for the help of so many as we endeavored to carry our episcopal ministry across this vast diocese.

In Christ Jesus,

+ Bishop Dan Herzog + Bishop Dave Bena

With my commonly used name:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 5 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

A few factoids about my nickname:
~ There are 43,495 people in the U.S. with my first name.
~ Statistically the 838th most popular first name. (tied with 22 other first names)
~ 100 percent of people with my first name are female.

With my given name:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 178 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

A few interesting factoids about my given name:
~ There are 1,615,331 people in the U.S. with my first name.
~ Statistically the 12th most popular first name.
~ 99.63 percent of people with my first name are female.

Ok, so that last one… that’s a little strange that .37 percent of people with my first name are male.

blah… come on boys, make tonight’s game fall our way.

Kudos to the Tigers for their sweep of the A’s. I sure would like to be rooting against them and for the Mets for the World Championship!

U2′s Bono and model Christy Turlington, in Chicago to launch Red – a line of merchandise and clothing launched in association with ONE to benefit AIDS and poverty – walk to Air Force One with President Bush.

While hanging with presidents and world leaders isn’t new for Bono much anymore (which is remarkable in and of itself for a rock star), the launch of Red is remarkable in the world of corporate philanthropy and the global AIDS crisis. As Bono told the AP, ”We’ve moved from the philanthropy budgets to the marketing budgets, and guess what, there’s no comparison in size,” Bono said. ”We now have some of the most creative people in commerce — Steve Jobs, the marketing people at Gap and Motorola — all working for the world’s poor. That is so so cool.”

Cool. Yeah, that’s a good word to describe an incredible way to change the world. Cool.

and it’s owned by the Mets this October.

Say what you like about dynasties and flukes, love whatever team makes your heart pound… it’s all good with me. It’s October and the Mets are winning. Makes me wonder if we should have been celebrating the anniversary of the 1986 championship a bit sooner!

Which almost makes up for this email:

sigh… a girl can dream, no?