Seminarian intern thinking about bishops on no sleep during the week before finals.

This has been a relatively calm week in the office. (I'm in the middle of finals, so my brain is shot and overflowing, but the office is quiet.)

This week Andrew has been drafting a letter to the people in our database, asking them to fill out a current information sheet to submit to their diocesan bishop. It's part of a larger project of trying to connect chaplains with their local bishops (really, trying to ensure that bishops are aware of the wonderful work done by chaplains within their diocese). It's so important for those connections to be made.

During Pastoral Care Week in October, we send out a letter to all the dioceses, asking for updated information on their diocesan chaplains. Last fall, we got a - what's a nice word? - underwhelming response. It demonstrated very clearly the disconnect between chaplains and the bishops under whose care they are supposed to be functioning.

I wonder about this. My bishop is a lovely lady, and I am profoundly grateful for her, but my relationship with my diocese and COM is kind of bizarre. I never received any kind of "Here! Here's what you do while you're in seminary - take these classes, do your field ed here, etc." I ran into this last winter when I was told by someone in my parish - not my diocese - that I should do CPE this summer. It was officially one week after everyone's deadlines, and the NY placements had huge waiting lists. I lucked out with a random last-minute opening in Seattle, but it means moving and storage and plane tickets and and and....Everything is so opaque, and it's really easy to feel forgotten. So I have a little sense of what it might be like to not be known by your diocesan office. It's not easy.

I'm wondering what could be done to better these relationships? Chaplains, what would you like to see happen? In what kinds of ways would you like your bishops to reach out to you and keep track of you? Bishops, what kinds of reports or meetings would you like? How could this office support your relationships with each other?