I'm sending this, my annual Christmass letter, early this year, since I've moved and want to get my address to you, that I'll hear from as many of you as possible.
This year started with a bang: leaving freezing weather the day after Christmass, I was basking on beautiful Morningstar Beach in Saint Thomas six hours later. Rather than give in to what had become an annual bout with pneumonia, I spent a few weeks in the sun. The sabbatical didn't however cure a sore throat that went with me: upon my return to Boston, I had to have polyps scraped from my vocal cords.
It was a special pleasure in January to return with Jessica to Simsbury for the first time since I left Saint Alban's five years ago. The occasion was the wedding of one of the rock musicians who had played at our dances for the Simsbury kids. It was great to renew acquaintance with my many friends there.
Beginning with a day-long conference in March, the many volunteers working on the rehabilitation programs at the Suffolk County Jail have been meeting periodically to assess our progress and to plan future work. This work, begun under John Sears and continuing to grow under Sheriff Eisenstadt, is at once inspiring and frustrating, challenging and exhausting. Now that there is a full-time program director at the Jail, my efforts are directed more towards the normative Chaplain's function.
During the Spring, Jessica took weekly swimming lessons at the YWCA in preparation for her summer in Bar Harbor, Maine. Now she spends Saturday mornings at the Y, taking ballet, drama, and craft lessons; Tuesdays she is studying art at the Museum of Fine Arts.
On Easter Sunday, it was with great joy that I served as Deacon of the Mass at the Church of the Advent in the morning, then assisted at the first Anglican Liturgy in the Jail's history in the afternoon. Another first at the Jail was an inmate's wedding; since, there have been a few other weddings, necessitated by the urgency of the spouse's condition.
In May I was appointed to the executive committee of the Boston Personnel Managers Club. My special efforts there will be to shepherd the Club's new commitment to work with parolees and with ex-convicts. This work neatly ties my various interests together.
Asked to co-chair the United Fund's central business division 69-70 campaign, I have been inspired in witnessing the self-giving and other-serving efforts of the Fund's thousands of volunteers. Seeing such selfless work, one can't be too cynical about what's happening with our society.
I'11 never learn to keep quiet: having been rather outspoken as a participant at last year's American Management Association week-long course for personnel directors in New York, I was given the opportunity in June to co-chair the same course. From the other side of the podium, my perspective changed significantly.
Also in June, Father Collingwood at the Church of the Advent determined that my commitments at the Jail, in personnel work, and as an assistant at the church were too extensive for me to function effectively and responsibly in all three. He therefore relieved me of my parochial involvement; pastorally I have been transferred to the diocese under Bishop Burgess, with coordination of my Chaplaincy through Episcopal City Missions.
Coincidental with this change, I've again moved, this time from Beacon Hill to the Back Bay, near the Prudential Tower.
My Summer vacation this year was three days in Truro on Cape Cod in July. I so enjoyed last Winter's stay in Saint Thomas that I've become a Winter vacation enthusiast. God and Pan Am willing, I'll be leaving Christmass night for London, Madrid, a few weeks in the Canary Islands, then back via Lisbon to the New England Winter.
The end of August also marked the end of my work at Boston Mutual Life. I began September with a new position as Personnel Director at Charles Maguire & Associates consulting firm. Hopefully, my three years at Boston Mutual will serve me in good stead at CAM, where I've been charged with establishing a formal personnel function for the 500 employees. It has been so far a most rewarding experience, much more challenging than my former work, but with much greater capacity and cooperation in problem identification and resolution. The firm is involved in the design and engineering of educational, commercial, industrial and religious buildings; highways and bridges; urban renewal; and hydraulics and sanitary work. An index of my enthusiasm for the new job is a previously unheard-of phenomenon: on occasion I arrive at work early!
In November the United Fund campaign concluded; it was gratifying that our division exceeded its goal.
At Jessica's suggestion I've made a significant change in my Christmass gift practice this year. Rather than lose awareness of the sanctity of our Saviour's Birth through battling shoppers and tolerating rude sales clerks, we've decided not to distribute a myriad of meaningless gifts. Rather, we are making a donation to CARE in the name of our friends and relatives. What better gift than participation in the feeding of a starving Biafran, the educating of a remote Pakistani and the healing of a sick Pole!
That's it for another year; please write and bring your news up-to-date. May you have a Holy Christmass and a New Year of peace, prosperity, and joy!
Warm affection to you and yours