[ March 24, 2010; 9:30 am to 2:00 pm. ] Hospice of Spokane will offer a national teleconference on options related to cancer diagnoses as well as loss and grief reactions for patients, families and professional caregivers from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lincoln Center, 1316 N. Lincoln, St., Spokane. . . .

[ March 18, 2010; 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm. ] Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson will present the Flannery Lecture at 7:30 p.m. March 18 at Cataldo Hall on the Gonzaga University campus. Theme is “Empty Religion: Islam and Christianity’s Common Peril.” Johnson is Professor of New Testament at Candler School of Theology, Emory University in Atlanta. A prolific author, his current research concerns the literary, moral and religious dimensions of the New Testament. The lecture is free and open to the public.

[ May 13, 2010 to May 16, 2010. ] The Episcopal Diocese of Spokane is offering Cursillo at St. Paul’s in Walla Walla, WA, May 13 – 16, 2010. Cursillo is a diocesan-wide renewal movement within the Church whose purpose is to help those in the Episcopal Church understand their individual callings to be Christian. . . .

[ March 20, 2010; 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. ] Holy Trinity hosts The Faith & Environment Network’s 3rd annual Called to Care Conference on Saturday, March 20 from 9 am to 3:30 pm. The conference theme, “One, Two, Three, Go Green! will help individuals and communities find ways to care for creation. . . .

[ February 23, 2010; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. March 2, 2010; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. March 9, 2010; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. March 16, 2010; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. March 23, 2010; 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. ] Join us each Tuesday of Lent for soup and study in the sacristy. . . .

[ March 13, 2010; March 20, 2010; March 27, 2010; ] Laborers are few but the need is great. Let’s get a jump on spring!

Join the crowd and come equipped with gloves, shovels, trimmers, hoes, saws, power screwdrivers, and enthusiasm for getting muddy and getting stuff done. . . .

So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” Luke 13:7-9.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. Isaiah 55:8.

Today, as soon as I finish writing to you, I must face that dreaded dinosaur: the annual parochial report. Yes, I realize that I’m late. It was due yesterday. Ignoring the advice of a colleague to turn the thing in on April Fool’s Day—thus exercising the prophetic voice of my diaconal call—I am committed to getting it off my desk this week. . . .