Monday, January 31, 2011

I'm Your Handyman, Redux.

Over the weekend, I was elected by our church vestry as junior warden. Even though the Canons of the Church and of the Diocese don't distinguish much between the duties of the senior and junior wardens, by tradition the senior warden is concerned more about polity, and the junior warden more about making sure the doors and toilets are working properly. Our last Junior Warden, Paul, did an outstanding job. He called the position "a glorified handyman"Ah, the handymen through T.V. history: Schneider from One Day at a Time.
George from Newhart.
Eb from Green Acres.
I'm not even as "ept" as the most inept of these. I'm not handy. I don't build things, and I don't generally fix things (when I was in private practice, I used to be able to fix traffic tickets, but I can't even do that anymore). So why, one could reasonably ask, would any rational parish want me as the Junior Warden of my church? Well, I do know a fair amount about the Episcopal Church, and I care about it a bunch. I also care a lot about my church, St. Jude's. Maybe I'm supposed to interpret the position broadly, as the Canons of the parish and Diocese do. As to the nuts and bolts? A couple of my friends, Gale and Leonard, promised to help (and and I made sure Paul kept his keys).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I read this---you are to "see that everything is working properly". Does not specify that you do this fixing yourself---just "see" that it is done. Does that help with an out. :) fdb

superdave524 said...

That does, indeed, Frandy. The first time I heard someone grumbling about a sticking door, I was looking around to see about whom he was talking. Turned out, he was talking to me. Fortunately, former Junior Warden (and current de facto associate junior warden), Gail, took care of it. She has her own tools, and everything!