At Delray 3

On the road:  Before this conference we were asked to work through extensive questionnaires and other material in each of the four key areas — spirituality, vocation, health, and finance.  For example, we were asked to pull together the results of our most recent physical... or to get a physical if we had been putting it off.  The numbers were then fed into a Mayo Clinic program which provides an overall health assessment with suggestions for improvement.

We had to reduce to writing our most fundamental values, and ask ourselves how these values changed over our lifetime.  We also had to construct a timeline from birth to the present, dividing up our lives into coherent segments and matching each segment with a book, song, movie, or some other cultural hook.

Over the first days of the conference, we were challenged to examine this information more closely and to seek new insights using information provided by the faculty.  Finally, during the last two full days — yesterday and today — each participant must put together a personal action plan for the future.

This plan must be specific.  What are my goals for, say, the next five years?  How can these goals be expressed as concrete objectives in each of the four key areas.  And for each objective, when will I start work on this task, who will support me in this effort, what results do I seek, how will this change my relationships with God and others, etc.  This CREDO Plan is what the whole conference process has been driving toward.  Much of yesterday and today has been left free for us to do our planning.

Chef Anthony serves up Eggs Benedict for breakfast.

Clergy love to talk, especially over food.  We are
congenital chatterboxes.

Yesterday, when not working on our plans, we conferees were
free to enjoy the conference center's grounds and landscaping.

Duncan Conference Center has been challenging in one aspect: the food is quite good, and very plentiful, and does not encourage spartan eating.  We have excellent breakfasts, and a well-stocked salad bar at lunch and dinner.  Evening meals have included variations on beef, chicken, fish, pasta, along with lots of fresh vegetables.  Food quality is crucial when your audience is captive!  And opinionated!

As the conference process winds down, our leaders have allowed their troops a little playtime.  Last night was Game Night.  After a glacial game of "CREDO Bingo" (which stopped dead in its tracks as people who had CREDO-ed slowly picked out a prize) various table games were available, from Scrabble to poker.

One group opted for Jenga, a table game for frustrated
engineers.  You have to remove a piece from below, place it
on top of the tower — and not cause the tower to collapse.

Today is our Sabbath Time.  Morning will be spent on the Plan.  We'll do church in the afternoon. •••