{"id":42,"date":"2009-10-02T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2009-10-02T01:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/10\/happy-one-week-anniversary.html"},"modified":"2009-10-02T01:01:01","modified_gmt":"2009-10-02T01:01:01","slug":"happy-one-week-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/10\/happy-one-week-anniversary.html","title":{"rendered":"Happy One Week Anniversary!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pink_Cupcake_With_Candle_HA8V7518.jpg\"<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

And they said it wouldn’t last.  <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I’m marking my first week here at Beliefnet, after two years at my previous address<\/a>, and so far, so good.  I haven’t broken anything, and the Pope hasn’t called to complain.    I’d say we’re off to a great start. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
If you’re new here, welcome!  Last week, I posted a brief hello and an explanation<\/a>.  I was distracted by the moving men and trying to figure out where to plug in the coffee pot, but now that I’m more or less settled in here, I can offer a few more words about myself and what I hope to do here. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
First, as you can tell from my biography (conveniently located on the upper right hand corner of the blog), I’m a Permanent Deacon serving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn.  I was ordained in 2007.   I started this blog shortly after that.  For 26 years, I was a writer and producer at CBS News, straddling two very different worlds<\/a>, until last year, when I decided   (as my bishop likes to say) “to put out into the deep,” and work full time for the Church.  I accepted an offer to become the first Director of News for New Evangelization Television, or The NET<\/a>, the cable channel for the Diocese of Brooklyn.  There, I’ve created the first-ever daily 30-minute Catholic news show, “Currents.<\/a>”   <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And here I am.  <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Earlier this year, I wrote about my adventures wading into the Catholic blogosphere<\/a>:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

I wanted to stake out territory that was home to most American Catholics, or at least those I encountered in my ministry: the observant and thoughtful churchgoing people who were curious about the faith, showed up every Sunday for Mass with their envelopes and sleepy children, and did not cling to extremes of either the right or the left. I was looking to capture the middle ground. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is still the territory I want to capture.  I hope you’ll find here many differing viewpoints and views,  allowing many voices from our big, crazy, quarrelsome Church to be heard.  I have no agenda to push, no axe to grind, no fingers to point.  I’m just sitting here at my bench, watching it all unfold with curiosity and humor and no small amount of awe.  <\/span><\/font><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
I’ll be posting news items, along with my weekly homilies.   (If you want to observe a naked deacon, just look in the pulpit on Sunday.  That’s where we deacons stand, fully revealed, warts and all.  Fortunately, my pulpit is high and almost covers my chest.)   My homilies cover a wide array of subjects, from parish life<\/a> to our all-encompassing Church<\/a> to Ash Wednesday<\/a> and, of course, Christmas<\/a>.  <\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
I hope you’ll keep coming back, as I survey the passing scene, link to stories and commentaries, and invite you to offer your own ideas about what you see and hear.   I have only one bias, and that is an abiding love of my faith, and a desire to share it.  <\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
So as I light my candle and mark this day, my wish is that this little enterprise will  do whatever God intends it to do, and that it will serve Him, even as I serve Him, week after week at His altar.  <\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Happy anniversary!<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And they said it wouldn’t last.   I’m marking my first week here at Beliefnet, after two years at my previous address, and so far, so good.  I haven’t broken anything, and the Pope hasn’t called to complain.    I’d say we’re off to a great start.  If you’re new here, welcome!  Last week, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-my-world"],"yoast_head":"\nHappy One Week Anniversary! - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/10\/happy-one-week-anniversary.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Happy One Week Anniversary! 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}