Oh, my friends! Until we meet again, may love keep you safe, well, happy, curious, and bold!

By the time you read this I will be on the verge of, or just over the line of, starting a four-month sabbatical that begins in April and ends on the first day of August. I am both excited and terrified.

I’m excited because there are things I want to try, and do, and be that require space and time in greater uninterrupted quantities than full-time ministry with you all could ever allow.

I’m terrified because I love you, and I love congregational ministry, and I will be separated from you both for one hundred and twenty-two days!

I know you will be in good hands with a strong Board, an excellent staff, and the addition of the Rev. Deanna Vandiver, so I’m not fretting about that.

But my life, for a bit over a decade, has moved in rhythm with this congregation. I know “what comes next” in our congregational calendar, and I know how our Mission, “Gathering Together, Nurturing the Spirit, Living Our Vision of a Just and Sustainable World”, inflects the seasons of the year.

To make sabbatical work I will need to back away from my daily wandering through your posts on social media. Please take care of each other on social media while I’m away! Please friend each other on Facebook, and follow each other on Instagram, and find each other on Twitter, and interact!

Also, please pick up with your Pod, or ask someone on the Board or the Staff how you can find your Pod. They’re waiting for you!

And get vaccinated when you can. I intend to return to service with EUUC fully vaccinated, enormously rested, wildly refreshed, and desperate to know how each and every one of you is doing and being!  🙂

If the price of love is vulnerability, and the cost of love is loss, I will love you anyway, knowing that you will be fine with each other while I’m away, and that you will be here when I return.

I love you!
And it is good to be ministry with you.