Thank you so much for the generous gift of my recently completed sabbatical. I so appreciate the care Reverend Beverly gave the parish during my time away and Pastor Delmer’s preaching assistance. Thank you, good and faithful reverends. I am also grateful to your lay leadership for helping mind the store, especially your wardens Mike Campbell and Harry Baughn, and your excellent staff.
I began my time away by taking three courses related to church life and administration. One course was on conflict mediation and two concerned managing transitions. I learned a few things, had confirmed many more things I already knew, but importantly what these courses told me is that Good Shepherd is an exceptionally healthy and happy church community. My fellow course participants came from a variety of denominations and generally were working in churches rife with problems. That we work, play, and worship so well together is not the norm. That is something for us to give thanks for and be to careful stewards of. God has blessed Good Shepherd to be a welcoming, gracious, and forgiving community. I am grateful for that and for all of you who make that your way of being part of our community.
Following these weeks of study, it was time to wander. I went to Kansas to see friends and preach at my former parish. The jokes were, of course, just the very best. There I ran into a young adult couple who were members of the youth group during my tenure that ended ten years ago. They invited me to officiate their wedding which I did in early August in Washington, D.C. It is an example of seeds planted years earlier and the influence we have on people that we may not realize. It confirms that young people are watching us and what we say and do matters.
If you follow Facebook, you may know that I went to Vienna as part of my sabbatical. Vienna is an historically significant city for many reasons. I knew it mainly for the scientific and philosophical work done there in the early twentieth century. Music, of course, is significant to its history and culture with Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert and others associated with the city. Vienna was also the capital of the Habsburg Empire. The Habsburg were a dynasty lasting more than six hundred years that reached across Europe and even to Mexico. The last king of France, Louis XVI, married the Habsburg we know as Marie Antoinette and Napoleon Bonaparte married a Habsburg as well to unite the French and Austrian Empires. And then there was the history of the repeatedly poor treatment of the Jewish community. I mention these few things because I did not go to Vienna with them on my mind. Finding them was a kind of joyful serendipity that I enjoy so much. The fruit of not over planning, of just wandering and finding the unexpected delight of thirteenth century frescoes because you turned right instead of left.
I am glad to be back and to continue on this walk we are doing together. I am hopeful that we remain a special community of welcome, grace, and forgiveness, that we remain open to possibilities, and that we find delight in the unexpected.
With gratitude, grace and peace be yours,
Fr. Bill