Dearly Beloved,
First let it be said -- come to church on Sunday! Our very own Brian Schuetz will be preaching! You don't want to miss it!
Please don't worry, I am not writing this from England. I wanted to write you a message before leaving to say thank you for this break. I haven't before taken three weeks off consecutively while working in ministry. I would not have done it this year except that I was supposed to be on sabbatical this summer (a 3-month renewal every five years that is written into most pastors' call agreements and was written into mine). The idea of a sabbatical is that in order to continue to be grounded in spirit, to continue to be alert and paying attention, to continue to be creative and listening to God's leading, a pastor needs to take some significant time away from the congregation they serve every 5-7 years.
Especially given all that we have navigated together these last 5 1/2 years, I am grateful for someone's wisdom to know that this break was needed. I am grateful for the wisdom of our congregation in offering a sabbatical to its pastors. And I am grateful for the space to acknowledge that I was ready for that sabbatical this summer. And, for reasons entirely to do with the shifts in my personal life, that sabbatical was postponed to the summer of 2025. This summer instead of being away for a 3-month sabbatical, I am taking what feels like a lengthy 3-week holiday.
For some of that time, Cora, Ezra and I will travel to visit my parents in England. Both have been before, but Ezra was too little to remember our two weeks there in 2022. We will play in the river, walk on the promenade, press our faces to the second story windows of every bus we ride on, and revel in this extended time together and with my parents. I'm sure there will be lots of play with trains and dollhouses (some of the amazing kid-friendly stuff that my parents have in their home). I'm grateful for this time with family.
And the reality that becomes more and more clear the longer that I do ministry with you all is that you are also our family. I hope you picked up on that in last week's belated missive about our Wednesday Supper Socials. This congregation is a home to me and to my children. I am so very grateful to be on this spiritual journey with each of you, to be on it together.
In this election season of increasing conflict, tension, fear, fear-mongering, and unrest, I hope we can speak wisdom, truth, kindness, encouragement and yes also calling for some of the harder things like honesty, accountability, equity, and justice. I hope we can make choices that dignify and protect the most vulnerable among us, that we can amplify the voices of the most-often silenced. It is hard work. It is often daunting, fraught, even frightening. But it is consistently the work that we see Jesus doing in his life. It is consistently the justice to which God calls God's people throughout scripture. It is the incarnation of love in our world.
And so, God's beloved, even as we continue to lean into the theme of rest, let us also be brave, let us also be bold, let us be courageous in collective call for compassion and care.
With love and hope,
Thandiwe
