Originally published in the Mar-Apr 2018 Evangelist.
Saint John the Evangelist was one of 146 congregations across the country and only six in Minnesota, to receive the prestigious Lilly Endowment National Clergy Renewal grants in 2017.
Last summer, over a period of four months, Jered, along with six parishioners representing a diverse cross-section of Saint John’s (Joan Potter, Judy Stack, Terry Dinovo, Linda Lindeke, Elaine James, and the Rev. Ernie Ashcroft), collaborated to send in one of hundreds of applications.
According to Lilly, the grants are to enable congregations to “honor their pastors” with an extended period of leave and rest. As such, the application team created both a program of renewal for Jered as our rector and for the whole congregation. The Lilly Endowment says that “renewal periods are not vacations, but times for intentional exploration and reflection, for regaining the enthusiasm and creativity for ministry.”
But, perhaps this brings up more questions than it answers. Don’t worry, we’ve got some answers below!
So, what is a sabbatical?
It is based on the idea of sabbath (shabbat) a day set apart — a day made holy by God for rest, worship, and renewal. In one of the Creation accounts in Genesis, God works for six days, and, we are told, on the seventh day God rested.
In his book The Sabbath, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel describes how humanity uses both time and space for constant acquisitiveness, always searching for more. Setting apart time, not for doing, but for being, is an act of sanctifying time and making it sacred.
For Episcopalians and for many Christian denominations, it is becoming common in the letter of agreement between clergy and congregation, to recommend that after the sixth year of ministry together provision be made for a period of three to four months of renewal leave. This is considered a “sabbatical.”
I’ve heard of colleges and universities offering sabbatical leave so professors can study or write. Why do churches offer sabbaticals?
The Lilly Foundation explains: “Pastors serve a variety of roles in their privileged position at the center of congregational life: preacher, teacher, spiritual guide, pastoral visitor…The responsibilities are continual, and the pace and demands of parish life can be relentless, often leaving even the most dedicated pastors recognizing the need to replenish their own spiritual reservoirs to regain energy and strength for their ministry.”
Moreover, by emphasizing the need and importance of sabbatical with their clergy, congregations hope to encourage parishioners to practice sabbath in their own lives.
It is important that pastors find rest and renewal, and it is important that congregations lift up the centrality of sabbath keeping as a key spiritual practice for all God’s people.
What exactly is “a renewal program” for both Jered and us?
The renewal program is four months (June 1, 2018 – October 1, 2018). It was designed specifically to prepare St. John’s and Jered for our next season of engaged ministry together. Continuing this year’s theme of “Eat Together, Share Stories, Listen Deeply, Change the world,” our hope for this time is that we will continue to share meals and listen to one another’s stories to discern God’s call for our next steps in ministry.
The program will provide these things to Jered:
- The opportunity for him to break bread with friends and family and reconnect with his own story by traveling to his childhood home in Alaska and also visiting his mother’s birthplace in India.
- Time to discern how best to enter into the next chapter of his ministry with us.
- Specific times of rest and prayer, reflecting on the first six years of our ministry together.
The program will provide these things to St. John’s:
- Gatherings of small groups of parishioners around meals and stories.
- Ample opportunity to continue to deepen the work of shared ministry.
- A homecoming party or meal and other opportunities to share with Jered what we learned about shared ministry and about our shared stories.
- A chance to hear from Jered what his time of discernment and renewal taught him about how to engage in ministry with us as we move forward.
How will Jered’s absence impact the everyday functioning of our faith community? Who will be covering his duties and responsibilities while he is away?
While clergy play a central role in the life of a faith community, the work of the church, especially in a large and growing place such as our own, is shared by many people. St. John’s is blessed to have an incredibly robust and highly competent staff. We also have a very strong representation of lay (and ordained) volunteer leaders. Staff and volunteer leaders will continue to support and sustain our ministry as they always do: in the building and in their offices, on Sunday mornings and during the week, shouldering many responsibilities and keeping everything running smoothly.
Jered, the parish staff, vestry, and key leaders are dividing duties and responsibilities and planning ahead for things that do need Jered’s input or decisions. Due to St. John’s budget capacity and the renewal grant, we will be able to pay for some supply clergy to cover sacramental and preaching duties in Jered’s absence.
The associate rector search is ongoing, and should be filled by the time of Jered’s departure. That person, along with the Reverend Susan Moss, will cover many of the requisite duties that Jered attends to as rector.
St. John’s is already building a shared ministry approach that will enable us to continue to grow. As you heard in the Annual Meeting, we have several new lay pastoral care providers through our Community of Hope International team. These leaders are carrying an ever greater load of pastoral visiting and Eucharistic ministry for the homebound, those in the hospital, and those recovering from illness. This sabbatical provides us a very unique opportunity to live into this vision of shared ministry.
Would anything bring Jered back from his sabbatical leave prematurely?
Barring a major disaster, crisis, or emergency in the life of St. John’s, Jered will be away for four months. All sacramental duties, including summer baptisms, weddings, funerals, and other services will be covered by the Reverend Susan Moss, our new Associate Rector, and visiting clergy.
I have heard that clergy often leave their congregations soon after a sabbatical. Should we be worried that Jered is leaving us?
One of the stipulations of the Lilly Renewal Grants is that both clergy and congregation commit to staying in pastoral relationship for a minimum of one year after the sabbatical ends. This is to ensure that the focus of the sabbatical is not for the clergy to begin searching for new calls, but instead how to use that time for renewal so as to return and serve their current congregation. Jered affirmed to the vestry and his sabbatical application team, that he envisions this to be a time of true renewal, to reconnect with his faith story, with family and friends and more deeply with God and God’s call on his life, and a time of gathering up energy and inspiration for the next big project or phase of ministry at St. John’s.
