Sara’s Sabbatical

Last week, Sara shared an update on her sabbatical in the newsletter, and, if you have not already read what she wrote, I hope you will (https://www.stpaulsfay.org/news/sara-sabbatical). This week, I want to offer my perspective on her time away and suggest several ways that we can benefit from her sabbatical by joining her in making the most of this opportunity.

First of all, what is a sabbatical, and why is Sara taking one? As parish clergy, our vocation is to give ourselves to God by giving ourselves to the spiritual care of a congregation. With God’s help, we accomplish that through a combination of personal formation (e.g. prayers, study, mediation), public service (e.g. Sunday and weekday worship, funerals, weddings), creative endeavors (e.g. sermons, classes, writings), pastoral offerings (e.g. hospital and home visits, spiritual conversations, grief support), community engagements (e.g. public demonstrations, inter-organizational relationships, issue advocacy), and administrative responsibilities (e.g. parish communications, committee meetings, and financial stewardship).

Because clergy are called to care for the whole community in all aspects of life, the demands of ministry can be exhausting—not just physically demanding but also spiritually, emotionally, and creatively draining. Even though clergy get time away for vacation and (in theory) get a day off each week, the demands of being a priest require us regularly to yield self-care for the care of others. If left unreplenished, that drain on our personal resources can lead to prolonged dry spells or even burnout. In The Episcopal Church, as well as many other denominations, clergy are offered a three-month sabbatical every seven years as an opportunity for their own renewal. As Sara mentioned last week, this will be her first sabbatical in almost ten years of ordained ministry, and I am thankful we can support her in this way.

Although it will not come easily, we can only experience our own renewal during Sara’s sabbatical if we lean into her absence more fully. Last month, I joked with our vestry that, while Sara has a countdown of days until she leaves for sabbatical, I am keeping track of how many days until she comes back. (It’s 96 days, by the way.) Sara is a vital part of our parish, and many of us, including me, depend on her in countless ways. She is a pastor, confidante, teacher, preacher, facilitator, organizer, galvanizer, leader, partner, supporter, and friend. She brings her heart into every gathering and thus helps the rest of us bring our hearts, too. I will miss her presence in worship, staff meetings, vestry meetings, and one-on-one conversations, but I also know that her time apart will be an opportunity for each of us to grow as long as we give her absence its full weight.

One way we can do that is by accepting some of Sara’s responsibilities for ourselves. For me personally, that means shifting my time away from some of the things that I usually get to do and returning to the core of my calling as a priest. For example, I have decided to stop teaching my weekly Bible study until Sara returns. Although I love teaching and think it is an important ministry for the parish, there are other things I need to do in Sara’s absence—like extra hospital visits, more weekday services, and additional preaching responsibilities. Rather than think of that change as a loss or a burden, I choose to think of it as a way to exercise some vocational muscles that I do not use as often. By the time Sara returns, I will be eager to resume the weekly Bible study, but I trust that I will also have developed a renewed appreciation for my role as a pastor.

Another way that we can benefit from Sara’s sabbatical is by doing the opposite and intentionally resisting the temptation to pick up what she has put down. One example of that is our eucharistic visitation ministry. Sara ordinarily directs those who take communion to parishioners who are home-bound or in the hospital. At a meeting last week with the eucharistic visitors, Sara acknowledged that, during her absence, the responsibility of managing the week-to-week operations of that ministry cannot fall to me. Instead, someone else will need to accept that role.

In the conversation that followed, however, the participants in the ministry decided that no one would become the temporary coordinator and that, instead, we would share the leadership of that program on a monthly basis. The level of trust and mutuality expressed at the table seems likely to inform that ministry going forward. In situations like this, when someone who has been in charge steps away for a time, if we resist the urge to replicate what that person has done all along, we often discover new ways of doing things that can be beneficial when that person returns.

A final way of leaning into Sara’s absence that we might find beneficial is to allow the space between us to produce its own fruit. During Sara’s sabbatical, none of us is allowed to reach out to her. I have no doubt that she would be the best person at St. Paul’s to take care of many of the needs that will come up during her time away. There will be pastoral concerns, strategic opportunities, and logistical occurrences that no one will be able to handle as well as she could. And still we will not drag her back into her work as our Associate Rector by texting, calling, emailing, or stopping by her house. To do so would instantly collapse the necessary buffer between her and us and effectively undermine for both of us the value of her time away.

That means we have to learn how to handle what comes our way without calling on Sara, and surely there is an opportunity for growth in that. When a quick phone call or text is not possible, we learn to turn inward in search of an answer. That inward turn can be a moment of silent reflection or a prayer or a reconnection with the wisdom we already carry inside us. The point is to discover our own capacity to wrestle with and respond to whatever comes our way. Our answer may not be as good or as easily found as the one Sara would give, but the process of taking advantage of some space before jumping to the quickest solution can teach us how to trust that God has given us an abundance of resources and that deliberate reflection can teach us how to use them more fully.

This Sunday will be Sara’s last day before her sabbatical starts, and we will send her off with prayer and blessing during the 11:00am service. Her time away from us will be full of opportunities for renewal, and I know that she will return eager for what lies ahead. I hope that we, too, will be eager for her return not only so that everything can go back to the way things were before she left but so that we can share with her all of the ways that we have grown during her time apart.

Yours faithfully,

Evan D. Garner

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