Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places,
Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who often needed to get away from the pressing crowds.
A little history of my upcoming sabbatical after Easter, now termed a vacation and study leave.
Every seven years, pastors in the Presbytery of Santa are entitled to a 3–4-month sabbatical for rest and restoration. For me the seven-year mark was 2019 so I applied then to the Lily Foundation for a grant, a long and formal process which would generously cover the costs for both me and the congregation. I and a few elders spent hours and hours working and reworking this application as we imagined what these days would look like for both me and the congregation. Oh, we had some glorious ideas! Session approved it and we sent it in.
Only to be rejected. We were encouraged to apply again, everything looked good they said, “not sure why you didn’t get it,” so we did, only to be rejected a second time. By then the pandemic hit and the sabbatical idea was pushed aside.
Then, adding to my delay, I was asked to be Moderator of Presbytery for a year, preceded by serving as Moderator-Elect, and now this year as chair of the Coordinating Team, presbytery’s version of the session, which I am completing in October.
All said, it’s way past time for some time away. In fact, next year I would be due for my second sabbatical. To that end session and the presbytery encouraged me to take a sabbatical and for the past several months I have been working out the details to take one.
So, here are our plans: Jenny and I will be leaving April 10th to fly to Australia to see old friends in Melbourne (Jenny lived there for 13 years before we married in 2000) and son Hans who is now living in Perth. In mid-May we fly back home to regroup and repack and then fly to Spain to walk the Camino for a week with our daughters Gwen and Claire. Jenny and I then fly to Germany to visit our exchange student son, Justus, and his family, and return home June 11th.
Two months. It’s roughly half the time of a normal sabbatical but I couldn’t find a time to be away longer. In fact, I will be taking my third course in Trauma and Spiritual Care on zoom while in Australia and Germany, requiring me to be up in the middle of the night twice due to the time change. Yikes.
For both these reasons, presbytery’s Commission on Ministry, which has final approval for sabbaticals, said I should not call this time a sabbatical but simply vacation and study leave. Plans for the congregation are now being discussed and formulated and these promise to be meaningful times for you as well.
I once called this a sabbatical, presbytery prefers vacation and study leave, scripture uses Sabbath, but Jubilee might capture it best, that beautiful biblical vision that speaks of rejuvenation and rest where every fifty years prisoners are set free, the land lies fallow, and people and society are renewed.
Regardless of the term (and its only forty years for me, not fifty) please know how excited and grateful I am to you for this opportunity, and for us to experience some jubilee together.
Grace and peace,
Harry