January 19, 2011
To the People of St. Bart’s, far and near:
Dear Friends,
I write to tell you that I plan to retire as Rector of St. Bartholomew’s, effective January 21, 2012, my 65th birthday, and in my eighteenth year as your rector.
These have been my most fulfilling years in ministry—professionally, personally and pastorally. The mission of St. Bart’s is important beyond any of our own contributions. I know that you know that and will continue to live it.
When the Vestry elected me Rector in 1994, it gave me a gift of opportunity and possibility. We all knew what the challenges were: stark difficulties in St. Bart’s own life and history, and stark changes in the world and in religious life that called just about everything about churches like ours into question.
In signaling my retirement a year in advance, I hope to give you a gift in return. A retirement, unlike a new call, can be planned. Together we can live out a considered, lively and productive transition. Through it all, I intend to be a vigorous and very present leader and servant.
When my heart told me that the time is right for me, I was free to listen to my inner sense because of three factors: your work and support of St. Bart’s, the strong leadership and staff we have, and particularly the amazing skill of Buddy Stallings and the trust you have so happily and freely placed in him.
One more key factor has made this decision possible. Our bishop, Mark Sisk, has given our Vestry the unusual freedom to craft a transition that is a succession—not a gap—in leadership, one that acknowledges the tough times we live in and the reality that St. Bart’s needs a sure continuity more than anything just now.
The Vestry’s letter will tell you how we will achieve that continuity, with the likely result that Buddy Stallings, who will become Priest-in-Charge when I retire, will be elected your next Rector sometime in 2013.
We now enter what I know will be a year of lots of work and words, growth, planning, surprises—all in all the kind of magic we delight in seeing when people enter the life of this remarkable parish.
This comes with my profound thanks for your love, your friendship, and your support.
Faithfully,
