You may well be wondering about the purpose of our sabbaticals. Here’s how I explained it in St. Andrew’s application for the Lilly grant that we received: The intended benefits for me include better spiritual, physical, and emotional health, along with the development of new habits and skills to help me retain that health; strengthened relationships, especially with God and with my husband; fresh perspectives about God, myself, pilgrimage, faith, racism, and the world around me; restorative rest; the lived reminder that I am more than my role; and the replenishment of soul and spirit for the next phase of my journey with the people of St. Andrew’s, wherever that path leads. The intended benefits for the congregation include a deepened understanding of life as a holy pilgrimage in which change is inevitable and God is always at work; a consequent lessening of anxiety; strengthened relationships with one another; renewed commitment to social justice; and a refreshed priest!
You and I will be on similar pilgrimages in the coming months, deepening our relationship with God through learning, prayer, retreat, and walking—you on labyrinths, me on the Camino in Spain. What a blessing for all of us to have this opportunity!
Please keep me in your prayers in the coming months, and know that you will be in mine. I look forward to reconnecting in December and hearing all about your sabbatical experience. Meanwhile, every blessing.
–Anne
(Photo: Anne wearing the shirt with congregation autographs that she will wear while away on sabbatical.)
Our Sabbatical Prayer
Holy God, we are so grateful for the gift of sabbatical and for these three months of spiritual pilgrimage. Just as you walked alongside your disciples in the Holy Land, please walk with us and with Anne. Open our eyes and ears and hearts that we may encounter you anew along the Way. May our sabbatical and Anne’s be a season of refreshment and renewal, new understandings and deepened faith. Amen.
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