>’m back at church–and glad about it. I think it’s every minister’s secret fear that she’s had enough of her people, a fear most likely born of being so tired when she leaves that she can barely think. As I said to my folks in a sermon last week, I was tired down to the last neuron of my brain when I left four and a half months earlier–and now I’m not.
It was funny to notice things I didn’t like about being on sabbatical–the sense of rootlessness. I completely lost my sense of church time. I lost track of the UU liturgical year; I didn’t know when Passover was, and didn’t find myself again until I returned and sat down to pull together my preaching calendar for the next church year. Suddenly, I found my sense of time again: Homecoming Sunday and the Blessing of the Animals; Church Auction and the Holiday Pageant and the Christmas Eve Service; Martin Luther King Sunday and Freedom to Marry Day; International Women’s Sunday and Passover and Easter and Mother’s Day, RE Sunday and Recognition Sunday and Father’s Day. Before I know it, it will be time for General Assembly again, in Salt Lake City this time.
It took sabbatical to show me how central the church is to our family’s life. When we are not at the church I serve, we are most often at other UU venues, living a UU life. My kids go to UU camps; I am usually with my UU friends; perhaps the only major event of the year for my family is my brother’s forthcoming wedding. Considering that my brother and his fiancee are Baptists, we’re sure to be the only UUs at the ceremony. But that’s ok; I’ll be leaving there to be minister of the week at Ferry Beach!
I’m getting better at expanding my circle of friendships, reclaiming the writer friends I once knew before I answered the call to ministry. But even that’s difficult, because they often seek me out to talk, not about books or ideas, but about the state of their spirits. I can’t even say that I mind; it’s where I live these days. Still, it makes sense in the long run for me to broaden the kinds of people who know me and know my heart, so that I can keep on doing the work I love.
Adding your blog to DiscoverUU.com in the minister’s section.
Thanks!