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Thoughts from Rev. Matt

Speaking of Sabbatical

In my reflection last week about accents and our abilities to “hear” one another, I alluded to my upcoming sabbatical leave. Hopefully by now this is not the first time anyone’s catching the news of this; we first began discussing the fact that I would have a sabbatical leave this summer, fall, or winter as a part of the process last summer when we were creating the associate minister position and calling Youngsun Cheon to it. (Being able to serve as ‘acting’ lead minister while I’m away makes for an important feature of the learnings and formation we are able to provide Youngsun as a part of his ‘supervised ministry education’ experience.) That said, I know people inevitably have questions or wonderings about sabbaticals—whether about the concept of sabbaticals for ministers in general, or about mine this year more specifically—so I’ll try here to answer a few of the questions I know or imagine are out there.

What is a sabbatical—particularly, for ministers? At its most basic, of course, a sabbatical leave is an extended break or time off/away from the day-to-day and week-to-week work and responsibilities of a person’s role. While in academic circles sabbaticals often focus on providing time for a professor to work on writing or research projects, in churches and other ministry settings the focus is typically more on “renewal” of some kind. It’s rooted in the Biblical concepts around sabbath—regular times for rest and play, for land to lie fallow, and for relationships and rhythms of life to be restored and renewed.

In contemporary church ministry, there is a greater awareness that congregational ministers typically work fairly unusual schedules with limited opportunities even to have two consecutive days off, let alone the occasional long weekend. Pastors never rarely truly “off”—even if you run into me at 10:00 pm grabbing something at the Save-On, I’m still “your pastor” in that moment. Furthermore, the creative and generative output in the form of sermons, articles, class content, and more that ministers are regularly called on for requires continual spiritual growth and reflection through reading, prayer, solitude, and other paths of reflection that are difficult to do well on a sustained basis while also working full-time. A sabbatical leave provides the time and space for someone in ministry to reset the rhythms of life, rest, have clear mental “space” for reflection, and spend time in prayer or study or other forms of renewal. As one of the United Church’s pastoral relations handbooks puts it, “ In the context of ministry, sabbatical time is for learning through reflection, revitalization, and recreation. It is, therefore, personal and individual in nature. It may include study, spiritual retreat, and rest and will probably be a blend of all of these.” Provision for sabbatical leave is part of the required standard terms of call for all ministry personnel in The United Church of Canada, and similar provisions are commonplace in many denominations around North America.

In addition, a sabbatical leave is also an important opportunity for the congregation. As that same United Church pastoral relations handbook says, “communities of faith benefit from the opportunity to reflect on their mission and ministry and experience different gifts of lay leadership.” It is good for a church to be reminded, from time to time, of how it can be “the church” together without the presence of a particular pastor or ministry personnel. Congregations can become overly dependent on ministers, and plenty of ministers (myself included) can tend toward over-functioning. In other words, despite what can feel like more to worry about because of the “regular” minister’s absence, the sabbatical can actually be an important renewal moment for the congregation and its leaders, too.

What will I be doing? As mentioned above, ministry sabbaticals focus primarily on “rest and renewal” and often include a combination of rest time, some study, and activities intended to be renewing, revitalizing, or re-orienting in some way. The first 5 to 6 weeks of my leave will be primarily rest time at home / here in the Vancouver area, with some self-directed reading and reflection along the way. Right after Labour Day, I’ll be flying out east, first spending close-to-a-week visiting my parents in Michigan and then heading up to Montréal for about one month. My main motivation for the time in Montréal is to have a stretch of time navigating life in an environment where I’m not fluent in the commonly-spoken language, which was an experience I got a couple of smaller tastes of during my 2017 sabbatical and which was fruitful for experience and reflection. (And no, since I’ve been asked already, Adam is not accompanying me on the travel piece… part of the unique reflection made possible by sabbatical is time for solitude, both in intentional retreat moments and in moments of navigating life.) Following the stay in Montréal, I’ll be back down “the Corridor” to Toronto for about 2 weeks, first for the triennial in-person gathering of the Advisory Board for the United Church’s Gathering worship planning resource (a Board which I am the chair of) and then for the annual Lester Randal Preaching Fellowship conference that has been becoming a regular part of my annual study leave rhythms. Finally, I’ll be back home to Vancouver before the end of October, and have the rest of October and the first three weeks of November as primarily rest and reflection time again. All along the way, I’ll also be taking the opportunity to attend worship services in a variety of churches, both in the Vancouver area and during my travel weeks—ministers so rarely get to experience other congregations' worship services, which is important both to be able to experience what “others” are doing and to be able to simply be a “person in the pew” from time to time, rather than always leading.

When will I be away? My total away period goes from August 1 through November 22. This combines the 3 months of sabbatical leave offered to all United Church ministry personnel after 5 years of service in the same place and the 3 weeks of study leave I have for this year. My last Sunday in worship before leaving will be July 26, but I will be in the office during the week following; I’ll be back in the office the week of November 23, in time to lead worship for the 1st Sunday of Advent on November 29.

What’s happening here at CUC while I’m away? As I stated at the opening, Youngsun will be serving as acting lead minister in my absence. He will be the primary preacher and worship leader, will be the primary contact for pastoral care, and will be responsible for much of the other ordinary leadership of the congregation. Our Church Council leadership—chairperson Daniel Ariss and others—will be supporting him in this work, and also stepping up into some different ways of leading during the time, as well. In order to conform to United Church polity, which requires a member of the Order of Ministry to serve as pastoral charge supervisor and to be present for meetings of the official governing body (as the called/appointed minister, that’s normally me), the Rev. Kerry Child, who lives here in the Cloverdale area but serves in ministry at Gilmore Park United Church in Richmond, will be being appointed as pastoral charge supervisor.

Questions? If you have further questions, feel free to ask me between now and July 31. In addition, your primary contacts for questions on the sabbatical are going to be Laurel Zulke (as Ministry & Personnel chair, she’s the one officially responsible for overseeing the sabbatical and other personnel-policy-related provisions), Daniel Ariss as Council chair, and, of course, Pastor Youngsun for pastoral care, ministry needs, and other such things.