In my column last month, I promised to share my sabbatical plans with you, and am delighted to do so and let you in on vacation plans as well! I count you and the whole congregation as dear friends in Christ, and so it is the spirit of such caring companionship that I convey to you my plans and hopes for these three months.
Carol and I will be spending 10 days in July traveling to Nova Scotia (where she has never been and I have only been once before with my family growing up). While there we will be able to attend two major events: The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo (the world’s largest indoor massed military and pipe bands featuring over 2,000 performers) and the Antigonish Highland Games (longest running outside Scotland). Later in July we will gather with my sister and her family, daughter and son-in-law, for our annual time at Lake Sunapee.
With the guidance of my spiritual director and the Holy Spirit the month of August will find me attending three week-long conferences or retreats. Pastoral colleague, Rev. Gayle Murphy (pastor at Northwood), and I will attend week seven at the Chautauqua Institute* where Christian is a member of the Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra for the summer. Then I will attend “The Circle of Music” retreat at Ferry Beach in Saco, Maine being co-led by Holly Near (long-time folk artist). At the end of August I “head out to sea” to attend a Meditation retreat on Star Island (off Portsmouth) and then conclude the organized retreats with a Celtic Spirituality retreat, also on Star Island, over labor day weekend.
September will truly be the fulfillment of sabbatical as a “spiritual renewal leave: a time of purposeful ceasing, resting and planned refreshment, with a spiritual renewal component or emphasis.” I will be spending blocks of time on solitary retreat in Kittery, Maine (at Meetinghouse Village), Bridgton, Maine (Winona Camps, where I discerned a call to ministry back in 1971-1972), and Bradford, NH (at Forest Haven pastoral retreat).
Also, working with my doctors and spiritual director, I am embarking on making some healthy life-style changes both in preparation for and continuing on the sabbatical. Of course there are any number of books I plan to read, but overall I seek to be open to where the Spirit leads throughout the two month sabbatical.
Finally, I invite you to be present in worship on June 29, as I am ceremonially commissioned for the sabbatical time.
Your pastor and teacher,
Rev. Jim
* The Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit, 750-acre educational center beside Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York State, where approximately 7,500 persons are in residence on any day during the nine-week summer season, and a total of over 100,000 attend scheduled public events: A unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. Over 8,000 students enroll annually in the Chautauqua Summer Schools which offer courses in art, music, dance, theater, writing skills and a wide variety of special interests.
The Institution, originally the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly, was founded in 1874 as an educational experiment in out-of-school, vacation learning. It was successful and broadened almost immediately beyond courses for Sunday school teachers to include academic subjects, music, art and physical education. There are several denominational houses representing most of the mainline Protestant denominations on the grounds.