Over the past few weeks, I have listened to many of you share your joys and sorrows during this time of transition. Some are energized by the changes and others are deeply anxious. With this in mind, I am doing my best to hear and respond to the many different expressions of Covenant members.
I think the best thing we can model together is a gentle spirit, an openness to each other, and a willingness to name what we need. Some have needed the creativity we’ve been trying; some need more familiar structure upon which to lean. So in the weeks to come, I’d like to adjust in the hope that it will be helpful to all (a familiar feeling after ten years in this wildly diverse community).
With regard to the forms and symbols of our ritual life together, I will steer us back toward the familiar in an acknowledgment that much of what is dear to us has not changed now and will not change come April. With regard to the earnest sharing of our human life together, I will move the creativity into the pastoral prayer in an attempt to name the complexities of saying goodbye and setting out on separate (even if kindred) paths.
Next week I’ll blog about the power of naming, and I will invite conversation about naming where we are as a way of preparing for the path ahead. This Sunday my prayer will be a spontaneous one, made of a month’s worth of laughter and tears, so many conversations with so many dear ones. March is our month to grieve, to questions, to bless, and to begin trusting in an unscripted future. March is our month to hold hands with the past and the future, feeling the tug of each as we try to keep our feet on the ground. March is our moment is our moment for the taking, a time to name our loves as clearly as we are able.
With eyes open. And with aloha,
J
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March 1, 2012 at 8:52 pm
Jeff N.
Jeremy,
Here, I want to express what a kind and talented leader you have been for the Covenant community, and for my own journey. The last ten years have been a great experience for me. But change is good, and unavoidable.
So, my wish is that we will be able to move through this month of transition with clear expressions of our love for each other. I have some natural fear of the unknown, but have faith that this will be an exciting time of growth for all of us, in Houston and in Charleston.
With much love,
Jeff
March 1, 2012 at 10:58 pm
Kathleen cook
In this too short time of saying good-bye,
I am away on family vacations. Days with family are good days, strengthening the ties that we need and want. But I am so aware of my church family and what I am missing there.
On the piece of road I have walked down with you, Jeremy and Sara, you have offered great comfort when I most needed it. You have taught me with your righteous spirits and your gentleness. Through you I have seen ways to go that will extend mercy in a time past my own.
In reference to communion Jeremy said you can’t do it wrong. I think that might be true of our good-byes, too, said in many words or few, spoken in love and hope for the best for the Rutledge family and the church family.
With love
Kathleen
March 2, 2012 at 5:19 am
Nancy Preston
Dear Jeremy,
I applaud you for reaching beyond what is familiar. I appreciate your trust in us, that at the end of your time here, you have the courage to risk being a fresh wind amongst us. It would be easy to settle into the familiar and the prescriptive, to bide your time until departure, then just quietly slip out the door. Thank you for stretching us with a few new things in this last month.
I see these innovations—having a forum during the service and also serving one another during communion as a metaphor of preparation for our next many months at Covenant. Yes, we have dearly held traditions, but do we have the courage to face into change? Each day of life brings us new experience. Will we fear or resist each new experience, or will we learn and grow with the unexpected?
Thank goodness that Covenant continues to develop and grow. With each new life coming to Covenant, we have the chance to welcome new possibilities of idea and creativity. We don’t want to be stale. Our hearts will tell us what we should hold dear, even as we learn to imagine and to embrace the new.
After all, through your ten years with us, life has brought you through SO many life challenges and turns. Your open heart has embraced all that life has brought your way. May we learn to change and grow also, even as you have modeled this for us. May we, as we all go our separate paths, meet the twists and turns of future with grace, even as we watch you do so. “May it be so.”
With love,
Nancy P.
March 2, 2012 at 1:40 pm
John and Ann Pirtle
There is an art to “letting go.” I think you are pretty good to see it as a season for all things. Covenant is in fine shape with strong leadership and a sense of where we want to go. You have been our heart and not the commander in chief. No minister has ever succeeded here when they tried to do it. Enjoy this time. Savor the accolades. You have built us a home if not an empire. I am sending you two things for your consideration to use March 11th.
John
March 2, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Jennifer Shannon
Jeremy,
I like the open, creative tone our Sunday services have taken as we move through this transition. I’ve always appreciated that at Covenant. I like how we can all talk about this and acknowledge how we feel about it without feeling afraid to speak our minds.
I’ve already mentioned to you how much I will personally miss you and Sara and Ian. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you all opening your home to me when I needed it most. I will miss talking about/swapping books and watching Ryan and Ian run around in your backyard. I know this move is good for all of you, so I am excited for you, even though I will miss you.
I guess what I want to say is I don’t feel very apprehensive or fearful about what will happen at Covenant during/after this transition. I’ve only been at Covenant a year, and I’ve never been through a church transition like this, so maybe I don’t know what we’re in for? I guess I just feel that the community made up of all the Covenant members feels very “secure” or “safe” (Does that make sense? It is the only way I know how to put it.) There are so many things I appreciate about Covenant that make it feel like home to me:
– The beauty of the physical space that is our church, with it’s large windows and the big oak tree I stare at often during service.
– The choir and Carl’s organ playing that make me feel so alive and at peace every Sunday.
-The kitchen where I can hide and wash coffee cups when I’m feeling extra introverted (which is pretty much every Sunday).
-The kids running around the labyrinth playing soccer or football or, like my child, picking flowers and drawing in the dirt.
-All the people who say hi to me and kiss my kids and hug me even though many of them hardly know me!
-The wise mothers and grandmothers and friends I can go to for advice… the men and women I can go to for spiritual guidance… there is so much wisdom at our church, and I feel like a sponge just taking in all I can from all our wonderful people and all they have to offer.
Does it sound like I’m just overwhelmingly in love with and totally starry-eyed about the people at our church? I guess I am, a little. 🙂
Jeremy, I will miss you and your family, your words, your kindness and gentle spirit, and the smart, literary style of your teachings, but I do not fear that Covenant will change so much that I won’t feel at home there. I have the overwhelming sense that everything will be ok. I have that sense in my own life, too… for the first time in a while, due in no small part to the Covenant community.
Onward!
Jennifer
March 2, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Mike Luedde
Jeremy,
One of the marks of the effect of your ministry at Covenant is the strength of the congregation you are leaving behind. By every measure I find Covenant to be a strong community, diverse but unified, and ready to take the next step in being progressive, whatever that may prove to be. In the short time I have been here, I have grown to appreciate your intellect, your questions, and your underlying faith. I have every confidence that you will flourish in your new call…. So, though I have had some moments of anxiety about the future, in the final analysis I am hopeful both for you and for Covenant. I wish you every blessing.
Mike
March 2, 2012 at 5:52 pm
Linda Phenix
Jeremy,
I am at a dance conference now where I have seen so many young performers dance their hearts out. It is amazing that so many of the dances being performed at the conference are about loss, sorrow, and fear.
The visuals in the dances I am seeing call forth your words, “holding hands with the past and the future.” I can’t help but envision that we are holding onto the feelings and experiences that matter to us most to help steady us for the change that is around the corner.
As I feel the change, I can honestly name my sorrow that you are leaving. I can also name my love for you and your family and the new journey ahead of you. I name my love for our church community and my strong belief that our future is good. We are ready for this because of you.
Linda
March 3, 2012 at 5:07 am
Jennifer Moore
Jeremy,
Yes, I am sad for your departure, and yes, I am grieving. Surely, this is “natural” – I like you and I appreciate your work as our minister. I like having you in my life. Why would I want you to leave? But I am not in the mood for wallowing.
(Wait, this isn’t the naming blog, is it? That’s next week?)
The control freak in me is anxious. I love Covenant Church and with the loss of you, what might happen? I won’t type it, but my mind has wandered to “worst case scenarios”.
But another side of me, the side that Covenant brings out, the side that the back panel of the weekly order of worship speaks to (“We stand for each individual’s right to worship God and to respond to God’s call to ministry in her or his own understanding of God’s all-encompassing love.”) is actually… excited. I am so excited for you, Jeremy, and for your family! What an opportunity you have in front of you. A brand new, yet very old, church. A charming small city with centuries of history, the coast, the clean air, the adventure of it all.
And I’m even excited for Covenant. I do believe when one door closes, another opens. For many years, I had the words “Leap and the net will appear” taped above my desk. So as we walk toward the precipice of the unknown, may we have the courage to imagine the possibilities, and step forward together, hand in hand, ready to accept the blessings that are already amongst as well as those waiting for us.
Jennifer
March 3, 2012 at 8:30 pm
Susan Wegner
I have been enjoying the creative deviations from our worship format we’ve experienced during the past few weeks. What I love about Covenant’s worship is that, compared to my previous church, EVERY Sunday there is deviation in the form of new, carefully and artfully chosen poetry to enable us to look through different word and musical windows to gain different perspectives on the general theme of the service. At the end of most services I don’t recycle my bulletin, but take it home, intending to read some of the pieces again or e-mail them off to my adult children. But I’ve especially enjoyed the more unusual deviations in the form of the informal proclamation talk back we had a couple of Sundays ago and serving each other during the communion time last Sunday.
One of the things I would love to feel freer to do in a Covenant service is to move. There are some hymns and postludes I feel called to respond to with dance – such as last week’s “God of the sparrow” hymn. It’s a waltz! I’d love to have felt free to get up and waltz, but didn’t, partly because my partner didn’t want to and partly because I’m afraid it would disturb the experience of fellow worshippers. So I do a little private dance inside myself, manifested by small external physical responses to the rhythm of the piece.
I welcome more creativity within our common worship structure, both while you are still with us and after you have made the transition to South Carolina!
Regarding the pain of your leaving us, I know from experience that change has always been stimulating and feel confident that riders on the Covenant boat will for sure be able to chart the waters ahead. As we would say in Australia, “No worries, mate!”
Peace, Susan