By the time you read this, I will have been back from sabbatical for six weeks or more. As I make my way around church life, people have been eager to hear about my sabbatical time. You may remember that I was focused on the ministry of reconciliation during my sabbatical. There are four ways that I spent my time: developing resources, gaining experience, reading new material, and engaging in practices of renewal.
Many of you know of my interest and involvement in developing and promoting the use of restorative circles to address conflict or facilitate understanding around places of difference. One of the gifts of my sabbatical time was freedom to develop resources for this work. I created a power point presentation for introducing this work and had the chance to share the presentation with a regional gathering of the Great Lakes Association of Orthodontists (this came at the invitation of Greg Oppenhuizen who is the president of this organization). I also created a video orientation as way to introduce this work to a congregation who asked me to design and lead a congregation-wide restorative circle in November. The gift of time to develop these resources and gain more experience in how to best utilize the principles and practices of restorative circles to address conflict within a large community (versus the more typical use of a circle within a family or neighborhood or work place or school) was a blessing! There is no better way to learn than to experiment and try new things. If you’re interested in learning more about this work you can check out the Holland Restorative Circles website and find the orientation video I created during sabbatical as well as a great Tedx talk Ann McKnight shared a couple of years ago now. The cultivating of these resources is a great help in trying to make this work more widely available.
My reading took me into several directions trying to learn from diverse sources who have been thinking about the church’s ministry of reconciliation from a couple of points of view. My reading touched theology, biblical studies, as well as an anthology of essays from people who are both scholars and practitioners in the fields of peacemaking and social justice (these are actually rather distinct areas of inquiry and practitioners in these two fields aren’t always connected to one another). At first I intended to read broadly but ultimately decided to read deeply – several of the resources I found took time to digest and integrate (I’m still working on that in fact!) I was grateful to learn from the adult education committee that my offer to lead a Sunday morning education series to share some of what I learned will be considered for the fall schedule as they had already slotted the winter/spring offerings. I am glad for the extra time to keep thinking about how to best share the insights I have been discovering. The series will combine some of the biblical and theological grounding for the ministry of reconciliation as well as some very practical tools for living into this calling. I have come to think of the ministry of reconciliation in terms of a way of life. There is not a single idea or single tool but rather a reorientation of mind and heart and action that is required to truly become ambassadors for Christ in this ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5.18-20).
My sabbatical also included time for retreat and space for renewal. I retreated to the woods of the Catskills with two clergy friends who have lived in spiritual community with me for the entire twenty years of my pastoral ministry to date. They were a great sounding board for some the reading and reflection I was doing and also a place where I gained some important insight into a place of personal reconciliation I have been working on for some time with a member of my extended family. The time I spent with the Iona community in residence at the Abbey on the island of Iona was also a rich experience of worship, communal life, and new connections. I knew that I would feel a kinship with this community who has had peacemaking and social justice as well as the renewal of worship at the center of their life. I was surprised by how deep that spirit of kinship ran for me. I felt as if I had found a spiritual home there and have continued to use their liturgy of Morning Prayer to guide my morning prayers. In fact developing a discipline of morning and evening prayer was and continues to be one of the practices for renewal that came out of my sabbatical as well as daily exercise and healthful eating. I know that being spiritually grounded and physically strong and healthy is an asset in ministry that cannot be overstated and my sabbatical was a great opportunity to hit reset around those commitments.
So I return to ministry among you inspired and renewed. The fact that our worship and programmatic life will be turning toward the Season of Reconciliation in January only fuels that sense of inspiration and renewal. I look forward to seeing what unfolds for us in this season ahead!
Grace and Peace,
~Pastor Jill