Dear Friends,
This year all of February falls into the season between the cycles of Advent/Christmas/Epiphany and Lent/Easter/Pentecost, the two cycles typically regarded as most significant in the church year. So yes, one could say we are an in-between season.
Of course, this church has been in an in-between season for a while now. The Pastor Nominating Committee has been at work for a while now, interviewing possible candidates for the installed position with this congregation. For me, of course, that means a change is coming. One of the ironic parts of interim or transitional work is that a main marker of the success of this interim position is that I lose my job. That’s baked-in where interim work is concerned. For the church, though, the challenge can be harder. Patience can wear thin. It can be easy to forget what we’ve learned over the past year and a half. Frustration can set in if we’re not careful.
The PNC has gotten to work very quickly to have gone through a number of interviews already and to look into multiple options. Give them a thank-you when you think about it. In the meantime we are still in this liturgical in-between season, seeking to understand what it means to “be an epiphany” and show Jesus to the world in challenging times.
Charles