"Believing Everyone Deserves Dignity, Respect, and Has the Love of God"

In this week's blog, we wanted to highlight one of our most successful ministries as a diocese, our health ministry. The reason it has been such a success can be directly attributed to Deacon Karen McDonald. Karen really embraces what it means to be a deacon. She is not afraid to go into places where others don’t feel safe, which is most often with the very poor and the mentally disabled.

Karen is a shining example of how a deacon can bring the kingdom into existence, not because of what she does as an individual, but because she calls others into action. She has a cadre of lay people who help with blood pressure checks, foot care clinics, exercise classes and vegetable gardens on behalf of the poor. She also empowers the poor who live in low-income apartments and homeless shelters to organize and advocate for their own well-being.

Karen is not assigned to a parish but to a ministry. Ideally, I’d like to see a health ministry in a city of every deanery of our diocese. It’s a successful ministry because it frees us to work with a broader population, both in terms of who we serve, but who we call to serve alongside us. The following is an article about Karen’s ministry by our communications assistant, Karmel Puzzuoli.

The Rev. Karen McDonald, deacon for health ministries, comes into the EDWM offices, sits down at her telephone, and hastily begins making calls.

“Would you be interested in donating flats of tomatoes for our vegetable garden?” she asks someone. “Can you bring your sphygmomanometer for our blood pressure clinic? We just have the one, and I think I need another one” she implores in her second call. Before she takes a breath, she makes another call. “Can the doctor call me back? I’m trying to find a podiatrist who will donate services to a homeless individual.”

These are just some of the things Karen does before we have a chance to say hello.

Karen is EDWM’s deacon for health ministries. It comes naturally to her, ingrained in her since she was a child worrying about the well-being of her elderly neighbors or young friends who lived on the poorer side of her hometown of Buchanan. Nevertheless, becoming a deacon and answering the call to serve has been an uphill battle.

Raised in a time when women were expected to limit their goals to motherhood and domestic life, Karen struggled with restlessness and anxiety. Her husband Jim asked her why she wasn't content as a wife and a mother, but she found it difficult to express why staying home with her children wasn't enough for her. She loved her family, but also wanted more. Many things outside the home called to her.

“My own mother never worked her whole life – her world revolved around her family . . . and knitting and sewing and cooking. But I didn’t enjoy those things, except for cooking,” she said.

While her children were young, Karen worked off and on in nursing jobs or in public health. When the demands of home life forced her to leave a job, she often did her ministry “in the closet,” taking cookies and food to struggling families, buying mattresses for children who had no bed, even when it caused friction in her marriage.

In the early 1990s, Karen became a care manager for people who had HIV/AIDS, in a time when fear over the transmission of the virus still persisted, and HIV-positive and AIDS patients experienced a great deal of marginalization in society. She even lost friends over it.

“That’s when I realized I could have great compassion for people,” she said. “When gay men would tell me their stories, I realized they just needed a listening ear, someone who would help them access the services and care they needed. I guess I found I could be an advocate for people. I learned ways to navigate the system for funds, medication, and the help of infectious disease doctors. It wasn’t a chore for me. I enjoyed it. It helped to make someone else’s life better.”
Karen first heard the call to become a deacon in the 1990s. She was ordained in 2001, and began serving at St. Mark’s in Paw Paw. She later served at St. Barnabas in Portage. In February 2010 she was assigned to the diocesan health ministry, and started working in the EDWM offices regularly in January 2011. She has been married to her husband Jim for 52 years, and they have three grown children. Jim has struggled with dementia for years, and Karen balances her time between her health ministry, family, and advocating for Jim’s needs in the nursing home, which now includes hospice care.
Karen’s health ministry work includes regular clinics at the Skyrise apartment building, which houses low-income elderly and disabled residents. She organizes blood pressure checks, foot care clinics, exercise classes that strengthen and reduce the risk of falls, public safety presentations, healthy-eating (on a budget) classes, and a vegetable-garden in pots for residents during the summer.

“Even though the people at Skyrise have some health insurance, like Medicare or Medicaid, they still have difficulty getting into the system in appropriate ways,” she said. “They still think that going to the emergency room is a good way to get care, but they need to see their doctor regularly. Sometimes they just need someone to ask them if they’re seeing their doctor or taking their medication, someone who cares.”
Karen also arranges foot care clinics she calls “Foot Spas” at a drop-in daytime shelter for the homeless called Ministry With Community.

“It’s wonderful to watch Karen and her nurse volunteers help the people at Ministry With Community,” said Anne Gepert, a regular volunteer there. “I was moved when I watched these three nurses helping with calluses, toenails, and massaging lotion into feet that walk the streets all day. I think you have to be a caring person to do that.”

In addition, Karen’s work includes service on the board of directors of the United Interfaith Free Healthcare Clinic, which will with God’s grace open soon in Kalamazoo, providing free care to the uninsured and underinsured. She serves on the board of InterAct of Michigan, an organization helping and advocating for the mentally disabled and those suffering from substance abuse. And she is also a trained facilitator of The Living Compass spirituality program, which promotes a spiritual approach to healthy living. (Some of our parishes participate in The Living Compass). She also facilitates PATH (Personal Action Toward Health) classes for the underserved, which teach vulnerable people how to take responsibility for their health and set goals for themselves. Karen maintains contact regularly with a spiritual director.

If you are interested in learning the ways you or your parish can serve the poor and disenfranchised in your community through a health ministry, email Karen by clicking here now, or call her at the EDWM offices at (269) 381-2710.

Recommended Reading by the Rev. Karen McDonald
The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully by Joan Chittister

– Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan

"Listening to EDWM Clergy on the Future of the Church, the Benedictine Way"

In St. Benedict's Rule, Benedict tells us that in the monastery, there is a constant search for truth. The abbot or prioress is to listen to all members of the community, open their hearts, and to allow others to share their perspectives on the things that affect the community.

In particular, Benedict refers to the youngest members, i.e. newest members, of the monastic community as those through whom the Holy Spirit often speaks.

In my presentation at Leadership Days, which was last week in Kalamazoo and will next be at St. Mark’s in Grand Rapids on February 23rd, I talk about the “dark night of the church,” and how our attachment to the external things is a liability to the church’s future.

As an illustration, I used the example of an elderly woman in my first parish. Miss Majorie had a strong attachment to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. She found worship to be difficult without it. Every Sunday morning, I came to the church to find all the 1928 prayer books back in the pews after I had put them away. Did she worship God? Or the prayer book?

We develop patterns in our lives. I have the same morning routine every day. I get up, stumble out of bed, and go to the kitchen to start the coffee that I have set up the night before. I take my shower while the coffee is brewing. After my shower, I read the news. I do this just about every day.

Churches also develop habitual patterns. Congregations believe they cannot function as a community of faith without stained glass windows, expensive music programs and their historic buildings. But as I outlined in my presentation, which I will continue to develop for the next two Leadership Day workshops in Grand Rapids and Traverse City, none of these things are essential to the mission of the church, which is to proclaim the gospel and work toward the reconciliation of all people to God and each other.

As the church continues to deal with losses in membership (30% since 1960) and losses in revenue ($23 million less in the 2010-2012 than the 2007-2009 triennium), conversations on our future as a denomination persist.

In the tradition of the Benedictine monastery, we asked some of our clergy who are either newly-ordained or have come to this diocese from other places in the nation or world, to share their advice for the future of the church:

• The Rev. Brian Coleman, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Battle Creek
Churches should provide more opportunities and tools to help individuals engage in deep relationships. This is what people are missing in the world and the church can offer a context where the vulnerability necessary for such relationships can be affirmed and supported. The church should be faithful to its heritage, i.e., liturgical worship, catholic faith, piety without being a slave to convention. The church can be a place for creativity, informality, having fun, taking risks– all within the context of structure and stability. Building extra-denominational alliances and networks around social justice is also a good direction for the church.

• The Rev. Carlton Kelly, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Dowagiac
I hear and feel from others a great deal of anxiety about the future of the church.  One of the foundations of my spiritual life has been from the book of Job: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."  This hasn't come from any particular revelation but rather is the result of a difficult childhood in an alcoholic household, becoming an alcoholic and, blessedly, being in recovery, all with the dawning realization as I grow older that God is always God, is always good, and will never, ever leave us. "Lo I am with you always..."  There is nothing we have to fear.  I think that too many evangelism schemes and programs, broadly understood, are born out of institutional desperation and a desire for maintenance.  Instead of looking at this time of declining numbers as perhaps, just perhaps, a gift from the good Lord to be opened carefully and viewed intently, we seem to have gotten caught up in a good deal of self-pity. Everything, even the church, needs pruning, from time to time, to promote healthy growth. We need to be willing to examine everything we do in the light of the Gospel.
 
• The Rev. Aaron Evans, Trinity Episcopal Church, Grand Ledge
To me, The Episcopal Church seems stuck in the late 20th century.  For many in the current church, society and the church changed dramatically during that time.  We need to reflect on how much of that change was good and consider the possibility that we threw the baby out with the bathwater during that time of liturgical, theological, political, and structural change.  Perhaps, we could consider the possibility that moving forward means first going back to reclaim some of things that were left behind. I don't know what the church of the future will look like.  TEC and all mainline denominations appear to be having an identity crisis.  The United States, like Europe and Canada, is gradually becoming more secular and skeptical of religious claims.  As this happens, conservative churches will become centers of countercultural rebellion against the dominant secular culture.  Where does that leave more liberal churches who are in many ways as skeptical of traditional Christianity's truth claims as the nonreligious? What is our reason for existence? What meaning does our more liberal theology have for the never-churched?

• The Rev. Daniel Richards, Grace Episcopal Church, Traverse City
The future of the church is in her beginning.  We are to obey Christ and make disciples, not members. We have to get back to the core of our discipleship as a community:  worship, formation, proclamation.  Episcopalians are formed by the reformed lay monastic dream of Cramner, a people shaped by Daily Office and weekly Eucharist, Book of Common Prayer and Bible.  From the core, you can head out into medieval liturgies or evangelical outreach, but we have to put money, time, and structure back into the center.  We are going to close a lot of churches if we keep trying to reform the church through her butlers instead of forming her children.   Follow Christ and the rest will follow.

• The Rev. Mike Wernick, Holy Cross, Kentwood
I would advise the church to promote itself as a national resource for biblical scholarship and scriptural authority, to do truth-telling, and talk in a lively way about how this relates to the political and other concerns facing Americans and humanity today.  We need to talk about the connections between accountability and community, use quantum physics to show our interconnections, and shift the focus from "right and wrong and good and bad" to one about consequences for us and future generations. Internally, in the church, we must prepare and promote more fluid and meaningful liturgical forms that speak to us about timeless values in modern language, demystify the liturgy, and help clergy be spiritual leaders and not CEOs. I think the church needs to take a lead in integrating technology and protecting the environment, foster Community Supported Agriculture and sustainable neighborhoods, as well as support groups of cohorts in doing what they're good at (for ministry and fellowship), and integrating these groups to do the Gospel.

• The Rev. Jared C. Cramer, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Grand Haven
The church as a whole, I believe, needs to continue a conversation about the purpose of our existence. We need to open ourselves to  the problems of the older Christendom model while still grieving the gifts of that model that are going away. Her leaders need to focus on careful listening that moves into a spiritual leadership that expresses the voice of the Spirit as articulated in the community.  I think the future of the church is that TEC will hit a bottom in membership and then it will begin to turn around. I believe TEC of the future will have moved pasts the arguments regarding inclusion and social justice and towards deeper question of the spiritual life and how that can form and transform community.

• The Rev. Anne Schnaare, Trinity Episcopal Church, Marshall
I see the future of the church as continuing to evolve.  We will discern what among the new things (internet, culture on-the-go, the changing family unit, etc.)  are to be absorbed and adapted for the Glory of God, and what foundational things (the Creeds, Scripture, etc.) are to be brought along as the church is brought into the future (and some would say the present!)  Like the transformation of the Winter Solstice into Christmas, some foreign things will be transformed as they become new treasures.  Other things will be jettisoned, as we realize that they are cultural trappings that are no longer benefiting the Gospel Mission.  I really like what Vincent Donovan’s book Christianity Rediscovered has to say on this point.

• The Rev. Nurya Parish, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Grand Rapids
The church exists to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and, through grace, to be transformed by the Holy Spirit into the likeness of Christ. These core purposes of the church will never change: we are here solely and always to serve God's mission in God's world. But so much has changed in the 21st century that to be faithful to God's call, we have to change too. We have to use new media to share the gospel. We have to develop new faith communities, and rethink existing ones, to reach those who need to know God. Most importantly, we have to recognize that our central work is teaching people the purpose of their existence, and leading them into deeply meaningful lives. The church of the future will be focused on making disciples, and will use every effective method to do so, or it will be no church at all.

• The Rev. Bonnie Edwards, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Portage
The future of our church centers on the unique gift that we have among us:  the transformative power that Christian community offers. As we encounter God's grace and love among us, we are changed into something new. New people among us and new situations offer ways to experience and embrace those changes. We then take that good to our wider community which in turn will draw more people to our unique gift.


– Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan

"Lent: A Time to Listen to God's Voice"

February 8, 2013
When I was a first grader at St. Boniface Catholic School, I had a part in the Ash Wednesday school play. A small group of us performed in all of the classrooms in the building. I played the part of a candy bar, with a group of others called “The Temptations.” My line was to say, “Pick me! Pick me!” As temptations, we represented the things that pious people were instructed to avoid for Lent.

It’s clear to me now that giving up candy bars during Lent is fine for children, but as we grow and mature in our faith, Lent becomes an opportunity to hear again how God would have us live and what God would have us do.  If we have drifted away from awareness of God’s moment to moment presence with us,  if we no longer enter into intentional silence in order to recognize God’s plan and our role in it, then Lent is an opportunity for us to return to the love which surpasses all understanding so that we may love others in return.

Earlier this week in my morning meditation on a reading from the Book of Isaiah, God reminded me, as he was reminding the Israelites, that outward displays of piety are empty and meaningless unless we are in right relationship with God,  understanding God’s will.  We are instructed

    …to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke.

… to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

Consider this as you think about what you would like Lent to be like for you.

Just like the first week in January when the otherwise-empty exercise room in my apartment building is suddenly filled, Lent can sometimes be a time of trivial commitments which wear off quickly. It is meant to be a time to remember God’s presence, and to consider what we can do to support God’s kingdom in the world.

Fasting and prayer as spiritual disciplines play a role. When we notice our hunger, we are meant to notice our hunger for deep relationship with God and others.  When we are at prayer, we are meant to be mindful of the presence of God, alert and listening for God’s voice urging us to be Divine instruments in the world.

In order to experience the true joy of The Resurrection, we must walk with Jesus toward his death.  It requires our openness to God and our presence in the Community of Faith.  May your Lent be holy and may the Feast of the Resurrection find you growing in your knowledge and love of God.

– Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan

People Elected to Diocesan Offices Must Care for the Larger Church

It's no secret that Episcopalians love their parishes. We take great pride in the sanctuaries we maintain and occupy. But as Episcopalians, we are part of a larger church, unified by our commitment to Christ’s mission to bring God’s kingdom to earth. In that sense, there is no Grace Church or St. Augustine’s or Church of the Mediator. We are Christians, simply, who are participants in Christ’s Church.

Many of you will have your annual meetings in the coming month, and in electing your fellow parishioners to positions in the diocese – including delegates to diocesan convention, Standing Committee, and deputies to the General Convention and Province V Synod – I ask that you nominate and elect people who would most likely have a commitment to the larger church. Elect people who have a vision beyond the local parish and a mission which pools our financial and people resources, making us truly the Body of Christ healing a broken world in desperate need of being reconciled to God and to one another.

It is also with a mind toward the arrival of the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Western Michigan that this is important. The newly elected will be able to join the already good lay and clergy leadership serving this diocese and the larger church well.

The new bishop will arrive to find a team of people who will work with, not against, him/her. When individuals in leadership positions bring their own local agendas or serve in order to grind an ax, they are unable to hear the new plan or see the new path laid out before them.

By identifying the best people possible from the vast number of talented individuals already working and serving in our parishes, and inviting them to serve on the diocesan, Province, and The Episcopal Church level, you will be giving your new bishop one of the best gifts possible - a great start to the ministry of oversight (the bishop’s role) and relationship-building in the diocese and beyond. Consider electing people who have never served before. While electing experienced people is important for continuity, it does not give others the opportunity to experience church in a different way and it denies the church the gifts and fresh vision they bring. We need some of each.

A few years ago your Diocesan Council and I compiled a list identifying some of the characteristics the people you elect to diocesan positions should have. (To read it, click here now). Please share or post this list in your parish.

We elect people to diocesan positions to be stewards for the welfare of the whole diocese. They are people who get along well with others, and are concerned for the common good, rather than the needs and wants of their own parish.

All of this is best accomplished when parishes take the time to discern the gifts that exist within their community of faith and then invite those with the appropriate gifts to serve. Just asking who wants volunteer does not accomplish the same results. It requires prayer and observation as well as discussion and invitation. It is a gift your new bishop deserves.

– Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan

An Open Letter to my Successor

Dear Successor:

As I approach the end of my episcopacy and as the Diocese of Western Michigan moves toward the electing convention on May 18, 2013, I want to assure you of my support and intention to make as healthy a leadership transition as possible.  I am publishing this letter to you now, before I even know who you are, because I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit is at work in our process and that you are the person God has chosen to call here to lead this diocesan community into future mission and ministry for the sake of God’s kingdom.  I only hope that I have laid a sufficient foundation to enable you and the people here to soar to new and exciting highs in proclaiming and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Episcopalians.

Historically, we have not always made the best leadership transitions possible.  It is for this reason and because I have grown to love this diocese that I make the following pledge to you:

•  I will not hang around.  I believe leaders must leave in order for successors to be able to fully claim their leadership.  To that end I will be moving to Pennsylvania.
• After leaving, I will not enter the diocese for any reason without notifying you and gaining your permission, per the canons of The Episcopal Church. 
•  I will review with you current and past cases involving clergy discipline and the progress of parishes with a plan for restoring congregational health.
• I will honestly answer any and all questions you may have with the goal of being as transparent as possible concerning all aspects of diocesan life.
• I will not tolerate any whining or griping or negative talk which may come my way, because it undermines leadership and poisons good work.
•  Following your election, I will see to it that my role in the diocese becomes smaller so that your leadership can begin to grow.
•  I will be present at your consecration liturgy, and it will be my great honor to give you the diocesan crozier, as well as the Prayer Book that our first bishop, Bishop Gillespie, used and left for all of his successors.
• I will make myself available to you at any time following your consecration should you want any additional information.
• As a way of preparing for your episcopacy, I will initiate clergy conversations regarding their role in relationship to you as their bishop.  I will do the same with the people of the diocese as we gather for our annual “Leadership Days” and with staff at our weekly meetings.
• I will hold you before God in prayer each day as I have already begun doing.

I am looking forward to meeting you and welcoming you as you begin your ministry of oversight in Western Michigan.  I know that God has great things in store for you and the diocesan community.  

Sincerely,

Robert R. Gepert

VIII, Western Michigan

We are called to compassion.

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness –
on them light has shined.

Isaiah 9:2

We often approach Christmas as the celebration of a past event, in effect the birth Jesus Christ. He came into the world in the same way we all did, a crying and shivering infant. His mission was to establish God’s kingdom on earth. But aside from our celebration of the nativity, we are called at Christmas to celebrate the continual birth of God and God’s kingdom in our midst, among the confusion, chaos and darkness that surrounds us.

The world is reacting to a terrible event that took place at an elementary school just a week ago. Adam Lanza, a troubled 20-year-old man, opened fire in a Connecticut elementary school killing 26 children and teachers, himself, and earlier that day, his own mother.

What do we celebrate when such violence claims the innocent?

Marc Pitzke, writer for the German newspaper Der Spiegel, reacted to the tragedy in Newtown, CT, by describing us, from the outside, as a nation with a troubled identity. Fearing the erosion of our nationalism and leadership in the world, we cling more closely to our weapons and illusions of power.

In scripture we learn that the child who is the Prince of Peace doesn’t respond to violence with violence, but offers an alternative way of building bridges and connections.

Violence has always been part of life on earth, as in the ancient world in the time of Jesus. King Herod, a traitor to his people, ordered the execution of all young male children in the village of Bethlehem in order to avoid the loss of his throne to the newborn King of the Jews, whose birth had been announced by the Magi.

But it is important to remember that we, brothers and sisters, are the hands and feet that can create change.

We are called by God to engage in the politics surrounding gun ownership, mental health resources, and violence and cruelty in the media. We are also called to be compassionate. Isolation is pervasive in our culture, especially among teenagers and young adults. We can be a light to those who are living in darkness by listening to their stories, speaking kindly, and having a spirit of inclusion.

Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutierrez writes in his book Sharing the Word Through the Liturgical Year, “If during these days the coming of the Lord sets our hearts on fire, and if we respond by our commitment and solidarity to the gift of love which God gives in his son, we will gradually transform the threatening darkness into a human, peaceful and luminous night.”

Amid the violence and darkness, there is peace, love and solidarity against the oppressive forces in the world. Our inclusive communities, our love for humankind, can transcend the violence that plagues the world.

In Luke’s gospel, which will be read across the world on Christmas Eve, angels rejoice, praising God saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

Christ is born. Heaven and earth have come together. The human race and God are connected. Now we embrace one another, the homeless, the hungry, the troubled, the mentally and physically disabled, the isolated, the oppressed, because Christ is in them, too.

Even with terrible tragedies happening daily in the world, we pray that the peace of the Christ child brings you transcendent love, faith and hope – the things that can work against the violence and oppression in the world.

Merry Christmas from the staff at The Episcopal Center. Joy and peace in 2013.
– The Rt. Rev. Robert R. Gepert and the EDWM Staff

Upon My Return from Sabbatical

The word sabbatical means literally a ceasing. Though the concept of a sabbatical has been largely adopted by academia, sabbatical originates from within the church, where clergy in cathedrals were given a hiatus which lasted two months to a year.

I want to thank the diocese for the gift of my sabbatical, from which I returned this week.

Before I left, I was not so much tired as I was weary.

I learned that it’s nice to be Bob Gepert. Bob Gepert is defined by things other than bishop. The things that I really want to be remembered for are being a husband and a father. A child of God. A spiritual person.

At the same time, I love the diocese.

I’m seeing more opportunities to change the story, and I will be sharing some of my ideas in the coming months.
I think for me, some of the problems in the diocese had taken on a life of their own, preventing me from seeing the church at work in healthy ways. I have a different perspective now.

I am just so grateful.

I spent time reading through my old journals, some dating back to the 1986, filled with names of people I had forgotten and situations I had put out of my mind. Some of the lessons, which included experiences I’ve had as bishop, were hard for me to learn, but helped me to understand so much more about the way the church works. I gained wisdom.

In July I told you of my plans to work on a book incorporating my knowledge of family systems theory, practical experience and the Rule of St. Benedict, and incorporating the radical teachings of Jesus into our lives and institutions. The book is coming together. The gift of the sabbatical gave me time to work on that.

I’ve also come to understand that part of my next ministry is about coaching leaders through difficult situations. I learned these skills from the diocese and every other church I was a priest in before. My spiritual director has helped me to see that coaching others, rather than being in front, is part of my next ministry.

The sabbatical was also important to my wife Anne and me. It gave us a preview of retirement. Anne is an extrovert, but I like quiet time. We fell into a rhythm, starting with breakfast together every day. Mornings, we retreated to our personal spaces in the home we have chosen for our retirement in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She has a studio on the third floor of the house; I have an office on the second floor in the back of the house.  We met for lunch, after which I went on a long 4-5 mile walk around the city. We met for tea later in the afternoon, then a late dinner.

Our children and grandchildren were able to visit us on the weekends. Anne and I have been unable to do anything on the weekends since I am most often working.  But most people, including our children who are employed in secular jobs, are free on the weekends.

The remodel of our kitchen was completed the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. All but one of our children was able to come to Pennsylvania to spend it with us.

It’s too early to say what the experience of the diocese has meant for me. It has been a wonderful but challenging ministry. I’m someone who gets bored if I don’t have a challenge. As a priest, I knew it was time to go when my parishes were running themselves. I think a lot of people look forward to getting to that place, but not me. I can honestly say that the diocese has never bored me.

The time I was given to be away from the day-to-day work of bishop makes it seem less oppressive upon my return.

To expand, I think it’s important for parishes to understand the importance of consecutive days off, vacation time and retreat time for their clergy. It is also important for clergy to have regular meetings with a spiritual director. Parishes should be willing to send their clergy person to be spiritually refreshed, renewed and to go deeper. In turn, she or he can encourage us to go deeper. How can a spiritual leader teach and encourage spirituality when they’re not working on their own spiritual lives?

I’m grateful I was given the time and space of a sabbatical. I am refreshed and able to offer myself fully to prepare the diocese for the transition to its ninth bishop. 

– The Rt. Rev. Robert R. Gepert