Dear Calvary family and friends,
It’s hard to believe that my tenure with you will end in twenty-three days. I will be with you only two more Sundays. In the summer of 2022 Bishop Van Koevering asked me if I would be willing to serve as interim rector here at Calvary for four months, plus or minus. Well, the plus turned out to be a lot longer than expected. In my forty-one years of ministry, it is the first time the title rector has been associated with my name. Except for part of my tenure at St. John’s, Corbin, I have worked with more then one congregation at the time, and all of them with the understanding that they too would be short-term. Over those years I have been the minister in charge of fifteen faith communities in our diocese and oversaw at least five more. In all those years, I have lived closer than twenty-five miles to only two of them. With the expectation of always moving on, strong friendships have been few and far between. Being an introvert does not help. This year has been another year of changes. At the end of July, I retired from the Diocese. Later this month I will leave you. January will find me relinquishing all my rolls with the mountain congregations that I have come to love and enter full retirement. Yes, I am sure I will do some Sunday supply. At this moment, Connie and I have submitted a bid on purchasing a house. It’s scary to realize that if the bid is accepted, the loan will be paid off when I turn one-hundred. And yet with all these changes, there is excitement. In many ways, that is where you are here at Calvary. You keep telling me we have had a good relationship, one that some wish would not end. At the same time, there is the excitement of a new rector, someone who will be with you for years. Father Jon has many years of experience, but to you, he is unknown. When I come into a new congregation, I have always said that when the time come for me to leave, some will be happy to see me go and others sorrowful. It will be the same with Father Jon. Clergy are never members of the congregations they are called to serve. We always find ourselves invited into the family, but we must prove ourselves before we are truly accepted, and the closets opened, and we are allowed to see the dust and told the private stories. A long time ago I was visiting with a Church of Christ minister. As we walked down the hallway lined with pictures of his predecessors, he told me the history of some. When we stopped at the last one, his picture was not yet on the wall, he said “And here is Jesus. Many say he could do nothing wrong.” No minister is Jesus, and none is Judas or Satan. We all have good aspects and bad. We all make mistakes. You are a diverse community, old and young, Anglo-Catholic and Protestant with very different views of what the church should be. I ask you to give Jon time to get to know you. I ask you to work with him, understanding that he cannot please everyone, that just as he will need to bend, so will you. He has many talents, some of which I envy, but he cannot be St. Paul, “being all things to all people.” As you have been tolerant with me, I ask that you give him the same grace. Please know you are in my prayers and will continue to be after I leave you.
For now,
Peace,
Bryant+
