Dear Friends,

I’ve been blessed to be so welcomed by you here at Epiphany. I imagine some folks wonder why it took so long to get an interim – I’ve heard that question from a couple of you, and it’s a fair one to ask.

Before I answer it, though, it’s important to stress the difference between a supply priest and a trained intentional interim.

You’ve had a series of wonderful and varied supply priests. Some have served for several weeks or more, some have come for only a Sunday or two. They are contracted to support your worship life. Occasionally, they are willing to support your pastoral care needs – this is called “supply plus” and is compensated on an hourly as-needed basis. But such priests are not involved in the day-to-day life of the parish.

Intentional, trained interims become part of the life of your parish. They have a specific mission: to prepare you for your next permanent rector. As I said in last week’s Hump Day Message, there are specific tasks we do together for that purpose. And here’s the reality: there are not enough trained interims to serve all the parishes in transition that need one. This is a time period when many of the Baby Boomer priests are retiring. We saw this coming before the pandemic, and it accelerated when the pandemic hit. Some have moved up their retirement date because they are exhausted by the work of the pandemic. Some have reached the number of years of credited service to be eligible for the maximum benefits, and they long for time to enjoy retirement. They have earned it.

So there’s a shortage of interims. It’s a particular ministry, and there are sometimes lag times between calls, so one has to be prepared to be fallow for a period of time between assignments. Certain transitions have particular challenges and require interims with special skill sets. That’s not the case with Epiphany, thanks be to God! Not all priests are suited to that life or gifted for it. But waiting for one of the specialist interims to be available sometimes is frustrating for parishes.

For you, when Hilary retired, the Diocesan Transition Minister was looking for interims for several different places, including Epiphany. It is always important to get the right person to serve the right parish, and there just wasn’t the right interim for you – in fact, there were hardly any available interims – at that time.

So why me, and why now? When the pandemic hit, I was working on Diocesan Staff as Canon to the Ordinary and was tasked with developing our pandemic response. I worked hard and long at that work along with the rest of my regular portfolio, but the time came when I was ready to leave that for something new. I took a brief break to catch up on some much-needed rest. When the Transition Minister asked if I would consider coming to Epiphany, I remembered fondly my time working with the vestry in early 2019, and I said “oh yes!” even though I hadn’t anticipated doing interim work a hundred miles from home. Your Vestry was equally enthusiastic. It felt like one of those “God moments” when one is led to be in the right place at the right time.

I found myself thinking of another parish in another part of the diocese which had a long haul to find their priest, for a whole variety of reasons. In the end, they called a superb priest whom they love, and several of them said “God had us wait until this priest was ready for us, and it was worth the wait.”

My hope is that you will feel that this long wait for me to come to serve as your interim priest was worth the wait. In May of last year, I couldn’t have anticipated I’d be here now, but it’s truly a blessing to me. I hope I’ll be a blessing to you in the months to come. You’re already a blessing in my heart.

Mary+