To God’s Beloved People in the NW Intermountain Synod,
At the end of this month (May 23rd, to be precise) I will be taking a 3-month sabbatical as is provided for by the synod sabbatical policy. To the best of my knowledge, I am the first bishop of the synod to take advantage of this policy, so it naturally brings along with it some level of anxiety for everyone.
I cannot comment on why my predecessors did not take their sabbaticals. My guess is that the volume of work made it feel impossible. After five years in this role, I can certainly see that as the most probable reason & while the way the work of the Office of Bishop is conducted has changed (especially in the last 2 years), the volume of work has not. I do have some anxiety around this (I’ll talk about this later), even as I know that the most important work of the synod will continue during my sabbatical as smoothly as it does when I’m part of the synod team.
How will that happen? Let me share with you.
1. While I have the ability to appoint an interim bishop who would function with all the authority of the Office of Bishop, that seemed to be more than what we need in our synod over the summer, particularly when we have a fully-staffed synod office. So there will not be an interim bishop to cover my sabbatical.
2. Phil Misner will be the main person to cover anything that comes up over the course of my sabbatical. We had conversations together & with Mary & Cathy and we all agreed that Phil acting from his office as Assistant to the Bishop would be sufficient for my time away.
3. Phil will be out of the synod on bereavement June 17-July 5. During that time, Bishop Shelley Bryan Wee (NW Washington) has agreed to be the “bishop on call” for NWIM. If you need something from the synod in that time, please call Cathy at 509-838-9871 and she will help you get what you need.
4. While Phil is in the synod, Bishop Shelley Wickstrom (Alaska) has agreed to be Phil’s “phone a friend” bishop in case he needs it. Bishop Wickstrom is familiar with NWIM from her service as the Region 1 coordinator & is an experienced and wise bishop who will support Phil very well.
5. While I am unavailable while on sabbatical, I have made it clear to synod staff that should something big happen: I need to know, and they have my full permission and expectation that they would reach out to me for my input, advice, and support.
6. I will take a sabbatical from my sabbatical to attend the Churchwide Assembly in August. So, if you are a voting member: I will see you there!
7. I will return to work on August 30th.
I am taking this sabbatical to do some important work. Next year at our synod assembly in Pasco we will be holding a Bishop’s Election. I will be taking time during this sabbatical to discern whether God is calling me to stand for re-election, or if I am called to make place for a new bishop. While I dearly love this work, and hope that it continues to be my work to do, I also need to discern whether or not I have the gifts the church will need in the next six years. I will announce my discernment by January 2023 at the latest.
Further, the Synod Council is in the process of forming a Bishop’s Election Committee (a committee we will need regardless of my own place in the election). If you know someone who would be a good fit for this role, or would like more information, please contact Synod VP Felicity Pitman. Do not contact me, as it is important that I am as removed from this committee as possible.
Not only will this sabbatical time be important for discernment, I will also be catching up on reading that will help me in my work, doing some spiritual direction and retreats (one in northern Minnesota & one on the Oregon coast). I also have two “epic roadtrips” planned with my children—each kid will get a roadtrip with Mom, which is one of our favorite ways to travel and is a way to express my gratitude for their generosity in sharing their mother with the Church, sometimes at great cost to them.
This will be my first sabbatical in 20 years of ministry. There is a bit of uncertainty around it. I worry I will waste the time. I worry that I won’t waste the time and will come back from sabbatical as tired as I am going on sabbatical. I worry that the synod office will be helpless without me. I worry that they won’t. I worry that all the huge issues that haven’t happened in the last 5 years will happen in the next 3 months.
I am a huge advocate for clergy (and non-clergy) self-care—taking breaks, not over-functioning, holding boundaries, the freeing power of saying “no”, etc. But I am fairly lousy at following my own advocacy. So, this becomes a spiritual exercise of trusting God that I can rest, I can take a break, I can place some boundaries, I can say no…and that everything will be OK! Because at the end of the day: I need to remember that this is not my Church—no matter how much I love it. If this Church stands or falls on my presence: It needs to fall immediately, because Kristen has no redemptive power to offer anyone. This is God’s Church. It stands or falls on God’s presence—and God in Christ Jesus has promised to be with us always, even to the end of time. So—perhaps—I can live as though 3 months over the summer of 2022 is included in that promised time frame.
I ask your help by being in prayer for my time away, that discernment would be clear, that rest would be welcomed & embraced, that my kids and I would be granted safe travel. I ask your prayers for the synod staff and Bishops Bryan Wee & Wickstrom as they support me in this time. I ask your prayers for the ELCA as we prepare to gather in Assembly this summer. We are Church, walking together, for the sake of the world.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Bishop Kristen