Dear Ones of St. Columba's,

This Sunday is my last as your vicar. The past nine years of serving God on the West Hill of Kent with you have been such a gift to me. Together we have grown, loved, lost, laughed, learned, and been changed. I have said this to you many times, and it remains true: serving you has made me a priest in ways that no seminary class or bishop ever could. When I look back on our time together I know there were challenges, uncertainties, losses and hard times. I haven't forgotten. But what I will remember most is joy. You have been pure joy. 

Many times over the past nine years I have had the opportunity to sit down with a parishioner and talk about the special relationship between priest and congregant. It's not like other relationships. We are not friends - although I love you as deeply as I do the people who are my closest friends. I am not your parent, even though some of you call me Mother, and I have had the responsibility of presiding over this household of faith in ways sometimes not unlike a mother hen might brood over her household of chicks. And we aren't family - although there are relationships of care and complication within our community that rival relationships we might have with those who are familial relations of ours. The relationship between a priest and her people is something totally different, and completely special. It has been such an honor to be in this relationship with you - to laugh with you at weddings, to cry together when we have said goodbye to those we love at funerals, to welcome you into the household of God in baptism, to visit you in the hospital, to take you to coffee, to mark Christmas Eve, and Easter Vigil, and All Saints and every Sunday and other day in between, with you. I wish every priest in our church could have what I have had with you, these past nine years. 

Over the past nine years we have seen St. Columba's grow in numbers, deepen in faith, and make a crucial transition from its first generations of elders into the capable hands of your current Bishop's Committee and the many strong leaders of all ages who make up our congregation today. We have said goodbye to some of the folks who founded this church, and placed their remains in the memorial garden we imagined and built together. We have said hello to many many more of you who are the beating heart of St. Columba's today, and will hold this community in trust and good stead well into the future. Our leader in this time has not been me, but the Holy Spirit. I truly believe this. The Spirit has moved over our church in tangible and real ways in the past nine years and this is great news because while I am ending my tenure as your priest, the Spirit of God isn't going anywhere. 

When I arrived at St. Columba's I knew you were special, and I knew I wanted to leave you not just stronger than when I arrived but ready for the next phase of your life as Christ's hands and feet on the West Hill of Kent. When Meghan came to do her transitional diaconate with us, I knew that she could love you as well - maybe better! - than me. I am so grateful to her for answering the call that came in the form of my scheming to bring her back, and to our bishop's office for being open to an unconventional transition. If I had my druthers I would stay longer with you - but I can leave clear hearted because you are ready for the next phase of your life together, and Meghan is the exact right person to take up the job of being your priest, to step into that special and unique relationship of priest and congregation, with you.

Keep taking good care of your priest, and loving her with the collaboration and open hearts I have known. Keep working hard to love each other across distance, to develop relationship with our South Sudanese members and community, with our Congolese brothers and sisters, and all who garden on our land. Keep faith with the bees. Keep our children at the center of the circle, because when we listen to them we learn to take care of vulnerable people of all ages, including our own vulnerable selves. And please, keep me in your prayers, as I will you. 

I am going to keep my distance from the church and from relationships formed here for a while. This is a healthy best practice for clergy transitions.  I want to make sure that Meghan can fully inhabit her new role as your Vicar. That's the weird part of this transition, the odd thing about priestly relationship - that it comes to an end, in definite and concrete ways. I don't love it, but this is necessary. Please know I will always cherish each and every one of you, and remain so very interested in who you are and how you grow and change. The Holy Spirit is not done moving at St. Columba's - and I cannot wait to see how you thrive in the future both near and far. The Spirit is not done with me yet either, and I promise to keep you posted on my future as it is revealed. 

Thank you for loving each other, and me, so very well. 

Andrew, Jubilee, Salome and I will miss you terribly, and hold you close in our hearts even as we go.

with care and gratitude,

Alissa