The eCrozier

This evening and tomorrow morning we are ordaining new deacons and priests in the Diocese of Georgia and for the one, holy catholic and apostolic Church. Please pray for George Scott, Robert Polglase, and Marcia McRae who will be ordained deacons this evening, and for Bill Dolen, Jim Elliott, Lynn Prather, and Justin Yawn who will be ordained priests tomorrow morning (please especially pray for Carolyn, Bill Dolen’s wife, whose mother died this week). Please also join me in a prayer of thanksgiving for the good people of St. Peter’s, Savannah, who are graciously hosting both ordinations.

While we are remembering those called to Holy Orders, I ask you also to remember in your prayers Fr. Ron Southerland as he recovers from illness. Ron is continuing to serve at Our Savior, Swainsboro even though he is not back to full health and strength. Please also remember Fr. George Porter (Trinity, Cochran) who is home recovering from open-heart surgery and Fr. Gary Abbott (St Luke’s, Hawkinsville) who is slowly returning to work after back surgery. As St Paul reminds us: “we have this treasure in clay jars” (2 Corinthians 4:7a). Like all “clay jars” we’re each liable to crack (and sometimes, break) from time to time, so let’s take care of ourselves, pray for all our colleagues in ordained ministry, and support one another.

Our colleague, Fr Rick Buechner, will soon be off on a well-earned sabbatical (I imagine when he returns we will hear more than we might care to about European opera). Rick’s sabbatical (i.e., a Sabbath rest) leads me to remind us all of our regular need for Sabbath rest from our ministries and for longer sabbaticals after years of service in the parish. All new letters of agreement for stipendiary clergy in the Diocese now have a mandatory sabbatical provision in them. I will not approve a Letter of Agreement that does not have one. To apply for a sabbatical grant for up to $15,000, go to: http://www.louisville-institute.org/Grants/programs.aspx

Their next deadline is September 1, 2011 for sabbaticals in 2012.

Sabbath is a break from routine, a change of pace. In the midst of our busyness and achieving, God calls us to rest, to lay aside our schedules and let the Sabbath be different than the rest of the week. If our week is filled with e-mails and phone calls, turn them off for the day. If our frantic schedule has us traveling a lot (I stand convicted), a Sabbath at home is in order. If we spend our week working inside, then walking or playing outside may be in order.

Sabbath is also a break from productivity and control. We don’t need to accomplish stuff on the Sabbath. Our culture sends us the message that unproductive time is wasted time. Not so. And control may be the hardest thing for us to relinquish. Many people depend on us. We have responsibilities that can create in us an illusion of control. The church can survive if we step away for Sabbath time and aren’t around to run things. The hard question is this: Can we trust God to take care of things in our absence?

Work hard, serve faithfully, but for heaven’s sake, keep a Sabbath rest.

+Scott