The Rector's Page

February 1, 2003

How time flies!

As you read this, Stephen and I will have been your interim team for nearly nine months! During the next several weeks, your search committee will be receiving applications for the position of Rector of St. John in the Wilderness. In some not very clear way, interim times move from reflection about our past and who we are to anticipation about our future. That movement is well under way. I am sure many of you would like to be in on opening the envelopes that bring the applications, getting a sneak preview of the kinds of men and women who find this opportunity appealing. That is what anticipation is like.

Of course, that particular form of anticipation is not open to you or me. If you have ever held one job while being interviewed for another, you recall not wanting your current employer to know you are being considered, at least not until you have some idea how this prospective new opportunity may turn out. While I was in my first job as Curate at St. David’s in Minnetonka, a couple from a smaller town congregation came to “look me over.” They sat in on a discussion I was leading between our services. I asked the participants, since it was our first session, to go around and tell us all why they were attracted to this topic and discussion. To my great shock, at their turn, they announced the church they were from and that the Bishop had given them my name as a possible candidate. The rest of the group fell silent, not knowing what to say, as did I!

So, there is a valuable confidentiality that surrounds this whole process, out of consideration of the risk that candidates take in giving us their name, not knowing whether we will choose them.

What then can we do with our hopes and anticipations? We probably don’t have to worry about it much. In February we will host a diocesan-wide Episcopal Youth Event. Then we will be into Lent. Soon, Easter will be here and we’ll be thinking about ending the school year and going on vacation. International tension will either build or dissipate or both. The stock market will go up or down or both. And so on.

What we can do is keep on keeping on. Keep on telling us, your staff, what you like and don’t like about the way we are doing things. Keep on suggesting ideas. Keep on teaching. Keep on worshipping. Keep on being faithful. Any institution’s enduring strength is in its enduring members. Charley Price, one of my seminary teachers, was fond of reminding us that wherever we went, “…those people where there long before you arrived, and will be there long after your leave…” He knew what you know about yourselves, that it is your enduring spirit that makes St. John’s a place of the Spirit.

The applicants for this opening will also be anticipating, wondering about you. Be yourselves! If world events allow us, let’s enjoy the next six months. Stephen and I have very much appreciated your hospitality and enjoyed being part of your transition. The time has flown. That is always a good sign!

- Fr. Jay Hanson