When Sen. Barack Obama severed ties with his Chicago church, most political observers saw the move as a way for the candidate to insulate himself from the controversies stirred by its retiring pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. But Trinity United Church of Christ does not have that kind of insulation. According to sources within Trinity, Wright, 66, who began the process of retirement two years ago, is resisting fully relinquishing his duties as senior pastor, hanging on to power in the church he helped build.
Sometimes you have to approve the historic Methodist practice of shifting clergy between pastoral charges every couple of years. Any extremely long-term pastorate sets up the next fellow (or gal) for failure, particularly if the “pastor emeritus” doesn’t have the grace to either move or maintain near invisibility. Someone who has led a congregation successfully is rightfully entitled to praise, but it is painfully easy to slide into forgetting to give God the glory.
Congregations, of course, can be as bad. Trinity UCC wouldn’t be in this fix if the church board weren’t refusing to accept the transition. I have seen parishes where the rector was in competition with a dead man—still hearing “Fr. Francis wouldn’t have done that” decades after the saint had achieved his heavenly reward. Most of us could name dioceses where the incumbent bishop was being measured against someone at least twenty years gone.
And the unspoken rules for retired clergy who remained in the local community used to be fairly clear. Don’t worship at your former parish except on special occasions and don’t discuss the affairs of the parish with former parishioners. Seems pretty obvious.
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com]Catholic and Reformed[/url]
[i]Moss is an ordained Baptist minister who has yet to be fully ordained in the United Church of Christ[/i]
This really is a technicality, because Moss is unlikely to be ordained within the UCC. His (Baptist) ordination and ministerial credentials will almost certainly be accepted by and transferred into the local UCC association of which Trinity UCC is a part.
I was a member of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in the 1980s. The Rector, Norman Griffith, had been there for several years, but had succeeded Fr. Morris Elliot (pbuh). Fr. Elliot had been the rector for 25 years and when he retired the congregation gave him the Rectory. After Fr. Griffith had been there 10 years, he was still being referrred to as “the new Rector.”
All too often, the pastor in charge forgets whom the congregation is worshipping – as does the congregation.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
I suffered mightily as an “unintentional interim” for several years, at a past parish. It felt like several decades. My marriage nearly fell apart. My daughter quit attending church. And the rector before me wasn’t even anywhere near. Nowadays, if I were looking for a job, and saw that the parish had a popular, long-term priest hanging around that they considered a “rector emeritus,” I’d likely run the other way. Toxic or not, it would be extremely difficult to follow the pastor who built the place and gave it a theological identity, especially if he’s hanging around, successfully controlling the fruit of his labors. Moss probably shouldn’t unpack his bags.
I have to say, at our church we had one vicar/rector for 30 years but before he left he insisted on our having an interim before we hired our new rector. Our interim was hired after a NATIONAL search and he challenged us to look to the future rather than to the past. He changed the worship format (some) and the type of governance in the congregation and made a decided impact on us. But, as a true interim, he left about three weeks before our new rector arrived (barely a month ago!) and allowed us and Tom (new guy) to mellow together!
I KNOW there were loads of folks who simply wanted a new rector who was basically a clone of the old. But the old would not allow it nor would the interim. And the Search Committee and the Vestry were dilligent in looking to the future.
All of this to say that there are times when the 30-year incumbent can do the right thing–unlike, I suspect, the Rev. Wright. Of course our “old rector” was a Jesus loving, God preaching, fine Christian whose only fault was “putting his arm around you and asking you to do something!”
This is not just true of priests and congregation. As the new director of a public library, I’m constantly hearing “Well Linda let us ______” or “Linda didn’t complain when ______”.
The one thing I’m finding out about “Linda” is that “Linda didn’t keep very good records!” leaving me to basically re-create everything from circumstantial evidence. LOL
But back to the point, anytime a new ‘boss’ comes in to replace someone else, there is inevitably going to be comparisons. One priest we had announced that he was going to wait a year before making any substantial changes (some interm changes were unavoidable, of course) because he wanted to see for himself what was working and what wasn’t. His comment: “at the end of the second year, you are either going to love me or hate me. I hope more of you love me than hate me, but no change comes without price.”
I’m finding out now that that year of inaction isn’t always realistic. Sometimes things need to be handled face-on from the start; to correct problems that if left alone can be impossible to address later — “You were so nice when you came here, how come all of a sudden you turn into a policeman?!?”
And that can create hard-feelings from the complacent, and make your job all the harder.
Jim Elliott <><