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2007-07-03 issue:

Time for a sabbatical

Editorial

by Everett J. Thomas

Print Article

During his adult life, Jesus often removed himself from public ministry for a while to pray and to be renewed by God’s Spirit. Today, sabbaticals are the formal way the church lets leaders enter a similar cycle of action and reflection. I am grateful that Mennonite Church USA has such a sabbatical policy and that our board of directors granted me one for this fall.



After we go to press with our special issue (July 24) covering the San José 2007 convention, I will take some vacation time and then begin a three-month sabbatical—returning on Nov. 1. Here is what I will be doing during this time:

One of two smaller projects may end up in the pages of The Mennonite later this fall. Mennonite Disaster Service has asked me to spend some time in “Katrina-land” in September—shortly after the second anniversary of the disaster. My assignment is to interview people helped by MDS programs and provide a birds-eye view of MDS’s work in the area over the past two years.

A larger project will be to pull together my records from the 1990s, then write my memoirs of the merger process for General Conference Mennonite Church and Mennonite Church. I was serving as president of the Mennonite Board of Congregational Ministries during that time and had a front-row seat when binational churchwide agencies and commissions worked together to create new national structures for Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Church Canada.
I do not intend to write a historical record of those days; rather I want to record what I experienced during a process that comes along once every generation or so. As memories of those days begin to fade, the death of Anne Stuckey (see News Digest, June 19)—a colleague at MBCM during most of my years there—lends some urgency to this task. I may need to check with MBCM colleagues as I work on these memoirs, and Anne’s perspectives were always thoughtful and insightful.

The second major task will be research for a historical novel. The subject of the novel I hope to publish eventually is Johannes Thomas—my ancestor who came to “Penn’s Woods” and settled with his family near the still-standing Hans Herr house several miles south of Lancaster.
Johannes and his family arrived in Pennsylvania in the 1740s—just in time to live through the arguments about whether the colonies should become independent from England. By writing historical fiction, I hope to remember the struggle within the Mennonite community itself: Some members were loyal to the crown and eventually moved to Ontario. A fictionalized account of the debate about church and state might help us understand church-and-state issues for Anabaptists today.

Finally, I hope to get my captain’s license. With more than 30 years of sailing under my belt, if I can go back through my records and verify 361 days (four hours constitutes a day) “on the water and underway,” I will be able to take a 12-day U.S. Coast Guard course to earn a license. That would allow me to skipper a vessel weighing up to 100 tons and take on an occasional captain’s job.

I am grateful that associate editor Gordon Houser and assistant editor Anna Groff will pick up most of my responsibilities while I am gone. Gordon will write three editorials, Anna will write two. Our board chair (Susan Sommer) and vice chair (Gerald Mast) will each write one.
When our board first discussed my request for a sabbatical, they made it clear that I was to find projects that would be personally edifying and spiritually refreshing. The projects I have planned—plus more times during each day to pray the Daily Office with the book The Divine Hours—will satisfy those expectations. I also know that some distance from this Mennonite Church USA ministry will leave me with an even greater appreciation for the sacred task to which I have been called. I, too, hope that God’s Spirit will bring renewal and a fresh perspective.

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