At our recent membership celebration Sunday, I shared that every year we become a new community. As new people join us – as new visitors, friends, and members join with us in fulfilling the promises and actions that create our congregation – we become different. While we are not wholly different, we are also not the same as we were the year before. This is also true with the transitions on our staff team, which includes people who participate in and contribute to the life of our community.

As you may well be aware, one of the significant staff transitions that will happen at the end of June is that Kathryn Estey, our Church Administrator, will be retiring. She began her work in this staff role in 2010, and we have been the recipients of her dedication, careful planning, wit, wisdom, and oversight of our operations (admin, finance, facilities) for 16 years now. Kathryn’s leadership and presence will be missed by all of us on the staff team and by many of you who have had the chance to serve alongside her on our various leadership and admin committees.

While we will miss Kathryn on the staff, we will continue to be blessed by her presence outside of administrative roles. Prior to working here, Kathryn was a committed and engaged member, who served in several capacities including as a children’s religious education teacher and as a board moderator. Healthy boundaries dictate that she will have to stay away from the admin side of things for a long while. However, you can look forward to interacting with Kathryn in other spaces, such as in coffee hour or in a memoir class she hopes to facilitate in the future or in other activities.

As we move towards Kathryn’s last couple of months with us, I do hope you will take the time to express your gratitude for all the gifts we have received during her tenure as our Administrator. She has made a big impact on the life of our community!

One way that you can share thanks, photos, and anecdotes is at the following link by May 28: https://www.newlywords.com/celebrating-kathryn-estey. We will be putting together a book of memories for her.

I also hope that when she does retire that you will support her transition back to being a member and welcome her warmly in her former important role as a member of this community.

In some sense I am thinking of Kathryn as a “Bridger.” That is the term we use for our high school seniors as they cross the bridge from youth to young adulthood. In recent years, our bridging has included children bridging at a couple of different ages and stages. Retirement is another moment of bridging as is moving from being part of the staff back to being part of the congregation.

May all who are moving through a season of change find the courage to make all the leaps necessary to make it across the bridge and also find grace in what is new or renewing.

With faith and gratitude,

Rev. Alison