A Bad Church Council Meeting

Last Monday of Pentecost

St. Clement of Rome Day (Color: Red)

There is a lot we don't know about Clement of Rome. Papal lists have him at the third Bishop of Rome, after St. Peter and Linus. He lived in the latter part of the first century. There are two letters attributed to him, 1 Clement and 2 Clement. He definitely did not write 2 Clement, a mid-second century document. Whether he wrote 1 Clement is debated. His name does not appear in the letter, but the attribution is very early. I think he wrote it. 1 Clement has traditionally been thought as having been written during the last years of the reign of Emperor Domitian (95-96 AD). I'm a part of the more recent scholarship that dates it around 80, about the same time as Matthew and Luke. 1 Clement was considered by many early Christians to have been a part of the New Testament. It appears in some of the early canons. It is considered canonical at least as late as early fifth century by some Christians. It appears in the New Testament of the Codex Alexandrinus (early 5th century), which is our third oldest whole Bible manuscript. It does not, however, make it into the canon of Athanasius (367 AD), which is the first NT canon identical to ours today. It remained in a couple of fifth century canons but dropped out entirely by sixth century. 1 Clement is an excellent work of Christian theology. We don't know exactly why it didn't make the canon (other than divine guidance). It does at one point mention the myth of the Phoenix, as if it were historically true. This probably did not sit well with some of church fathers. I do recommend it for your reading.

Monday is Faith Journey Narrative day. We are now up to the year 2010. I was in my sixth year as pastor of First UMC, North Wilkesboro. I had planned to retire in June of 2011. I was at this point fairly well burned out physically. I was at the beginning of what would several years later be diagnosed as pulmonary fibrosis. I was simply not capable of working the same long hours I had been. First UMC was a church of high expectations, both for itself and for its pastor. I went to three retirement seminars that the Western NC Conference held for soon to retire ministers. Marianne and I consulted with our tax accountant and with our TIAA-CREF rep. (I had two pensions, my Methodist pension from the years I was a pastor and a college chaplain, a TIAA-CREF pension from my years as a professor at Elon). Marianne had her NC Teachers' Retirement pension and Social Security. I would start Social Security in January of 2011. We decided it would be best for me to retire at the end of December, 2010. It was the middle of the conference year. Mid-year retirements were not unheard of but not the usual. There had been 6 throughout the conference the previous year. My D.S. was not particularly happy about this, but willing.

I decided to announce it at a Church Council meeting, I think it was in May. This would give the church plenty of time to adjust and the conference plenty of time to appoint a new minister. I deeply regret that Church Council meeting. My announcement was a total surprise to the Council, even though they knew I would be retiring by the next June. They seemed stunned. I didn't make it better when I told them, in a far stronger tone of voice than I needed to, that I would not be available to come back to do any weddings or funerals ever. I would be totally through. None of this went over well. I had one very member in her 90's who said to me almost every Sunday thereafter, "I don't think you like us anymore."I do love them very much, even now all these years later.

That fall the conference had some difficulty filling my position. I was the only mid-year retirement that year. They appointed an excellent new pastor from the next county over. The problem was that his church really loved him and was quite angry that the Conference, and more particularly I, were taking him away from them. Later I found that my retirement had precipitated six mid-year moves (his replacing me, someone replacing him, someone replacing him or her, down the line). No one was happy about this.

Because of my announcement and the way I had presented it, I felt a little tension between me and some members of the congregation during my last six months there. One member, who had been very close for years, totally distanced herself from me. For the vast majority of members it was not a problem, but from a few I experienced  some edginess. 

 

I think I could have avoided all of this, if I had worked with the congregation all along, helped them to buy into the idea of my early retirement, and not presented it as a total surprise fait accompli. I don't want to over exaggerate on this. Most church members probably did not notice any difference those last months. But I did leave, feeling I could have done them better on this. 

Faithfully,

Christian