Last weekend as pastor

Our pastor is retiring after 25 years. This is our last service with him presiding as our pastor. We will probably see him again when our new pastor is out of town and we will have a substitute. Is there a bumper sticker about “pastors never dying or retiring, they just …”?

Not a great photo, but I had to take it from my pew with my phone camera.

[ PXL_20240629_233414316_LE12tm :: cell phone ]

[Mags]

A nice photo to capture him at retirement.

[Kathy]

Nice light in the church.

[GaryW]

Great photo to remember him! Will you get a new pastor soon?

[Thom Mitchell]

@thewatersphotos His retirement was effective July 1 and the new pastor (age 32!) officially started July 1 as well. The living quarters situation doesn't dovetail as nicely as the official paperwork, but we are working on cleaning, painting and preparing the rectory for the new pastor. Meanwhile, he's bunking with the relatively new pastor (also in his thirties) in the neighboring town.

[GaryW]

@rhoing I'm sure that will be a "learning curve" for your congregation.

[Thom Mitchell]

@thewatersphotos We had dinner with a good friend last night and she reported that while we were out of town last week, (1) there was great enthusiasm (in terms of donated time) to make the new guy comfortable in the rectory and (2) attendance seemed to be noticeably higher for the new guy's second weekend. We are just happy we were allocated a scarce priest … and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that this is a university town with a Newman Catholic student center…

There will be a price tag associated with all the cleaning and painting and updates to the living quarters, but we think the congregation will step up quickly for that.