On January 5, 2025, our beloved rector, Rev. Karen Haig, announced her retirement after seven years of ministry, effective after Pentecost services on Sunday, June 8. The St. Barnabas Vestry, in collaboration with the Diocese of Olympia, has initiated preparatory work for the Rector transition process. The goal of the Vestry is to make the transition process transparent with frequent updates to the congregation on both process milestones and general progress, plus encourage active participation by the congregation in various process elements. This is an opportunity to continue to grow our faith, support each other in love, and look forward to an enriching experience in the life of our church. If you have any questions, please contact a Vestry member.
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May 2 Transition Update
As we approach Rev. Karen’s departure (Sunday, June 8), our focus is on celebrating her many talents and time with us: her leadership, spiritual guidance, and friendship to name a few. Collectively, we will be meeting for this purpose twice (save the dates!):
- Festive Coffee Hour “Open Mic”: Sharing our stories and insights about Rev. Karen’s time with us. Grab a treat and join the toast on May 18 at 11:30 p.m. in the Parish Hall.
- Farewell Dinner: Rev. Karen has requested “a potluck with recipes”—we’ll enjoy the dishes together and compile a collection of your favorites for a keepsake that keeps on giving. Look for an invitation and more information coming soon, but save the date for Friday, June 6 at 6 p.m. in the Parish Hall!
The Vestry has taken three initial steps to prepare for the transition to the interim period::
- Interviewing a candidate for the Interim Priest position. The goal is to have the Interim Priest starting by mid-summer, if not sooner.
- Discerning potential parishioners to serve on the Profile Committee. This is the committee that compiles the Parish Profile that will represent St. Barnabas during the national search process, inviting potential priests to apply for the rector position, if they discern a call. The committee’s work is expected to reflect who we are as a parish, what we hope for in a rector, our beautiful campus, sound financial health, and where we need assistance to grow into our baptismal covenant. Their work is expected to begin shortly. Look for and participate in opportunities to share your thoughts.
- Rector’s Warden, Barbara Bolles, has begun learning administrative functions (e.g., staff management, parish contracts, etc.) currently managed by Rev. Karen. During the transition period, she will perform those functions in the rector’s absence, while the interim priest focuses on church services, pastoral care and other religious functions.
You can be assured that the wardens and vestry continue to put their own gifts to work to shepherd the parish through this process with integrity. Please contact me or your ministry’s Vestry liaison with questions as we live this together.
Blessings,
Phil Fergusson
Peoples Warden
philfergusson@hotmail.com
April 3 Transition Update
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Thanks to all of you who attended the coffee-hour conversation last Sunday. We look forward to many more conversations, surveys, and congregational input following Rev. Karen’s departure when the Profile Committee takes up its work. Upon reflection, we realize we didn’t make clear the many differences between the Bishop’s office process of appointing an interim priest and the St. Barnabas process of calling a rector. There is a significant difference! An interim priest will be appointed by the office of the bishop, and a rector will be called by the Call Committee at St Barnabas. We are the first church that Bishop Phil LaBelle and Canon Cristi Chapman are leading through the transition process. To encourage a good match with an interim, Canon Cristi asked the three wardens for a brief description of our parish and the qualities we’d like to see in an interim priest. You can see that description here. In addition to that description, we sent (unsolicited) the summary of the congregation’s comments from our Annual Meeting in late January, so Canon Cristi would have all the input the congregation had given thus far. That summary was previously published in the Friday e-news, but you can also find it on our website. Often, a bishop’s office appoints an interim without input from the parish, so we are grateful to have been able to provide initial thoughts from both the congregation and the vestry. At this point, the description and hoped-for list of qualities has been posted in the diocese and beyond, and Canon Cristi is talking with the limited number of priests who respond as well as people she has discerned might be a good fit. When any suitable person responds, Canon Cristi will pass the name along for the St. Barnabas vestry to interview. That doesn’t always happen, so the vestry is grateful to have such input. Next steps in the transition process include prayerfully discerning a Profile Committee to be commissioned shortly after Rev. Karen leaves. It will be the responsibility of the Profile Committee to gather all the data about St Barnabas, both from our archives and from the congregation, then to create a profile that will be posted throughout the Episcopal Church. According to Canon Cristi, both the Profile Committee and the Call Committee are sub-committees of the vestry, and the vestry is responsible to prayerfully discern who those committee members will be. If you are interested in serving on either of the committees, kindly let a vestry member know. Please understand that forming these committees is a process of discernment, not decision-making. The process involves the whole vestry coming together in prayer, considering many factors, and most importantly, following where the Holy Spirit leads. Canon Cristi advised that in this period before Rev. Karen retires, the parish’s chief responsibility is to focus on celebration and gratitude for our mutual ministry with her—and to realize that grief and mourning are a part of the process of separation. We’ll be doing some celebrating at our May 18 Coffee Hour with an opportunity for “open-mic” stories. And please save the date of Friday evening, June 6, for our farewell dinner. This is a new process for our bishop’s office, and a new process for our vestry and congregation. We are committed to a transparent transition process and will ensure that you are informed by the Profile and Call Committees throughout the course of the transition. The vestry liaisons to both the Profile and Call Committees (when we get to that point) will ensure that the congregation is well informed as to what is happening. Under the new bishop, the workings of the Profile and Call Committees will not be kept secret. While no names or places or other specifics about candidates can be revealed, we will always be as open as possible. Thank you for all of your input, interest, and prayers as we navigate this transition together. Faithfully, Barbara Bolles Phil Fergusson Mary Anne Smith |
March 28 Transition Update
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January 5, 2025 | Rev. Karen Haig's Retirement Announcement
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You may have heard me say that when Jim and I returned from France in the fall, and so many of you asked, “What was your favorite part of the trip?” my answer was always the same… Strolling through beautiful and interesting places, holding Jim’s hand. That really was my favorite thing. The seven-plus years I’ve spent at St Barnabas have been some of the richest and most important years of my life. I have loved my time here and am so grateful for it - I can’t imagine a more fulfilling experience of ministry than I have had with you. And now it is time for me to retire. In the Bible, the number seven signifies completion, spiritual perfection and fullness. And while surely not spiritually perfect, our seven-plus years together have been deeply spiritual, full and fruitful, and for that I am very grateful. There is also the other seven – the one that goes before the 0… I turned 70 recently, Jim turned 80, and we’ve shared twenty beautiful years in ministry together. Now it is time for a new season for us, a time to explore all the places and parts of our lives we’ve not had time for since we met and so happily shared our lives with the church. We couldn’t have been happier or more fulfilled having done anything else, especially here, with you. We are stepping into foreign territory, stepping out of the life of parish ministry, a life we have loved more than we can say, and yes, especially here, with you. Now it is time to begin a new season, trusting God will continue to use us in ways we can’t yet even imagine. It's time for a new season for St Barnabas, too! Being your pastor has been a great gift, an honor and a privilege, and now it is time for someone else to be equally blessed by all of you. It is not easy to offer the gift of being your pastor and priest to someone whose name I don’t even know (I am rather attached to you all), but I do know that you will profoundly bless your interim priest and your next rector, just as you have blessed me. I sense this new season will be filled with riches none of us can imagine. I wonder how your lives will be enriched, how the wider world will be enriched by what is to come? I believe with my whole heart that God is already at work preparing your next rector and as strange as it will be to watch from the outside in, rather than the inside out, I am filled with admiration, gratitude and joy for this blessed, beloved community, and look forward with you, to your future. What will happen? What will you and God’s Holy Spirit get up to in this new season? Things beautiful and fruitful, I am quite sure. Jim and I will be with you through Pentecost (June 8), through another creative and transformative Holy Week and another glorious Easter. Between now and the time we leave, staff, congregational leaders and I will be working to put things in place so that during the interim period, you will be held, not just in God’s love but in the capable hands of those who lead this congregation. Much groundwork has already been laid and I know that St B will continue to grow and to flourish in the months and years to come. We have lots of time! There will be time for celebrations and gatherings, as we continue to do the work God has given us to do in this place. And I will keep you appraised of all of the logistics along the way as we move through this process. I have already met with Bishop Melissa and Bishop Phil, and will be meeting with Canon to the Ordinary, Cristi Chapman this week. Please hold St Barnabas in your daily prayers. And please begin to prayerfully discern how you want to be a part of the process of enlivening St Barnabas in the interim period and during the call process. Times of change are filled with opportunity, and it’s time to jump in, not out!! As a very wise woman (vestry member Mary Anne Smith) recently said, “… this is not a time to leave. Church becomes what you want it to be when you become involved.” I have always said this is YOUR church. And I look forward to helping you do the work of claiming and articulating that reality so that you can call the rector who will lead you into a new season, marked by a flourishing congregation emboldened by the Gospel to be the hands and feet and face of Christ in the world. Thank you for the gift of allowing me to be your pastor, your priest and your friend. I don’t know that I could have lived into the fullness of my personhood or my priesthood with anyone else. Jim shares my love, admiration and gratitude for all of you. With much love, Karen†
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