Clergy Transition

It is with great jubilation that the Parish Profile Committee announces the final approval and acceptance by the Diocese of our 2026 St. Barnabas Parish Profile!

All parishioners and the general public can finally read what has taken a lot of time, patience, review, editing, discussion, rewrite, more editing, and more read throughs, before submitting it for a second time to the diocese. We then held our collective breaths as we waited for their decision. What a joy it is to feel complete with the project and know we produced a very fine document! Click here read the 2026 St. Barnabas Parish Profile.

The job announcement will now be broadcast via the diocese website beginning this week as well as through news releases.

The Parish Profile Committee thanks all of you for your support, your patience and your input through the survey and the informational interviews. Now we turn this over to the Call Committee!

—The St. Barnabas Parish Profile Committee
Cathy Davies
Rebecca Ditmore
Peggy Eichenberger
Steve Holland
Pat Todd
Roger Vielbig
Lauren Walsh

Printed copies of the Parish Profile are available upon request by contacting the church office.

The Profile Committee’s final version of the parish profile was presented and approved by the vestry and sent to the Diocese of Olympia for its review on March 24. The Profile Committee received recommended changes on April 20 and is meeting to review and make the suggested changes where applicable. When that process is accomplished, the profile will return to the diocese for their final approval. Once that process is complete, the profile will be made public to the congregation.

—Your Parish Profile Committee

Cathy Davies
Rebecca Ditmore
Peggy Eichenberger
Steve Holland
Pat Todd
Roger Vielbig
Lauren Walsh

The Call Committee met in February and early March to begin defining the process for securing a new and permanent Rector.

Good news and progress to report: the Vestry approved the Parish Profile and sent it to the Diocese for approval. Once approved, the Call Committee will review it and begin preparing the job listing with the Diocese for national posting. The Call Committee’s work in screening applicants for Rector will not begin until the job listing is posted, possibly in early May. We will stay in close contact with the Diocese for guidance and resources during our deliberations. The Vestry is kept advised of our progress.

Call Committee Chair: Cathy Davies
Parish Communications Coordinator: Shannon Dorsey
Candidate Communications Coordinator: Brian Andvik
Secretary: Borgan Anderson
Chaplain: Michael Fitzpatrick
Hospitality Coordinators: Mo Godman and Jody Cressman

Please direct related inquiries to Shannon Dorsey, our parish communications coordinator. To confirm, this is a strictly confidential process and information will only become available to all once it is approved.

We appreciate your ongoing prayers for our work and discernment. Thank you all for your service and dedication to the St. Barnabas community!

—St. Barnabas Call Committee

At the recently held St. Barnabas annual meeting, the Call Committee was introduced and commissioned. The Call Committee is a vestry sub-committee assigned the task of screening and interviewing applicants for the new Rector’s position. When their discernment is completed, they will bring forward a recommendation for a new Rector to the Vestry for approval. Finally, the diocese will be informed by the vestry of their decision to accept or reject the applicant. The diocese will have the final decision on the next steps to filling this key position.

The Call Committee’s work in screening applicants for rector will not begin until the Parish Profile is completed and accepted by the diocese for national recruitment efforts. We anticipate that the Parish Profile will be completed over the next several weeks. Meanwhile, the Call Committee will begin administrative work to learn more about their responsibilities from the diocese.

Members of the Call Committee are:
Borgan Anderson

Brian Andvik

Jody Cressman

Cathy Davies

Shannon Dorsey

Michael Fitzpatrick

Mo Godman

On Sunday, January 11 during The Bridge, The Parish Profile Committee presented to the parish a beautiful and informative update on their work, including results from last fall’s Holy Cow survey and small group discussions. To view the presentation, please click here. 

The full Parish Profile is in the editing stage and will be presented to the congregation upon completion and approval by the St. Barnabas Vestry and the Diocese of Olympia.

—Your Parish Profile Committee

Cathy Davies
Rebecca Ditmore
Peggy Eichenberger
Steve Holland
Pat Todd
Roger Vielbig
Lauren Walsh

We’re happy to say that we have been making good progress as a committee. We strongly encourage you to take the parish survey created by Holy Cow consulting and your profile committee. Your answers to this survey will be used to help us find a new rector.

We have also set up a series of eight small group sessions which will be meeting in the church library over the next few weeks. Your input will bring light to some very important aspects of our rector search, helping us understand what you love about St. Barnabas and where you would like to see us go in the future. Groups will be cozy and conversational, and what we learn will be invaluable when combined with the parish survey results.

If you have not received an email invitation to participate in the parish survey, or an email regarding small groups, and you would like to attend, please email the church office at info@stbbi.org and request to be added to the Profile Committee mailing list.

We are looking forward to receiving all the information you will be passing along to us!

—Your Parish Profile Committee

Cathy Davies
Rebecca Ditmore
Peggy Eichenberger
Steve Holland
Pat Todd
Roger Vielbig
Lauren Walsh

The Profile Committee has been hard at work beginning to build a compelling and honest profile of our parish to be used in helping identify candidates to be our next rector. After meeting with Canon Cristi and Archdeacon David we have a better understanding of what we have undertaken as well as a renewed excitement for the work. In the coming weeks we will be leading the parish through a self–discovery process with a goal to elucidate themes to craft the profile. We want the profile to encompass the “why” of St. Barnabas, who we are now, and where we are hoping to go in the future. To this end, we will be conducting various types of information gathering.

We have already surveyed the leadership of the multiple ministries at our parish and we are very grateful for all of the work creating those summaries. The next phase is to gather information from as many active parishioners as we can. In the next few weeks, active parish members will receive an email that includes a link to complete an important online survey which will give us a general overview of our congregation at this point in time, as well as some specific demographic details.

Additionally, we will be conducting a series of small focus groups using a tool called Appreciative Inquiry to better characterize the “heart” of this parish. This tool focuses on specific positive experiences of members of a group and their hopes for the future. Groups will be led by two Profile Committee members and offered at various times—both days and evenings—to make gatherings as accessible as possible to as many as wish to participate. Meetings will be offered between Tuesday, September 23, and Thursday, October 11, and survey participants will receive an email about how to sign up.

Our hope is that we can come together even more as we go through this process of getting to know ourselves as a parish, as we look forward to our time with our new rector.

—Your Parish Profile Committee

Cathy Davies
Rebecca Ditmore
Peggy Eichenberger
Steve Holland
Pat Todd
Roger Vielbig
Lauren Walsh

A Parish Profile is a carefully crafted document that serves the purpose of painting an accurate picture of the condition and culture of St. Barnabas for priests seeking the call to become our next rector. Creating this document also allows us the benefit of learning more about ourselves and our ministry in the world. A committee has been commissioned to do the work of preparing the profile.

The Profile Committee, which meets weekly, has signed with a consulting organization called Holy Cow to use their Congregation Assessment Tool (CAT) to create a survey of St. Barnabas parishioners so that as many voices as possible are heard and included. The CAT survey was used as an aid in writing the 2017 profile and comes highly recommended by that former committee as well as the diocese. The committee is meeting with Canon Cristi Chapman and David Bishop from the diocese on Tuesday, August 26, to learn additional information on creating a successful profile.

When ready, details for participation in the online survey will be presented at both services, online, and in this newsletter, with clear directions and plenty of response time to gather information from, we hope, 100 percent of the St. Barnabas community. Meanwhile, the committee has been talking to the many group and ministry leaders who shape St. Barnabas and keep it vibrant in body and spirit so that we can briefly and accurately paint a picture of who we are and what we do. Committee members Pat Todd and Cathy Davies will take the lead in working with smaller discussion groups to add to survey information.

An outline of the format for the profile document has been created to organize and lay out the results of the survey and the brief descriptions and essence of the many working pieces at St. Barnabas in an honest and inviting document. And, of course, we have and will select and include photos and links to enhance the written information from our vast trove of photos and videos.

—Your Parish Profile Committee

Cathy Davies
Rebecca Ditmore
Peggy Eichenberger
Steve Holland
Pat Todd
Roger Vielbig
Lauren Walsh

The Vestry has discerned and called committee members to research and compose our Parish Profile, which will represent us to clergy who are discerning a move. We are so grateful they agreed to serve. They will be commissioned on Sunday, June 15 by The Reverend Canon Cristi Chapman. The members—who will be joined by Parish Profile Vestry Liaison Melanie Roth—are:

Cathy Davies
Rebecca Ditmore
Peggy Eichenberger
Steve Holland
Pat Todd
Roger Vielbig
Lauren Walsh

Thank you all for your service and dedication to the St. Barnabas community!

Exciting news!

Your Vestry is very excited to announce that Rev. Dianne P. Andrews of Port Townsend has accepted the call to the position of Interim at St. Barnabas! We are thrilled to have her join us in ministry, worship, and service. Having recently retired as rector of St. Paul’s in Port Townsend, she is uniquely qualified to attend to us during the bittersweet transition period that we are entering.

The vestry conducted an in person interview with Rev. Dianne and was impressed with her caring nature, her collaborative spirit in a diverse world, and her depth of experience as a minister to God’s people. She is committed to deepening our knowledge of God’s love known in Christ and offering her experience to support us as we engage in the moment that is upon us. Her priorities as interim will be to provide continuity in the life of the parish, celebrate what was, and find meaning and new life in the time between rectors. She will encourage us to explore our identity and history in order to prepare for our future. We feel so blessed that she has been called by the Holy Spirit to St. Barnabas. Here is a link to a short biography.

Her first day with us will be July 16 and she will preach and preside at her first service on July 20. Please join us in making her feel welcome! She will be commuting from her home in Port Townsend but would like to find local accommodation so that she would be more accessible to the parish. If you have any knowledge of an ADU or similar accommodation on the island, please notify a member of the vestry.

Faithfully, and on behalf of your vestry,

Barbara Bolles, Rector’s Warden
Phil Fergusson, People’s Warden
Mary Anne Smith, Property Warden

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—see detailed info in our newsletter!

The Vestry continues to make progress towards hiring our Interim Priest during the upcoming transitional period. An excellent Interim Priest candidate has been identified and interviewed by the Vestry. The documentation required by the Diocese for our hiring request has been submitted and is being considered by Bishop Phil. We hope to soon share more details about this exciting development.

The other important area is bridging the gap for clergy leadership between the time of Rev. Karen’s departure and an Interim Priest’s arrival. Senior Warden, Barbara Bolles, is diligently working on filling this important staffing role.

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.

—Phil Fergusson, People’s Warden

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 a.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.

—Phil Fergusson, People’s Warden

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. 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. 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, Rector’s Warden
Phil Fergusson, People’s Warden
Mary Anne Smith, Property Warden

Rector Transition Process: An Overview

Our Rector Karen Haig recently announced her retirement, effective after Pentecost on June 8. This timeline is provided to help frame the transition process to a new Rector:

Several key points are important to emphasize:

• Rev. Karen has provided much more lead time to prepare for the transition than is common (Thank You!).

• The Diocese of Olympia (DOO) guides the process and provides resources to the Vestry that manages the transition. Your Vestry has already been working closely with the DOO to initiate the next steps, as they become appropriate.

• Prior to Rev. Karen’s departure in June, it is important for us to celebrate her wonderful and effective leadership—both spiritually and administratively. This, along with grieving the loss of her time with us, is our first priority as we approach the transition period.

For those that seek more details about the rector transition process you are welcome to talk with any member of the Vestry or read the detailed Rector Transition Process.

Phil Fergusson, People’s Warden, will be at both the 8 and 10 a.m. services coffee hours, Sunday, March 30, to help address questions. We are currently planning on providing monthly updates, beginning the first week in May to keep the parish informed.

—Phil Fergusson, People’s Warden

Dear ones,

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†