Dear Northwest Region,

Well, the truck is all packed up, and my things are en route to be closer to you, even if my body is trailing behind. I will be ensconced in Southwest Massachusetts by the beginning of March after some back and forth between the pines of North Carolina these next weeks. 

Thanks to the powers of zoom, I am meeting many of the folks in your Executive Committees, Committees on Ministry, and clergy gatherings. I am heartened by the good folks around these tables. I have every confidence that through partnership, we will meet the challenges before us and celebrate the joys to come. 

In today’s meeting with the Litchfield North Committee on ministry I was reminded how many in leadership are tired. I spent the last three years in a program intended to help clergy cultivate practices of sabbath. (I was a necessary study.) The program’s purpose described in part, “For clergy, contemplative space can be hard to come by. The demands of an ‘always on’ ministry are daunting and exhausting. [The program] offers space… for delight, rest, community connection, and worship.”
 
We met monthly and spent time working in the garden, worshiping, and sharing a eucharistic meal, silence, rest, reflection, and prayer. We were constantly reminded of Jesus seeking a moment to rest, to pray quietly, to get away from the crowds.  In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. (Mark 1:35)
 
These are such important practices if we can find the time. I pray you do.
 
Some of the folks at the meeting today reminded us of the resource that Silver Lake can be. Something about a roaring fire…. I for one am excited to explore the campus soon and hear how the season is shaping up for 2021, and how I can be of support to Ryan and the staff.
 
No matter your profession or stage in life, there is one thing that we all hold in common in these pandemic days—a certain weariness. I hope you all find your moments of sabbath rest in God’s presence, or as a friend typed to me this week, “Remember to take breaks.”

 
God’s peace,
Rev. Terry Yasuko Ogawa
Area Conference Minister, NW Region