Important Announcement

Dear St. Laurence,  

I have been encouraged by the life and energy in our community and worship.  It feels like the presence of God is genuinely in our midst.  I am deeply grateful for this parish, and the way you have helped form and shape me as your priest.  The spiritual blessing happening here is due to the synergy between you, the congregation, the staff, and the Holy Spirit.  I am confident that this parish will continue to remain vital and alive if it remains true to its calling to follow in the way of Jesus and to be open to the presence of God in our midst.   

I am writing to let you know that my chapter at St. Laurence is coming to an end.  I have accepted a call to become the rector of Grace Episcopal Church on Bainbridge Island in Washington State.  Grace is the congregation where I did my curacy.  Like you, they are a community that has helped shape and form me.  They have been receptive to my gifts and talents as a priest.  And, like you, they have a vision of living out their faith in a way that is vital and fresh.   

This has been a hard decision.  Things are good here at St. Laurence.  I’ve not been looking to leave.  I would find joy in spending more time with you, living into the community we share.  

But while life has been good at St. Laurence, it’s been harder for me personally.  I’ve found it difficult to find and create satisfying community in the Lower Mainland, and some friends I’ve made have recently moved away.  I am a renter when I should be paying a mortgage.  I have student loan debt in American dollars, that I’m trying to pay off on a Canadian salary.  I’m single, without children, without wealth that I will inherit, and I need to attend to my financial future.  Those are not normally things I would talk with you about publicly, but I want you to have some understanding of why I would choose to leave at this time.   Grace is offering me an increased salary, in American dollars, and they will help me buy a dwelling place in an equity sharing arrangement.  I will have a home in that community, and it’s an opportunity I feel I must take for my own well-being. 

So while I am excited by the opportunity before me, I feel grief in the prospect of leaving.  I know that you too, may be feeling grief as well.   It's a testimony to the goodness of our time together and the bond we have.  I thank God for that, and I trust that the Spirit will remain present to us in all of this.  

My last Sunday at St. Laurence will be September 24.  I begin at Grace on October 1.   

Between now and then, I need to take some vacation.  But I also hope to share food and conversation with you, affirm the goodness of our time together, and encourage one another in our mutual fellowship with God.  Our journey is not done.   

Peace to you,  

Eric