Dear Friends,

As the final days of my tenure as your Rector wind down, I wanted to write to all of you one last time in that role. These months of sabbatical leave and vacation have been extraordinary for me and the family. I have had time to relax and to take care of countless things around the house. I have traveled some, including a week in Sandbridge at St. Simon’s-by-the-Sea’s cottage (in exchange for preaching!), a two-week tour of a number of states, getting to Iowa and Wisconsin, the 45th and 46th states I have visited over the years (only the Dakotas to go and I’ll have been to all the contiguous states), and a recent visit to Dallas and Fort Worth to see family. As many of you know, Mom was in ICU for a while just before I got there, and she is still in a rehab center recovering from pneumonia. Her dementia continues to diminish her faculties, but there were a few lucid moments, which were very nice. I deeply appreciate the prayers and the expressions of concern from many of you in the last week or so. My stepmother is doing very well, as are my brothers, all of whom live in Fort Worth, and it was a very pleasant visit.

Before I “sign off” here at the official end of my time with you, I want to express my profound and heartfelt gratitude for so many things. Over the course of these eleven years, Ginny and Matthew and I have accumulated countless joyful memories. We have formed so many marvelous friendships. Many of you and I have shared our lives together in powerful and meaningful ways – at times of pure joy and times of the deepest sorrow. We have cried at times, but laughed so many more. Along with all its other great attributes, Manakin is a Household with a sense of humor. It’s one of the many ways it is a parish that is life-filled – and life-giving.

This is also a Household of great generosity. Over the years, I have been so amazed at the outpouring of time and talents and treasures in the life of the parish. Whether it is pledge time or time to respond to a hurricane or tsunami, or time to stuff meal bags for Stop Hunger Now or to cook up a casserole for someone coming home from the hospital or in a thousand other ways you find to help one another and to share at home and abroad, the generosity that flows from your hearts is staggering. I experienced that once again first hand (as I have on so many occasions before) in your wonderful farewell events in June and July. From the parish picnic in my honor to the final Sunday celebration to the dinner at the Salisbury Country Club, Ginny and I were blown away with the outpouring of affection. The kind words offered at the dinner from so many of you linger with me – and always will. Your amazing generosity was on display through the whole evening, but was startling when I received the SLR digital camera and the fantastic purse! As many of you know, I have stubbornly resisted giving up my older cameras, claiming they shot “real” photos. Alas, film is getting hard to find, and places to develop the pictures are all but gone. Sending a roll off to have it returned in “one to two weeks” is hopelessly frustrating. So, through your thoughtfulness and generosity, I now have incredible photos of everything from the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach (where I could now take extremely sharp non-flash photos in the darkest of places) to various caverns in several states to a lighthouse in the Door County peninsula in Wisconsin to Jack Hanna, who was doing a great animal stage show the day I happened to be at the Columbus Zoo – and, best of all, some great shots of my family in Texas.

For all the great times together, and for all we have been to each other in the tough times, and for your kind and loving farewell, we thank you. You remain in our thoughts and very much in our prayers, as I hope we remain in yours.

In Christ’s Love,

Michael+