Welcome !

Welcome to my 2006 sabbatical blog!  

What you’ll find here is a running commentary on my experiences, both personal and theological, during four months of travel while on a pastoral sabbatical leave from St. Mark's United Church.  I travelled from Canada to Australia, Indonesia to Israel and Jordan, France to Britain and, finally, back to Canada. 

This blog served two purposes.  

First, it provided me with a vehicle to capture and reflect during this time away from my regular responsibilities as a pastoral minister, a time of personal restoration and rejuvenation.  

Second, it was a means to share my experiences with and engage my parishioners and colleagues in this time, to bring them to places of sacred significance and offer them a glimpse through my eyes. 

I can’t recommend a pastoral sabbatical highly enough.  Both for the minister and for the congregation.  For me it was a time of retreat, experience, and revelation, all of which came back with me and became woven into programmes and sermons.  For the congregation it was a time of being responsible for ministry in ways that they had not experienced before, building self-confidence in their exercise and ownership of ministry.  It was good for both of us.

The Sabbatical Working Group of the Permanent Committee on Ministry and Employment Policies and Services of the General Council of The United Church of Canada (now that’s a mouthful!) thought this blog offers a useful example of one way that sabbatical learnings and experiences can be shared.  I’m delighted to be invited to share it with you!  

Remember that a blog reads backward – you’ll find the first posts at the end.  So click on January and scroll down to the bottom.  You are welcome to quote anything I’ve written and to use the photographs that I’ve posted (they are all taken by me, with the exception of the first one at the beginning of my journey).  I do ask, though, that you respect the Creative Commons copyright terms and attribute the words or images to me.  Also, if you use something, let me know and send me a copy!  You can reach me at ahall@united-church.ca.