Retiring

A beautiful morning on El Camino Santiago

Today I wrote to Archbishop Phillip and informed him of my intention to resign as Bishop of Dunedin on Easter Monday, April 17 2017. I also informed our Diocesan Registrar and the Diocesan Council. I am giving this amount of notice because we need to make some very important decisions as a diocese. In my opinion (and actually, in this matter my opinion isn't the one that counts, but still...) the diocese should not be subject to a long interregnum and to make an appointment as soon after my departure as possible we would need to set processes in motion in the not too distant future. Further, some very careful thought needs to be given as to how we will pay for episcopal ministry in the future and maybe some hard choices and some innovations may need to be made.

Clemency and I drove to Invercargill and back on Sunday for Evening Church in All Saints Gladstone. The church was pleasantly full and the service was pleasantly informal. As we drove down in the wind and drove home in the rain we had a good five hours or so to talk about our future. Although we intend to continue to live in Dunedin, we will make ourselves scarce as soon after Easter Monday 2017 as possible. Perhaps we will walk the Camino again, and then perhaps take a parish away from the diocese for a few months. Perhaps in New Zealand , but we both rather fancy a little stint somewhere overseas and we rather warm to the idea of a summer in Scotland. I'll send off a few letters.

After that, who knows? My participation in the diocese will depend entirely on the new bishop. And there's a few other things I imagine filling my time with:

Offer spiritual direction to whoever wants it
Take retreats
Teach Centering Prayer
Fill in in the occasional parish somewhere
Walk Te Araroa
Cycle the various Central Otago bike tracks
Fix the house
Restore something with an engine and wheels
Greatly extend the size of our vegetable garden
Spend lots and lots of time with our grandchildren
Read
Write
Take photos
And, despite the list above, Be rather then Do

Comments

Chris said…

This comment has been removed by the author.

19 May 2016 at 09:04

Father Ron said…

Loved your thoughtful response, Kelvin, to the effects of GS2016, which placed Bishops like yourself in a position of having to safeguard our Church from mass defections. No doubt, such proceedings have made the thought of retirement much more attractive than might otherwise have been. You will have been glad to have completed your El Camino Pilgrimage with Clemency before GS2016. It would have helped to clarify your decisions for the future. My prayers are for you and your family at this time. Agape, Fr.Ron

21 May 2016 at 13:23

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