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A Profile of St. Luke’s New Rector?

December 3, 2024

Isaiah 1:21-31| 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12| Luke 20:9-18

Given my first 75 years of life as a conscientious Roman Catholic (whereby a local bishop appoints each new pastor and faith-filled parishioners can like it or leave it), I’m intrigued to experience the retrospection—communal and personal—whereby we Episcopal catholics (i.e., universal) at St. Luke’s are choosing our new rector. Thus, given St. Paul’s previous testimony and our own vivid memories, his first letter to those new Christians at Thessalonica may offer a pretty good profile of qualities to look for in a new rector.

1. Guts given his/her past ministry’s public reputation:

“You yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our coming to you was not in vain, but though we had already suffered and been shamefully maltreated at Philippi, as you know, we had courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in spite of great opposition.” 

Why had Paul and his disciple Silas been publicly beaten and imprisoned at Philippi? Preferring to let the power of Christ’s love speak for itself, he’d silenced the persistently accurate proclamations of a Roman citizen’s fortune-telling slave. Then Paul refused to be freed despite an earthquake’s breaking the prison’s chains and doors, his despondent jailor’s conversion to Christianity, and the embarrassed city officials’ urging him to leave quietly—not without a public apology acknowledging Paul’s and Silas’s status as Roman citizens entitled to a fair trial (Acts 16: 16-40).

2. First impressions of self-less and personal caring:

“As you know and as God is our witness, we never came with words of flattery or with a pretext for greed; nor did we seek praise from mortals, whether from you or from others, though we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.”

Kindly recall here priests whose guidance has attracted or repelled you and wonder why.

3. Long-term tenderness:

“You are witnesses, and God also, how pure, upright, and blameless our conduct was towards you believers. … As you know, we dealt with each one of you like a father with his children, urging and encouraging you and pleading that you should lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.”

How have priests you have known persistently embodied their faith and yours?

God willing, may we soon find the priest that we are looking for.

Marie Hennedy