Such a grand adventure -

Sometimes things come together in such a remarkable fashion.  This sabbatical is among those.

We, Patricia & Phil and the folks of St. Andrew, wanted to make this time of sabbatical an opportunity for renewal for all of us.  We wrote a grant application to Lilly Endowment (The National Clergy Renewal Program).  They awarded St. Andrew a grant.  Now it is about to begin.  We are so fortunate!

Angela Wells, a recent graduate from Union Theological Seminary in New York, was chosen by the St. Andrew search committee to serve as the Supply Pastor during the sabbatical.  She is excited.  She is a gifted pastor.  St. Andrew is honored to be able to learn from and befriend her.  The very cool thing is she will live in our Sarasota home during our times of absence.

We begin at home with a couple weeks of preparation – reading, running, packing, planning, attending to the details of travel.

Then there will be a basically unscheduled week in Dublin.We will be near Trinity College, so we look forward to seeing The Book of Kells,

among a number of other adventures.

We will spend eight days and nights near Glendalough learning from Mary Meighan about Celtic Spirituality and then go on to three weeks in County Kerry where we will live in a home across the bay from Dingle.  While there, we are both registered to run in the Dingle Half Marathon.

Then to Duluth and Portland, Oregon, for three weeks of time with family along the shore of Lake Superior and the Pacific ocean at Yachats.

And, finally back home to begin our work on the two multi media resources we hope to create.

There will be a daily blog posted during the three months.  Maybe it will be a picture, or a song, or a poem, or a reflection, or a story.  We hope you will have a window into our adventures and learnings through this style of conversation.

Thanks for journeying with us in this way.