Re-entry Reflections (May 1, 2013)
By: Rev. Lydia Ferrante-Roseberry

My friend and mentor, Cynthia Winton-Henry (co-founder of Interplay), says there are five ways people ‘move’ in relationship: following, leading, melding, letting go and re-uniting.

After five years of following, leading and melding, this year we got to practice the latter two. It’s been a ‘moving’ experience for me and, I hope, for many of you.  Letting go involved fear, trust and love.   And in reuniting, I’ve already learned a lot about myself, us and relationships in general.

Two things seem clear: That I’m really appreciated AND that you did fine without me!  While those might seem to be contradictory, I was reminded by John Schwartz that the truth of both of these statements shows that we have a healthy system here.  Certainly, if either of those things were not true, our re-uniting would be a lot more difficult!

I also noticed what I’ll call “ministry polyamory” of the healthiest kind!  From your reflections to me, I understood that I was missed AND Sarah served you very well as a solo intern minister.  Perhaps in our letting go, we realized that our hearts are big enough to hold more than one picture of what a minister is — and that, in fact, you are also very capable of ministering to each other.  I’m also so grateful to all of the staff for the many ways they ministered during my time away.

Much of my sabbatical has had the effect of “expanding my heart.” And the process of “letting go” and “reuniting” has helped me see just how big my heart, indeed our collective heart, is.  May the continuing “dance” of our relationship serve to increase our capacity to move in the world with love, grace and a sense of abundance!  Let it be a dance we do!