Beloved of St. Peter’s,

It is with a heart full of gratitude, grief, and hope that I write to share my resignation from St. Peter’s United Church of Christ. I have accepted the call to be the Minister of First Parish Church United in Westford, MA. This decision has come with great care and many hours of prayer and discernment. The timing of this transition is not ideal coming so soon after sabbatical and in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and yet, I am excited and truly feel called to embrace this next chapter of my life and ministry. Accepting this new call also brings with it deep sadness at leaving this loving community, whom I love dearly.

From the beginning, July 2015, I have felt blessed to be your pastor and to share in ministry together. I have seen and felt such courage and willingness to experiment and dive deep into faith with you. You have allowed me to be creative in worship, question theology, and share my love of Harry Potter. You welcomed me into your lives and hearts and let me journey with you in the midst of joy and celebration as well as grief and heartache.

You offered me space to grow into the pastor I am today. You supported my call and the call of other young pastors by supporting the Bethany Fellows program. You invested your time and love into shaping me, and I am deeply grateful and forever changed. So many young pastors do not have this experience. Furthermore, I was blessed to work with an incredible colleague and mentor who has equally shaped and informed my ministry. This congregation is a gift.

My love for you and our ministry together made this decision that much harder, though I knew it was time to begin the process of transition. The search and call process is often a long and unpredictable process. I was not in a rush to leave or quicken my process, especially with an upcoming sabbatical. I carefully and slowly prepared and submitted my profile in the early months of this year. But then, with most things, everything changed in March 2020. Along with the rest of the world, the search and call process paused as we adjusted to this new normal. The search process unpaused and was active again before my sabbatical. However, I made the decision early on to again pause my search during that time with the exception of one congregation with whom I felt a connection.

The conversation continued and the Spirit was at work. So it is with equal parts of joy and grief that I find myself writing this letter. This year has tested the resiliency of the human spirit and this transition calls upon it again. We have been through our share of joys and challenges as a congregation, so I want to be very clear about this discernment process and how it came about.

In the fall of 2019, I began to sense a change within me and my call to ministry. I shared this feeling with my clergy groups and mentors who helped me understand that God was calling to me and preparing me for something new. Surprisingly (to me), as I prayed and listened more deeply, I discerned that I was being called to solo ministry, something I truly could not have anticipated having been formed in and loving collaborative and collegial ministry.

Even more significantly, I had been missing my family, increasingly so over the last two years and especially over the last few months.  I knew from the beginning of this discernment that I would search close to Maine in order to be closer to them. It has always been challenging to be far away from family, despite how wonderful this call to St. Peter’s has been. As a result, I deliberately did not do a nationwide search, and instead only sent my profile to three states: Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

Over the last 18 months St. Peter’s has been in a period of discernment of its own. It has been a time of deep listening and evaluation. Part of the conversations over the last 12+ months have been about the congregation’s finances and the need to increase our pledges. I want to be very clear: this played no role in my discernment to pursue God’s call to a new place. Despite the pandemic, our pledges have increased and financial support has been steadfast in this time. What a blessing and testament to all of you! This discernment among you will now continue and take on a new purpose in the coming months. I am confident in your ability to dream and imagine new possibilities and I will hold you close in prayer as you embark on that journey.

Ministry is a strange and wondrous calling, and I have been blessed beyond measure that my first call led me to you, St. Peter’s. We have become more invested and committed in our advocacy and social justice support and relationships. We have listened and adapted our faith formation to meet the needs of this congregation. Those are brave and powerful acts of faith. You are a holy, loving, powerful people of God. You have been called to community; to inspire and uplift each other, to challenge the status quo, to have courage in the face of fear, and above all--to love the imperfect parts of this world and its people. You are blessed in this sacred work, and God will continue to guide and love you in it.

My love and gratitude for you all is profound and unending, which makes parting painful, even in the midst of joy at new beginnings. Please know I’ll be reaching out to all of you in the coming weeks, but in addition to that I am always available to talk as we all process this news and transition. My last Sunday with you will be Sunday January 17th, 2021. I will remain hopeful and inspired in our shared ministry until that time of parting ways.

In Faith & Love,

Becca