On Sunday, in our multigenerational worship service about change, I talked about how my growing up in a military family made me a bit of an expert on change. What I didn’t say explicitly was that it also made me an unwilling expert at “good-bye”…my least favorite part of every move.

It’s not quite time yet for my final good-bye as your minister—I have two Sundays left in the pulpit, and many more meetings—but because of summer schedules, there have been some individual good-byes with some of you already, and I know there will be more between now and my actual last day here. I realized on Sunday, as one of you hugged me farewell, that this next couple of weeks will be an extended process of saying good-bye to each other. That is both hard, and a gift.

Sunday the 20th will be my final worship service as your minister; the column in that week’s Weekly Update will be my final one; and from the 23rd on, I will be on vacation and only available in case of emergency. If it’s important to you that we connect one-on-one before we say good-bye, please reach out and we will schedule a time!

In gratitude and love,

Rev. Diana