Dear beloved members and friends of St. Mary’s Church,

This is my last opportunity to address you as your Rector. I remember 15 years ago, getting to know St. Mary’s through your search committee. It was like falling in love. St. Mary’s was delightfully winsome; and seemed to offer me a place to be the kind of person and priest that I wanted to be. I am profoundly grateful to you for allowing me to serve God with you.

I brought some gifts of preaching and teaching and pastoring and organizing that I think have been helpful. I think above all, I came with a vision of God’s incredible glory, and the way that he has rescued us and brought us to share that glory in Jesus Christ. He has given us his Spirit, so that here and now, we have a share in his Divine Life. That vision gets expressed in awesome, profound worship and in tender personal prayer; in deep friendships and in loving care for one another. It also gets expressed as we reach out to those who do not know us, and may not know Christ. St Mary’s is a blessed church, because all the threads that you would like to see in a Christian Community are woven together strongly in the life here. I think this has helped me to be a better priest, and to serve you as God has called me to serve.

To be leaving is bittersweet. I have loved being Rector. I have loved the way that we have offered worship, shared the faith, made friends with one another and cared for one another. I will miss that deeply.  I knew when I came to St Mary’s – as best as we can know these things – that it was God’s hand drawing me here.  As Dianne and I think and pray and imagine our future together, it became just as clear to me that that same divine hand was calling me to give up this beloved ministry.

So I step away from St Mary’s with you deeply engraved on my heart. I pray for you. I have confidence in your lay leadership. I think they have made one great decision already, in asking Fr Bill to be Priest-in-charge, and inviting Mother Gail to be an assistant to him. These are wonderful devoted priests who will serve you well.

By the nature of things in The Episcopal Church, we priests, when we leave a position, are asked to step away from the parish and allow the parish to find its identity and its direction into its new future. So please understand that my absence is a physical absence and not any absence of love and care for you.  I would welcome it if you would like to reach out to visit with me. Just understand that we can talk about anything except St Mary’s Church, and how the search is going!

My prayer and hope for St. Mary’s, and for all of you, is that you will keep responding to this glimpse of Glory that God has given to us, that you will grow in your faith, and in your love for one another.  And that both by your words and by your life, you will be a testimony to the wonderful love, the wonderful glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you and God bless you.

In Christ, 

Fr. Michael Rowe

(Fr. Michael’s personal email is [email protected] and his phone # is 239 297-7245)