(Editor's Note: the following letter was sent to the membership of St. Augustine's Parish, from the Rector, on Sept. 8th, 2009 and is reprinted here for the broader readership of Ebb and Flow in both the print and online edition. Also, please see the accompanying letter from the Warden of the Vestry in this issue).

Dear friends:

I write to inform you of my decision to retire as Rector of St. Augustine's, effective Dec. 31st of this year.

This decision was not made lightly or painlessly. This parish has been our home now for some thirteen years.

It is a church in which I have grown as a priest and as a disciple of Christ and where my family has been nourished and fed richly by God's grace and by the fellowship of the saints in this place. I have buried my mother and Marla's brother here and presided at the marriage of my son and new daughter-in-law here and someday, Marla and I will be inurned here in the columbarium. I have been intimately connected to your lives: shared with you the joys of marriage and the birth and adoption of children, prayed with you at times of divorce and miscarriage and the death of loved ones and been privileged to enter into deep conversations with you and our Lord in the sacraments of Word and Table. We have accomplished some good things and, of course, there are things left undone. I anticipate my leave taking with sadness but also with deep gratitude.

But it is time. I simply don't have the energy and vision I had thirteen years ago when I first came here as your new Rector. And St. Augustine's needs and deserves someone who would not be, increasingly, going through the motions. I have not yet reached that point in my ministry but I fear it more than anything − for me and for you.

But my decision is to retire − I can't imagine being anywhere else. This is, as you know, a very special and unique place and it will continue to be that, just under new leadership capable and empowered to lead you into the next phase of the journey.

Our vestry will guide the parish during the transition time beginning in January, under the direction of the Office of the Bishop. Until that time, I want to savor our remaining time together.

Know that I give God hearty thanks and abundant praise for you and for St. Augustine's and for the privilege Marla and I have enjoyed in being among you. Thanks be to God!

Most faithfully in Christ,
(Rev.) Hartshorn Murphy