Passing the faith down through all the generations

As we begin 2025, I want to let you know that I will retire from serving as pastor at MBPPC, and from ordained ministry, later this year. At the congregational meeting scheduled to follow worship next Sunday, January 12th, I will share details of my plans. For now, let me say that I am announcing this decision now so that we will have plenty of time to continue our ministry together, to lay the groundwork for the transition, and to look forward to the next chapter in the life of this unique worshipping community.

Looking back to the Advent season we have just celebrated, and the Christmas season that continues through Monday, January 6, the Day of Epiphany, I want to thank everyone who made our worship especially powerful and inspirational:

to Tim Beggs and our choir members, thank you for the beautiful, moving Arneson “Magnificat” you presented on December 15th — this particular year all the parts came together in the content of the message, the quality of the singing, the engagement of the musicians, and the response of the congregation;

to Kristin Calaff, parents, and children who continued the tradition of the pageant with joy and wonder (I love the expressions on the faces of the youngest children, for whom this is a first opportunity to lead worship, and the youth who have graduated from being sheep and angels to being the leaders as the Holy Family and as narrators);

to everyone who contributed to another lovely Christmas Eve candlelight service — my last as a pastor, and the swan song for the famous cape!

Speaking of that cape, I want to share the back story. From 1989 to 1995, I served as associate pastor at the First Presbyterian Church of Plymouth, Michigan. The senior pastor during my first three years was the Rev. Philip Rogers Magee. Phil was born at the same hospital where I was born — Swedish here in Seattle. He was born in 1926; I was born in 1958. That always felt like a special bond between us.

When Phil graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary around 1950, he was called as one of the associate pastors at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. In those days, all the clergy on staff were provided wool capes to wear during the winter months. When he retired from the ministry in 1993, Phil gave me his cape.

I have worn it every Christmas Eve at MBPPC, and only on that one day each year. It is now at least 75 years old! It feels like a great symbol of the enduring power of the Gospel, and a connection to “the great cloud of witnesses” who have passed the faith down through all the generations.

A blessed New Year to you,

Lee