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by Linda Worthington
UMConnection Staff

Three Baltimore-Washington Conference clergymen have been chosen by the Lilly Endowment?s 2005 National Clergy Renewal Program to have their sabbaticals fully funded.

Only 10 United Methodists were on the 2005 list of 132 recipients in 37 states.

The Revs. Christopher Holmes, Roderick Miller and Richard Harden are making preparations with their churches, Community in Crofton, Bethany in Ellicott City, and Reisterstown, respectively, to say good-bye for several months this summer while they go in very different directions on their sabbaticals.

The Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment began the clergy renewal program five years ago. By providing up to $45,000 directly to Christian congregations, the foundation enables clergy to engage in a period of renewal and reflection.

?Renewal periods are not vacations,? the program?s Web site states, ?but times for intentional exploration and reflection, for drinking again from God?s life-giving waters, for regaining enthusiasm and creativity for ministry.?

How will these clergy use their times for renewal?

Holmes, who has served Community UMC since 1988, has already begun taking sculpting classes at Anne Arundel Community College. He will be exploring religion and the arts, ?two fields I?ve always wanted to incorporate,? he said.

Community UMC officials have granted their pastor four months leave. He?ll be spending a couple weeks in Europe, visit New York City art museums and attend a class on art and spirituality at the Henry Luce III Center for Arts and Religion at Wesley Seminary.

Holmes? grant, at just shy of $45,000, the largest of the three, covers expenses so his wife, Margaret, and family can accompany him on the European trip, which includes exposure to the great sculptures in Florence and the Tuscany area of Italy.

The grants include funds for the home church to hire others to fill in while the pastor is away. This is a facet of the program that many congregations find rewarding, as they are exposed to ideas, styles and services that may be quite different from what the congregation is accustomed to.

?We think it will be an extraordinary opportunity for growth for both our pastor and our congregation,? said Ron Hanes, chairman of the staff-parish relations committee at Community UMC.

Miller, who has been leading his congregation at Bethany UMC on a ?path to purposeful living? since 1994, says his personal journey is one of discipleship. His commitment in the church is to the discipleship journey. That was his theme in his application to the Lilly Endowment for the renewal grant.

Discipleship is about growing both the interior life and the outer life, and to do that one must be in community with others, he said. It?s never a solitary journey.

Miller will spend two months in Europe, specifically visiting pilgrimage sites in England, Wales and France. But before then, he?ll be on a personal retreat at an Episcopal retreat center on the Hudson River where he went as a boy with his father.

His wife, Carol Foard, and two sons will accompany him to London where they will meet up with the Rev. Stephen Rettenmayer, a Baltimore-Washington elder who pastors the American Church of London, where John Wesley conducted the funeral for George Whitfield. Pilgrimage sites they?ll visit include Canterbury, Norwich and Glastonbury.

Other sites he and his wife will visit are in Provence, Avignon, Arles and Taize, before ending in Paris.

For the last part of his summer in Europe, Miller plans to spend three weeks at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland, the home base of the World Council of Churches, a center of international study. He will reflect and write, and hopes to meet many pilgrims from a wide range of countries, beliefs and theologies.

For Harden, his sabbatical leave will enable him and his wife, Ann, to visit their son and grandchildren in Amity, Kazakhstan, in Central Asia, and to pursue his interests in bridge building between Christians and Muslims. In a second career, Harden has been a clergyman for 10 years and at Reisterstown UMC since 2000.

The Hardens? son, David, with his wife and three children, is in the foreign service for the U.S. government. Part of David Harden?s task is to find ways to reduce tensions between Islam and Christianity.

Harden?s sabbatical study and reflection will focus on building bridges, meeting with Islamic and Russian Orthodox leaders, enabled by his son, and visiting Islamic holy cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. He will also fulfill a childhood dream to visit the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, and gaze at Rembrandt?s painting, ?The Return of the Prodigal.?

To help put the whole experience together, Harden will spend a week in silent meditation in the Abbey of Gethsemane in Trappist, Ky. He will also start a garden as a way ?to re-connect to a segment of my life that has been absent for a long time.?

Harden expects upon his reentry to Reisterstown UMC to assist the congregation in finding new ways to reach the increasingly diverse community, particularly having a deeper understanding of ?the needs of our Russian and Muslim neighbors in Reisterstown,? he said.

Three United Methodist clergymen, three different approaches: art, discipleship, bridge-building. All three clergymen are following childhood dreams, finding ways to increase their spirituality, grow closer to their families and understand more fully God?s will in their lives.