Farewell Rev. Melanie Slane
Dear Church of the Redeemer,
With overwhelming gratitude and tender affection for you, I write to you today to let you know that I have accepted a new call in my ministry to the Church. Next month I will begin my new position as Transition Minister for the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio and begin to serve you, and the rest of our diocese, in a new role. My last day among you as pastor and priest will be October 27th.
Being with you over these last six years has been one of the greatest joys of my life, and I cannot begin to thank you enough for allowing me the honor of being with you in some of the most difficult and joyous times in your lives. Without a doubt, you have made me a better priest, a better person, and a more faithful disciple of Jesus, through and through.
Your amazing clergy team and dedicated staff have been incredible colleagues to me, and I have every confidence that you all will navigate this next chapter of Redeemer leadership with grace and vitality. I especially want to give thanks for the Rev. Philip DeVaul, who called me here to serve you and has shown unwavering support for my ministry in this place and in the wider community.
Serving on the Diocesan Staff under the direction of our new Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Kristin White, is an incredible opportunity for me personally at a time of great renewal in our diocese, and I am very excited for all that I will learn, and all the ways that I will grow in this new role.
Leaving parish ministry will be a new reality for me as I have spent the first 11 years of my priesthood as an associate in 3 different parishes. While I am thrilled to join the Diocesan Staff, I am also feeling all of the feelings about missing the sacramental nature of serving as your parish priest.
My family and I have felt so very loved by all of you, and there is so much goodness when I think of our shared life here. In this new role, most of my Sundays will be spent traveling around the diocese to churches in transition, but I will also get to worship more regularly in the pews with my husband Chris and our children, which I am very grateful for. We are very glad to be staying here in Cincinnati and to be seeing many of you at diocesan-wide gatherings.
I am assured today, that no matter where we go or how we serve, together we are The Episcopal Church in Southern Ohio, united in common affection, common mission, and common prayer.
Please join me in giving thanks for the ministry we have shared and for the road ahead for all of us as we seek to follow Christ.
May the road rise to meet you, and the wind be at your back, until we meet again.
Faithfully,
The Rev. Melanie Slane
Friends,
The Rev. Melanie Slane has been a steadfast, faithful, loving, thoughtful, challenging, and heartwarming priest, pastor, and friend to us all. Her work among us has left us a more energetic and Christ- centered people than when she arrived in our lives.
I am filled with a mixture of joy and sadness at this news. I will miss calling her a partner in our parish ministry, but I am joyful because I know this is not goodbye, that she will still be our neighbor, that we will still all be partners in ministry in this new context. I am certain that the transformational spirit she brings to her work here will now be shared with the whole Diocese of Southern Ohio.
Here at Church of the Redeemer, we plan to pause, pray, and discern where the Holy Spirit is guiding us in this transition. Then we can move forward in calling a new Associate who will help us in the next chapter of fulfilling the vision God has given us for this church. For surely if the Holy Spirit is calling Melanie to this new role, that same Spirit has plans for us and that can only be good.
Melanie, we love you. God bless you. Thank you for loving us and blessing us. You will always have Church of the Redeemer in your corner.
Your friend and brother in Christ Jesus,
The Rev. Philip DeVaul
Tags: posts
