Dear St. Peter’s Parish Community:
I have some challenging news to bring you all as members of this community. It is with mixed emotions that I share with you I have submitted my letter of resignation to our vestry. My last Sunday with you will be July 20th. I have accepted a call to serve as the next rector of St. John’s, Ellicott City, beginning on September 1.
Thank you for your invitation to join this community: to be a priest, a pastor, and a co-laborer with you. I cannot adequately express how grateful I am to have served as your rector over these last four years.
Discernment in ministry is an ongoing and sometimes surprising journey. In my experience, we rarely can predict the paths we will walk or what comes to us along the way. This decision is one I came to with much prayer, spiritual conversation, and deep wrestling. I feel clear that God is calling me into something new in this next season of ministry—not better, simply different. And I carry with me the grace and weight of all I’ve experienced with you. You all have taught me so much about what it means to serve.
I’ve been honored, humbled, stretched, and blessed to serve alongside you. We are fellow ministers in this beautiful, messy, and holy thing called Church. And as we enter a new way of relating to one another in that work, we remain fellow ministers in Christ’s church.
We’ve done some difficult and joyful work together: regathering from the pandemic, engaging more deeply in our OEC parish community, listening to one another to clarify a sense of missional identity, welcoming many new members and friends, and developing healthier and more sustainable ways of doing ministry. You all have encouraged and challenged me to be a more faithful follower of Jesus and a better priest. And you’ve welcomed and loved my family. I will be forever grateful for my time with you.
As we prepare for this transition, I will continue to serve as your priest and pastor. I hope we can connect with one another to give thanks for the work of God amongst us and practice hope for what comes next. The grief of saying goodbye is important to tend to in this time.
The wardens and vestry, along with our diocesan staff, are already preparing for this process of transition. You will be well-supported, and they will share more information with you in the coming days. A message from Bill Rodney, our Senior Warden, is below, following my letter.
God’s work at St. Peter’s now continues in new and yet-to-be discovered ways. I will continue to hold you in prayer and ask that you do the same for me, Kara, and Easton.
As I have been praying for you, this blessing from the author of Hebrews resounds in my heart:
“Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, as he works among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.”
May our one God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—the God of Resurrection, the Good Shepherd, and the Life-Giving Spirit, bless, keep, and sustain you, now and forevermore. Amen.
Your fellow minister in Christ’s Church,
Derek+
The Rev. Derek H. Miller
