Pastor Nathan’s Renewal Plans

Following Transfiguration Sunday, February 11, 2024, we will send Pastor Nathan off on an uninterrupted sabbatical journey. He will return to Washington Avenue Christian Church on Monday, May 13, and to the pulpit the following Sunday, which is Pentecost. During this time Pastor Nathan will continue to meet monthly with Dr. McClure about his personal Just Values inventory. Discussion of his values with Dr. McClure will add meaning to the time spent in meditation, quiet, listening, and spiritual direction at two retreat centers.

The first activity for Pastor Nathan will be for him, his partner (Dr. Chad Vickers), and Thunder (their German Shepherd) to travel to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where Nathan will begin an intense course of Zen practice at Mountain Cloud Zen Center. Rev. Dr. Valerie Forstman, who served as the Associate Dean of Common Life and Director of Admissions at Brite Divinity School with Nathan, is the guiding teacher at Mountain Cloud. While at Brite, Rev. Dr. Forstman led guided meditation in the Zen tradition for the wider Brite community. One year, Nathan engaged in the practice of sitting through the season of Lent. This experience was an incredibly powerful and transforming time that he would like to repeat because very little in the pastor’s daily life is still. Furthermore, Pastor Nathan is an extrovert’s extrovert.

Rev. Dr. Forstman breathed new life into his introverted side and helped Nathan care for both expressions of his life. While at Mountain Cloud, Nathan will engage in daily meditative practice (Monday through Saturday), attend the weekly dharma talks, and participate in one all-day meditation session, called zazenkai. In addition to these meditative practices, he will join other practitioners in the communal breakfast and engage in the assignment of work (“samu,” or work-practice) for the day.

Apart from Pastor Nathan’s time at Mountain Cloud, he, his partner, and dog will spend time at an AirBnB in Santa Fe. Chad, his partner, is a mental health psychiatric nurse practitioner and works from home and will continue his work while in Santa Fe. This region of the Southwest is Nathan and Chad’s preferred place for renewal. The food, art, landscape, and proximity to dear friends is a gift. They are eager to rekindle friendships, enjoy a few snow skiing breaks at Ski Santa Fe, and rest.

After their return to Elyria, Ohio, Pastor Nathan will spend another week at home before traveling to Cambridge, New York, where he and Thunder will reside for a month with the Monks of New Skete. The Monks of New Skete, well-known for their best-selling books about dogs, train dogs as part of their spiritual practice. Through the time at New Skete, Pastor Nathan will immerse himself alongside the brothers. He will inhabit their rhythm of life, which is alternative to his “normal” pastoral rhythm. For the final two weeks, Thunder will join in the dog training program there before they return home.

Nathan will have an additional week at home in Ohio to rest before returning to his role as senior pastor on Monday, May 13, 2024.