Before it actually happened, in June 1997, I looked forward to retirement as a milestone in my life, at least outwardly. It would complete almost 41 years of active ministry, including ministry in six parishes in the diocese of Huron and almost seven years as a suffragan bishop of the same diocese. Inwardly my feelings were more mixed – I was elated about enjoying a more relaxed pace of life but nervous about what I would do with all that extra, unstructured time, Clergy in general seem to find retirement a good time of life. While we may give up full-time ministry, we never give up our essential role of being in Holy Orders.
Retirement brings the happy possibility of doing ministry for the love of ministry with the added bonus of more free time for other interests. One can enjoy being part of the institutional church, but one also has the greater freedom of living one’s faith with a new freedom from responsibilities and a great sense of personal choice.
Retirement, for me, is proving to be a marvellous, creative and expansive time.
Last fall, retired bishops of southern Ontario and their spouses met for a day at Renison College in Waterloo. The event provided an opportunity for renewing acquaintances, catching up on personal lives in retirement, sharing stories and concerns, going to Eucharist and having a meal together.
Many of us, while enjoying a release from the administrative responsibilities of episcopal life, missed the social interaction that our more structured lives had now led us to. This day together helped bridge that gap.
It was interesting to learn where we had chosen to live, the type of housing we had procured, the health concerns that some were experiencing and the work and hobbies that were being enjoyed.
It was also an eye-opener to be brought up to date on the multitude of activities open to us despite being officially retired. Some among us, including myself, were assisting in parishes; others were in charge of smaller parishes; some were doing consultative work for the church, for government or other institutions; some were serving on boards of directors and some were doing supply ministries in parishes and for the bishops.
Many of us were conducting retreats, taking workshops and leading missions. Almost all of us, including spouses, were involved in some form of volunteer work. Boredom did not seem to be an issue. Overall, it was my feeling that as a group we found retirement to be a gift, a time of opportunity and continued usefulness within the church and in society.
The group reached consensus that we should meet again and plans are being made for another October gathering using an expanded mailing list.
In personal study and planning for retirement, one piece of advice seemed very helpful: to develop new interests and to expand one’s life horizons. My pre-retirement activities had included motorcycling, bicycling, canoeing, fishing, travelling, walking and writing. These are all still part of my life. The new interests include kite flying, archery and membership in a fitness club gym. New interests highlight the fact that retirement brings the great asset of expanded time in which to enjoy activities of one’s choosing and to remain as healthy as possible.
For myself, the heart of retirement centres on two facets of life, both involving growth: firstly in one’s spiritual development and secondly, in one’s marriage, family and social relationships. Although these areas still don’t just happen — they have to be nourished in our lives — there is at last more time for prayer, meditation and the reading of scriptures and devotional material. I find it quite wonderful that each day provides time for being with God in prayer and meditation. Family and social contacts are an enjoyable larger part of our lives without being in competition with other work responsibilities. Retirement is simply and affirmatively a lively time of new possibilities.
I know that some people find retirement difficult. For that reason I believe that retirement and especially the years just before retirement provide us with an opportunity to sort out our identity and to bring some clarity to our various roles in life. All of us are called to live different roles such as family roles, spousal roles, work and career roles, spiritual, social and leisure roles. For large chunks of our life these roles are often competing with each other, which produces stress.
Retirement preparation and retirement itself brings us a new opportunity to reset our priorities and clarify our roles.
If too much of our identity has been tied up with our career and work roles, then the loss of this at retirement can be devastating or at the very least confusing to our sense of personal worth. Fortunately, as indicated earlier, for bishops our clerical role does continue. For me, this has meant assisting in a parish, conducting retreats, and doing consultation work.
Retirement, therefore, can bring us the time and opportunity to further pursue our ordination in a supportive role to diocese, deanery and parish settings.
We have the time to pursue a teaching, preaching, apostolic ministry within the church. We have time to balance chosen work with our other essential roles as spouses, parents, grandparents, friends. We have time to be centred in our Christian faith by way of prayer, study and to find a balance between an interior and exterior expression of faith.
The good news is that retirement provides more possibilities to be for the sheer joy of being who and what we choose to be. Personally I have found retirement to be a time of continued growth and challenge.
To retire as a bishop is to have time for new adventures in life and in God.
