The news site of the Anglican Church Southern Queensland: nourishing and connecting our faith community

Clergy retirement

Tuesday June 28

Finding the fountain of youth in retirement

“There was no set date for my retirement. No celebration. No intentional, ‘Now I begin a new stage of my life!’ Perhaps it was my decision not to continue lecturing at St Francis College that led to my retirement. I think receiving my Pensioner Concession Card was the clincher. Nevertheless, I simply morphed into retirement and I’m loving it,” says The Rev’d Dr Carol Hebron

Being in place until the door opens and the path appears

“One of our children gave me a personalised ‘Countdown to Retirement’ fridge magnet with dates to mark off. Initially I couldn’t be bothered marking off each day, instead opting to cross out a month at a time,” says The Ven. Valerie Hoare

The Rev'd Karol and Deanna (far left) with parishioners in the Anglican Church in Heidelberg, Germany, at the end of a Eucharist in July 2019. During retirement from full-time ordained ministry, The Rev'd Karol served in a number of locum appointments in Europe

Bridging the sacred and secular

“While disruptive, retiring from Diocesan ministry held the promise of new vistas, as we needed to develop separate identities apart from ‘priest’, ‘priest’s wife’ and ‘priest’s daughters’. I found this quite liberating,” says The Rev’d Karol Misso

Blessings from a nine-month long conversation

“I must say from the outset that Sr Catherine’s ministry to me as my professional supervisor was beyond any hopes I had entertained before especially given, as I’ve already intimated, my initial reluctance to take part,” says The Ven. Michael Faragher on his experience taking part in professional supervision