Sabbatical Information

Overview

Our senior pastor, Rev. Dr. Fred Garry, will be spending 3 months in Malawi, Africa on a sabbatical beginning June 7th, 2008. His sabbatical theme is "Abiding." He wishes to explore what the Malawian culture can teach him, through their practices of sitting, singing, dancing, walking and praying. At the same time, our own congregation will be exploring these same activities. You can keep up with his spiritual journey through his blog entries.

Lenten Studies
During Lent we had a series of potluck dinners, each followed by a program focusing on one or two of the activities. One of the most moving evenings was when several youth group members and our director of music, Sara Gleason, spoke on what music means to them spiritually.

While Rev. Garry is Gone
During the time that Rev. Garry is gone, our associate pastor will be leading the senior high youth group on the annual mission trip to Mexico to build houses near Tijuana. Following that, Matt and Elizabeth have accepted a call to a joint youth ministry position at Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton NJ and will be leaving in mid to late July. Several possibilities were explored and rejected as not providing the coverage needed.

The solution chosen has been to extend an invitation to the Reverends Barb and Jerry Benjamin to take over Rev. Garry's responsibilities during the sabbatical. They have served as parish associates with Rev. Garry while he served in Washington State. They will arrive on June 23rd and will remain until the day after the Garrys return on August 22nd.

Jerry Benjamin has served churches in Minnesota, Iowa, Colorado and Washington. On three occasions he served as a delegate to the churches of the Soviet Union, visiting, supporting and speaking in the churches there. He has served his presbytery, synod and the General Assembly. Now retired, he writes, preaches, helps out and enjoys himself and his friends. He and Barbara travel, cook and work together. He has taught at Chapman University, the University of Colorado, the Iliff School of Theology, Olympic College and the Yakima preschool. He holds a BS in Chemistry, MDiv in parish ministry and a DMin in adult education and New Testament Studies.

Barbara Benjamin enjoyed a distinguished career in nursing before beginning her church ministry. She is qualified and experienced in emergency care, postnatal critical care, orthopedic nursing and gerontology. She was called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church and attended the Iliff School of Theology, earning her MDiv. She is a qualified and experienced interim pastor.

Barbara and Jerry served as co-pastors of the United Presbyterian Church of Broomfield, Colorado, for ten years. During these successful years, they worked together sharing pulpit and table, dividing the work where possible. They compliment each other nicely. Upon retirement they moved to Western Washington to be near their grandbabies. They regularly lead officer training and spiritual development retreats.
We trust that Barb and Jerry will fit in very nicely in northern New York and will receive a warm Watertown welcome.