From Father Ed
March 23, 2020
Dear people of Trinity Church,
Grace and peace in Jesus, the risen Christ be with you and yours, especially at this time in our world.
Yesterday, Sunday I participated in a meeting of our Vestry with Bishop Andy Doyle via Zoom. At the top of that meeting I shared with the Vestry some information on me and my family’s future with you the good people of Trinity Church. I must say off the bat that, in the ethos of my work as pastor, it is awkward to be giving such information via email. But as we all know now, these are not normal times.
You may know that, in the polity of The Episcopal Church, assisting clergy and staff are automatically put on notice when the Rector is about to retire or leave for any reason. In December last year I was invited to a meeting with Bishop Andy Doyle, the gist of which was that, I could remain at Trinity Church from the date of Susan’s departure to the end of this calendar year, i.e. December. Rather than make the move in the middle of an academic year (in December), my family and I came to the conclusion that it would be prudent to do so at the beginning (August). My wife is a school teacher and our daughter is a high schooler. Which brings me to today’s news.
I have accepted a call to be the Middle School Chaplain at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, TX, beginning August 1, 2020. Our plan is to make the move sometime in July.
Please allow me a moment to express our deep and sincere gratitude to Susan, the Vestry and all you wonderful people we have come to know and love at Trinity and in the wider Galveston community. Your generosity has far exceeded anything we could have imagined, and I am certainly the better priest and pastor for the brief sojourn among you. Vashti and Vashèd join me in saying thank you.
In the coming weeks and months, we will certainly have time to say good-bye, even if it be from a distance. May God bless us all wherever life takes us. I am sure our paths will cross again eventually, if not in this life then certainly on the “other side of Easter.”
In Christ’s service,
Ed Thompson+
