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 On a June evening we sat on the dock, seven chairs carefully arranged so we wouldn't topple backward into the lake. It was our last Covenant Discipleship meeting before I moved to my new appointment, and we decided to meet at Mary's home for our meeting and meal. We went around the circle, sharing our acts of compassion, justice, devotion and worship, just as we had done the last few years. We spoke of how the spirit had been known to us that week, and shared our prayer requests and prayed together, again.
All the while dragonflies swooped around us, startling us, settling down in the middle of us, brushing our arms briefly.
We went up the hill to have our dinner. Afterward, we celebrated our time together and discussed how we would handle this transition. I'd left congregations before, but not a Covenant Discipleship group. I was their pastor, certainly, and I knew how pastors take leave of parishioners, but I wasn't just a pastor in the Covenant group. We weren't sure how to do this.
I started Covenant Discipleship groups at my congregation because I wanted to help my parishioners grow in their spiritual lives in the most thorough and powerful way I could. I was delighted with how well that worked. But I hadn't anticipated how powerful it would be for me. I learned so much from that group of women, and about my own spiritual life. Now I was leaving the church, leaving the group. I was going to a new congregation that doesn't (yet) have Covenant Discipleship groups. They were welcoming a pastor well trained in spiritual growth but not Covenant Discipleship. And we were simply grieving our separation.
We sat down, and I brought out a box. I'd written each woman a card, naming the growth and spiritual qualities I'd seen developing in the last few years together. Then I gave each one a small painted pot with an aloe slip from a plant I've had since my first appointment. I told them I gave them part of my aloe plant because it had healing properties, survived drought and neglect but thrived quickly when cared for, and it multiplied so stubbornly.
Then they handed me their gift. I opened it and pulled out a vibrant blue and green stole, made by one of the women, covered with dragonflies. We all burst into tears. "Dragonflies!" I said when I could. "Did you know there would be dragonflies here tonight?" "No," they said through their tears.
Every week we had shared how the Holy Spirit had been present with us. As we sat together that last night I thought of the dragonflies again, how they swooped among us, settled down in the midst of us, startled us with their touch. "I think we're just going to have to trust we'll find our way through this time," I said. I finally understood we were going to have help. The Spirit was right there, in our midst.
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The Rev. Hargrave is a clergy member of the Minnesota Conference. In June she left Hope United Methodist Church in Duluth, Minnesota, to begin her new appointment as pastor of Fairmount Avenue United Methodist Church in St. Paul, MN. You can read Michelle's blog at 3namesofgrace.blogspot.com.)
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