Dear Friends,
I am writing to announce my intention to retire from IPC on October 31, 2020. I can hardly believe that it has been 16 years since I answered God’s call and accepted your invitation to join the staff. It has been both a joy and a privilege to serve as your associate pastor—particularly as the director of pastoral care and counseling.
We have been together in the worst of times and the best of times. You have given me your newborn children to hold when they were just hours old. I have stood by you and held the hands of your loved ones as they took their final breath in the ICU. I have officiated at your weddings and conducted funerals for your loved ones. I have baptized more children than I can count, promising along with the congregation to love and nurture our newest members of God’s family. We have shared the body of Christ and the cup of salvation every month in the sanctuary and every week in the chapel for all these many years. I have prayed with you and shed tears for you as you endured grief and loss. I have laughed with you at your discovery of joy again, thanking God all the while.
As promised in the gospel of John, from Jesus Christ we have received grace upon grace. During my 30 years of ministry, I have felt awash in the grace of God. Not that there haven’t been tough times. Not that there haven’t been times when I felt inadequate for the task. But never have I doubted God’s call on my life; never have I questioned God’s providence. I have been blessed to have served three fine congregations. Who could ask for more than that?
In time, I will share with you what the next chapter in my pastoral life will be. For now, I can say that I am not fully retiring from ministry. On November 1, I will begin working part-time as a chaplain in Birmingham.
My gratitude for you is deeply heartfelt. My love for you is enduring. My hope for you is boundless.
Grace and peace,
Lucy
Rev. Lucy Turner, Executive Associate Pastor and Director of Congregational Ministries