wfn.org | Commentary: Reflections on retirement

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 19, 2001  News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-31-71BP{277}

NOTE:  A head-and-shoulders photograph of the Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell is
available.

A UMNS Commentary
By the Rev. Gilbert H. Caldwell

By the end of June, all of the United Methodist Church's U.S. annual
conferences will have met. There have been years when I have been weary and
depressed over the "conference experience." There have been years when my
wife, Grace, and I have had to say goodbye to our congregation as we left
one appointment to move to another. There have even been years when the
debates at clergy and plenary sessions have saddened me.

But this year is different. I say that not because I am retiring after 45
years as a clergy person in United Methodism and its predecessor churches.
This year is different because I have felt more than ever the power that is
in our connection, despite our debates and differences. The power that
sustains and holds us together is not the result of our structural
organization, but is clearly the power and love of God as expressed through
Jesus Christ and made manifest in a peculiar people who call themselves
"United Methodist."

What do I mean, specifically?

First, the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference, as a result of last year's
Western Jurisdiction Conference, received our new bishop, Warner H. Brown
Jr. Our former bishop, Mary Ann Swenson, is now in Los Angeles after leading
the Denver Area (which includes Rocky Mountain) for eight years. The passing
of the leadership baton from one bishop to another is one of the most
efficient things the church does. In all of the episcopal areas that have
received new leaders, it is important for us to honor the gifts of both the
new and former bishops. Bishops Brown and Swenson were honored this way when
the Rocky Mountain Conference met, and I am sure the same is true throughout
our denomination.

Second, I felt, more than ever before, the connecting power of prayer, as
people throughout our conference told me that they had remembered me in
their prayers. They were responding to the fact that I had two serious
operations last August and September. They came up to me and said, "I have
been praying for you." One especially powerful moment occurred when a clergy
colleague -- who had taken strong exception, verbally and in writing, to a
sermon I had preached at conference two years ago - walked up and embraced
me.

There are tears in my eyes as I remember that prayerful concerns about my
health have been expressed by United Methodists from this conference, where
I have been only four years, and from colleagues who have known me much
longer throughout the denomination. It may be that a church that knows how
to pray and cry in response to our human predicaments is not as divided as
we sometimes imagine.

Finally, retirement has reminded me of how proud I am to be a United
Methodist. I say this not because I am no longer dependent (or frightened)
by a bishop's appointments, but because in retirement, I have realized again
the efficiency of our denomination. 

There is, of course, much paperwork. (The bishops and district
superintendents in the five conferences where I have served realized that
filling out and returning forms on time was not one of my God-given gifts.)
But the care and sensitivity of the United Methodist Board of Pension and
Health Benefits and the conference Board of Pensions, as well as the
guidance that I received in selecting health insurance, made me realize
again that the paperwork that I detest is United Methodism's way of saying,
"Gil Caldwell, we love you and appreciate your ministry. Therefore, return
this form!"

Today, with another annual conference behind me, I realize I am a member of
a new class, the retirement class of 2001. However, retirement doesn't mean
that I am withdrawing from church life. United Methodism is stuck with me,
and I am stuck with United Methodism, in good times and times not-so-good.
Praise God.

# # #

*Caldwell is minister of special projects at Park Hill United Methodist
Church in Denver until June 30.

Commentaries provided by United Methodist News Service do not necessarily
represent the opinions or policies of UMNS or the United Methodist Church.

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