Pastor Peter Asplin Sabbatical

 

The SWPA Synod “Sabbatical Policy for Synod Staff” is found on page C-65 of the current policy manual. The policy expects that assistants to the Bishop “shall take a sabbatical of from one to three months” after having served in the Synod Office for six consecutive years. Pastor Asplin began serving as assistant to the Bishop on June 1, 2017. June 1, 2023 will be six years of continuous service.

Pastor Asplin will be on sabbatical June 24, 2023, to September 10, 2023.

During Pastor Asplin's time away, Pastor Ed Sheehan will be filling in and can be reached at ed.sheehan@swpasynod.org.

The synod’s model “Sabbatical and Health Leave Policy” notes that a sabbatical “is an opportunity … [for a ministry] leader to experience a renewal of oneself and of one’s mission… a time for reflections, spiritual re-encounter, renewal and community.”

Renewal of Self

A key to renewal of self for Pastor Asplin will be to spend time with family. This will include visits with extended family, and also down time to just “be with” his wife and immediate family: doing yard projects long missed, walking the dog, painting a room or two, or going to visit places and things left aside too often.

Renewal of Mission

Much of Pastor Asplin’s sabbatical will be spent in Baltimore as the base for his planned study time. In his own words:

“I don’t often, in my current role as Assistant, share my own call story and spiritual journey. When I do, that story involves the joy of learning and studying, the challenge of exegesis and my interest in history and theology. My story also includes a commitment, and a joy, in worship and preaching – it includes clinging to the gift of grace experienced in Holy Communion as a ‘rock and a hiding place.’ So, in an effort to combine a lot of my loves in this life, as well as my commitment to caring for the people of God, my structured study goal for this sabbatical will be to visit as many of the Smithsonian Museums in Washington DC as possible, and to write a devotional for each.”

His plan includes making use of the Smithsonian Open Access content, and most particularly content marked “Creative Commons 0” (CC0) in order to produce a self-published work that provides a scripture reading, a prayer, a poem or a meditation for each museum.

Smithsonian Museums:

  • Anacostia Museum

  • Sackler Gallery

  • Freer Gallery

  • Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

  • National Air and Space Museum

  • National Museum of African American History and Culture

  • National Museum of African Art

  • National Museum of American History

  • National Museum of the American Indian

  • National Museum of Natural History

  • National Portrait Gallery

  • National Postal Museum

  • National Museum of American Art

  • Renwick Gallery

 
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