What is a Sabbatical?

 

 

The word sabbatical shares the same roots as the Biblical word Sabbath, meaning to rest; to cease.  Sabbath is holy time set aside for physical, emotional, spiritual and mental renewal. The practice of Sabbath is our answer to God’s command once a week to take a break from the daily grind.

 

Likewise a sabbatical is simply an extended Sabbath, providing an opportunity to step off the treadmill for renewal of vision and hope, nourishing the soul and rebuilding the body.  A  Sabbatical is time to disengage from our everyday lives in order to rest, travel, study, reflect, pray, worship and renew relationships. It is far more than a vacation, it is a season of spiritual growth for everyone involved.    

 

 

“I have come to think that the recovery of the Sabbath is the most crucial and most demanding covenant command now to be faced in the technological society.”

-Walter Brueggemann

 

Sabbath: A Sanctuary in Time

"Six days a week we live under the tyranny of space, on the Sabbath we try to become attuned to the holiness in time... On the Sabbath we turn from the world of creation to the creation of the world; we turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation... The world was bought into being in 6 days of creation – its survival depends on the holiness of the 7th day...On the Sabbath we cease from work to remember the world has already been created and will survive without our help.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Sabbath 

 

So Sabbatical is

1. Time from life and work for spiritual, physical, emotional, relational and intellectual renewal.
2. set aside from life and work for spiritual, physical, emotional, relational and intellectual renewal.
3. Sabbatical is a little like the practice of farmers who "set‐aside" certain parts of their acreage, planting nothing for a season, so that the earth can be renewed and provide a richer harvest in the future.
4. Time includes travel, rest, study, prayer, worship, pilgrimage, family, play, outreach.
5. The opportunity to get off the treadmill so to find a new perspective and renewed vision
6. A sabbatical is not an extended vacation nor is it solely a study leave.
7. A sabbatical is also not about "burnout"
8. Sabbatical means not being available to the parish. No emails, no phone calls, no weddings, no funerals. Bob is gone for three months.
9. Time for renewal of the whole person (physically, emotionally, spiritually)

Sabbatical is a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage for the entire parish. A season of refreshment and renewal; a season of spiritual growth for both the minister and the parish.

Both Sabbath keeping and Sabbatical leave are part of a rhythm of life intended to refresh and renew all of creation so that all of creation will continue to reflect the face and will of God. Hence Sabbath should be a way of living.
(Clergy Renewal, p.3)