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As the nation looks ahead at this election year and the leadership change it will bring, there are leadership changes happening outside the political arena and much closer to home, as several island congregations are about to say, or have already said, good-bye to their ministers.

The Beachcomber reached out to Burton Community Church, the Presbyterian church, the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, the Unitarian Universalist fellowship and the Methodist church for details on what might appear to some as an exodus, but at the end of the day is merely a collection of coincidences.

While the Burton Community Church (BCC) — which falls under the umbrella of the American Baptist faith — has been pastorless since the unexpected and abrupt departure of Rev. Bruce Chittick two years ago, the church’s moderator, Jeannette Smith, explained that the congregation is about to discuss its future path at a retreat to be held in February.

For the past year, the church has had once-a-month services from visiting Rev. Marilyn Marston, who has also been on-call for any pastoral care needs. Another one of the month’s services is led by a guest pastor, and two services per month are lay-led services.

The lay services have included music, poetry and guest speakers. Smith noted that the BCC community seemed to like the stability of the once-per-month visits from Rev. Marston, but also enjoyed the variety offered by the other guest pastors and the lay services. At the retreat, the congregation will discuss the current state of the church’s worship leadership and where to go from there, if changes are desired.

At the Presbyterian church, Pastor Dan Houston announced his resignation last summer after nine years with the congregation. His last service at the church took place on Sept. 6.

In an email, Houston explained his decision to leave as coming from “a deepening conviction my wife Michele and I have that we are being called back to our roots in an urban neighborhood.” He also noted that it was in that context that he discerned his call to pastoral work in the first place.

In the ensuing months, Houston, who still lives on the island, has been involved in a project in the South Sound creating what are known as “New Worshipping Communities” that are not necessarily tied to traditional settings. He cited the State Women’s Correctional facility in Purdy as an example.

Houston and his wife plan to move to Tacoma later this year, where he hopes to eventually do some form of church work. To his Vashon congregation, he wrote, “I am deeply grateful to the VPC (Vashon Presbyterian Church) community and our friends and neighbors on Vashon who continue to teach us so much. …What a priviledge it has been to serve here, and to be so blessed in return.”

Currently, Rev. Lynn Longfield of Tacoma is the church’s interim pastor. The congregation will choose its new, full-time pastor in about a year.

On Jan. 31, the Church of the Holy Spirit will say good-bye to its rector of the past five-and-a-half years, Carla Pryne. After 35 years of work that she has loved, Pryne said that it is, simply, time for her to retire.

“I am looking forward to a season of learning new things and having a ‘beginner’s mind’… growing in new ways,” she said. “I’m going to find a new rhythm and have time for stillness.”

Pryne accepted the call to become the church’s rector in July of 2010, though she and her husband Eric, whose radio show “Island Crossroads” can be heard on Voice of Vashon 101.9 FM, didn’t move to the island until 2013. Among many notable points of her tenure here, Pryne officiated at the first church marriage of a same-sex couple on Vashon.

The denomination’s rules dictate that Pryne may not attend the church until the new, permanent rector has been in place for about a year — which likely means about two years. But Pryne and her husband are looking forward to being active members of the island community for as long as they can.

“This is a remarkable community of people,” she said of her congregation and island neighbors. “Creative, caring, courageous, adventurous, committed, warm people that are both fun to be with and an inspiration to me in who they are and how they live their lives.”

A few months from now, when the Unitarian Universalist cycle ends in May, so will Rev. Heather Christensen’s time on Vashon after just a year-and-a-half with the fellowship. The decision came once it became apparent how difficult it was going to be for her partner to work with their family based on the island.

“Everyone who comes to the island has to sort out if it’s going to work for them or not,” she said. “And it just hasn’t worked for us.” Christensen and her partner also have a young daughter.

The fellowship, which was unable to afford to pay Christensen as its full-time minister, is looking into the possibility of combining with a Unitarian Universalist church in Des Moines.

“This group has been mostly lay-led, so it’s been fun to take the steps forward with them to find out what they’d like to do next,” Christensen said. Her own next steps are not yet clear, as she said she is not sure whether she and her family will stay in the Puget Sound area or go back to Alaska.

And finally, this summer will bring about a change for the Methodist church as Rev. Kathy Morse is also retiring after five years with the Vashon congregation.

“I will turn 66 in March and have some health concerns, and I’m hoping to move closer to the doctors that are needed,” she said. “I love this church … but it’s time to move on for me.”

As July 1 is the beginning of the Methodist appointment year, her last service will be June 26. Morse has been living in the church parsonage, but will move off-island. Like at the Episcopal church, she will be restricted from contact with the Vashon congregation for at least a year after her departure.

“This has been such a good place to be. I have really fallen in love with the island,” she said. “It was so much fun to be in ministry here. The congregation is so active in the life of the island, and that has been pure joy.”

Morse went on to say that she will be very sad to leave and that this appointment was “like a honeymoon the whole time.”

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