Clergy and their parishes and --God (!!?!!)

As a "professional" religious person, I sometimes succumb to the temptation to put form before content, to put the daily workings of my parish before their purpose: all of us being in ever-deepening relationship with the God of the Universe and in "love and charity with our neighbors" for Christ's sake.

I was talking last night with a wise priest who said that if he could say just a couple of things to parishes about relating to their clergy this is what he'd say:
1) Come to church expecting to have a powerful encounter with God, ready to be blessed and to be a blessing.
2) Give your priest the benefit of the doubt. Every one comes with his or her own personality but each has a call from God to serve God's people in the church. Give them the benefit of the doubt that they are sincere in the desire to carry out this call.

I think my friend could take these two points on the road, and do a world of good in parishes that sometimes get at odds with their priests; and with priests that sometimes get frustrated with their parishes. He talked some sense into me last night, when I was frustrated enough to feel like packing it in with my congregation. I love these people. I love the place where we serve. I can't imagine another place being better. Not really. But I was beginning to lose hope that I would see changes and growth in my lifetime.

Today things don't look quite so bleak. I would like to know that I could stay here until I retire, that I could have an effective ministry here. But I seem, in my prayers, to be getting the message: "This is where I want you TODAY. You don't have a need to know further ahead." I suppose God, who created me with the personality I have, and who has been with me through all the "changes and chances" of my life, should be trustworthy in the promise that we may "rest in God's eternal changelessness" as the collect from our prayer book puts it.

I continue to be intrigued by the Benedictine vow of stability. I may need the spiritual discipline and companionship of becoming an oblate of a Benedictine order, and the attendant guidance in understanding that concept as a married female Episcopal priest in the southern USA in the 21st century .