Do you mind if I share a bit of confession with you? I mean - this is just between us, as colleagues in ministry, right? Ok. Here goes. When it comes to keeping Sabbath time, I'm a damn poor example. My 'set apart' times - morning contemplative prayer, intentional time with God, intentional celebration time with family... intentional stepping away from congregational responsibilities - are better kept in the breach than in the observance.

I'm frustrated and... embarrassed. It seems to me that God has invited me into a life-giving rhythm that gives honour to both rest and work. I think - and feel - that I've missed how important that rhythm is. I'm afraid that I might have replaced it with an ethic that says, "The more work I do, the better I am." Better person. Better minister. Better follower of Christ and child of God.

In Practicing our Faith (ed. Dorothy C. Bass, Jossey-Bass Pub., ISBN 0-7879-3883-1), Dorothy Bass invites the readers to consider the Sabbath in Judaism, and asks the questions, "Can Christians keep Sabbath," and "Can we keep Sabbath today?" As she talks about living the gift of Sabbath Keeping, she writes, "...none of us should think that we can sustain Sabbath keeping, whenever it happens, all by ourselves. We need mutuality in this practice, which resists our ordinary patterns in so many ways." (p.85)

This issue of Holding the Centre is offered as a way for us to support each other in the exploration of Sabbath and Sabbatical. There are opportunities for each of us to find support - and support each other - in living the gift of Sabbath fully.

So. What are your ways of living the Sabbath gift?