You Never Truly Retire from the Priesthood

Father Andrew Nelko

In reflection, I can say that a priest never truly retires from the priesthood. A priest may retire from active parish ministry but can — and should — still serve at the altar, grow spiritually, and continue to enhance his spiritual life. Ultimately, that was my goal and what mattered most to me during my transition.

In preparing for life after active parish ministry, I offer two points. First, don’t wait until the last minute to begin planning for those years. For by then it is already too late. Instead, early in your priestly career, be proactive and think about what the years ahead might look like and take the steps necessary to get there. Second, take care of yourself — both spiritually and financially. I say this because there is no one else you can depend on who is necessarily going to take care of you. The reality is that the Church, the bishop, and even Uncle Sam are not always in a position to do that for you.

What was important to me was that when the time came to step back from parish ministry I didn't want to simply retire and not serve. Fortunately, I reside near Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Ellwood City, PA) where I am blessed with the opportunity to pray and continue serving at the Holy Altar. In short, I always desired to be someplace where I could continue to worship and I am grateful for that.

In addition, I believe there comes a time when a priest needs to recognize when it is time to step aside. As a priest naturally ages, he slows down, and unfortunately sometimes a parish slows down with him. I have seen parishes atrophy because the priest was getting older and either wanted to stay on or had to stay on. Sometimes a parish needs a change, a younger, vibrant priest with a different vision and approach.

In reflection, I feel like I have been truly blessed. Foremost among those blessings is my wife and family. We have five married children and twelve grandchildren. My son and son-in-law are priests — and it was always my dream that I could stand at the Holy Altar and serve with them on Pascha or Christmas. Now, thanks to God, I have that opportunity!

Finally, I may have stepped away from leading a parish, but I have not stepped away from the priesthood. I can still serve at the altar. I can still grow spiritually. I can still serve alongside members of my family. And I count that among my many blessings.

Our Retirement Identity: Learning to be Still

Father Thomas Moore

Often, when priests retire, they are somewhat lost and untethered at first. It seems like a loss of identity, or at least the identity we have known for 30 or 40 years. What does it mean to be a retired priest? No one seems to call anymore. One feels unneeded. All those years of experience don’t seem to be important to anyone anymore. I am convinced that, for the first time in history, as far as I know, the Orthodox Church has retired priests. I suspect that historically, priests often served until death, or their sons or someone known to the community were ordained to take over. We are confronted with figuring out what it means to have a vocation when the Church does not seem to need it anymore.

My confessor tells me, “You have to practice being nobody.” I think he means to put aside all the business of our previous service and learn to be still and know God more intimately. But this is more difficult than it sounds.

Retirement is also about vulnerability. All of a sudden, you become vulnerable to the new priest, the new community, the new bishop — even your former bishop. You are no longer in control in the way you once thought you were. That is why it is so important to develop an interior spiritual life now. I think that, for many priests, the services of the Church become their spiritual life. All of a sudden, you don’t have that in the same way. What did hermits do in their cells?

There are also practical things that need to be considered long before retirement comes. Have you planned financially? Have you planned whether you are going to stay or go? Where are your children going to live? All these things go into that planning stage, and priests need to be thinking about them now. I hope to encourage priests to begin thinking about these things early.

But even when you plan for retirement, a lot of changes happen in the meantime, and things may not go the way you planned. So, you plan, expect changes, and remain flexible as you go. The best-laid plans of mice and men often “gang aft agley,” as Robert Burns wrote. Thomas à Kempis summarizes it this way: “Man proposes, and God disposes.”

One of the difficult things about retirement is seeing so much collective wisdom go untapped. The Church currently does not seem to know how to tap into that reservoir of experience. None of us wants to go back to having the responsibility of a parish, but many have years of experience that we would like to offer in some way.

Retirement is a balance. On the one hand, it certainly is enjoyable. We go to the beach. We have a lot of time to be quiet, read, and learn stillness. But on the other hand, there is a sense of diminishing of who you are. Ultimately, that is a good thing but difficult initially.

Perhaps that is part of the spiritual work of this season: learning how to live with that vulnerability, developing an interior spiritual life, remaining open when plans change, and, as my confessor tells me, practicing being nobody.