The Rev. David Thayer, pastor of St. Andrews United Methodist, retired Sunday after 31 years at the church in Edgewater and a total of 42 years in the ministry.
“It has been a lifetime career that I have never regretted,” he said
Thayer planned to retire last year in September but wanted to give the church more time to find a new pastor.
Thayer will miss the most about being a pastor is being with people throughout their life journey and blessing their lives.
“People are my therapy, being at St. Andrews for 31 they are like my extending family now and it is hard to say goodbye to them,” Thayer said.
Since the coronavirus pandemic led to the cancelation of in-person services, the church has been recording for online worship but recently opened its doors again. Thayer is glad he stayed around to help the congregation through the pandemic to help stabilize the church.
The hardest part of being back in person is the lack of singing in the church: Thayer bases his his services on music and the hymns he writes. He also said it is hard to preach with a mask on to prevent the spread of the virus.
“It has been a tough retirement,” Thayer said. “I am going to miss it horribly.”
Thayer knew it was time retirement after feeling physically and mentally tired. Thayer said he could go on forever but his wife wouldn’t like that.
In the Methodist church, after a pastor retires is they cannot return to the church for at least a year, Thayer said.
Anne Wolfe, who serves as finance chair for the church, said she is sad that no one will be able to hug Thayer after his last sermon today.
The congregation plans to have a big party at the Greek Church when that is allowed.
Some of Thayer’s fondest memories come from going on mission trips to South Dakota and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Also, he will never forget the moments at the day school and the students.
“He is very active at the school and I think it will be harder for some of the kids to understand his departure,” Wolfe said.
St. Andrews has a small farm on its campus and they have named it after Thayer.
“I find feeding people one of the more important things as a church by feeding them spiritually and physically,” Thayer said.
Thayer has hopes of doing guest preaching and fill in for some for church organists in his free time.
Thayer final sermon today will be about change. He’ll be quoting a lot from “East Coker,” the second poem of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. He expects to shed some tears.
“Eliot speaks about the changing of lives and two lines that stuck with me are, ‘In my beginning is my end’ how he starts the poem then he concludes, In my end is my beginning,” Thayer said. “That is how I am looking at life. That is the message I will leave the congregation with.”
