Leaving a congregation he loves

Longtime priest at Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration retires, making way for change

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette Father Richard Kukowski looks at a painting by an Afro-Canadian artist in his Silver Spring home. As head of The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, he traveled to Africa to better understand the cultures of his constituents.

‘‘I’m surprised I don’t miss it more,” Kukowski said of the Colesville church. ‘‘I thought I would, but to me that’s a real strong sign that this was the right decision at the right time.”

On Sunday, members of the congregation held their traditional ‘‘greening” of the church for the holidays, and Christmas services will continue as usual under the leadership of the Rev. Carla Thompson, the interim rector. ‘‘We’re going to adhere to the traditions and understandings Transfiguration has until a new rector comes along. Then change comes if it’s wanted,” she said. ‘‘Now is not the time to make small changes or significant changes.”

Kukowski, 63, announced his retirement at the beginning of the year, and officially left in the summer. A search for his replacement is under way.

‘‘There are directions the parish needs to go, and getting into my early 60s and looking at my own energy level, I didn’t believe I was the right person to lead them there,” he said.

Rick Nelson, Transfiguration’s senior warden, the equivalent of congregation president, said members miss Kukowski, but understand he is not coming back. ‘‘In many respects it’s a testament to him that the church can continue without a hiccup,” said Nelson, a member since 1970.

Kukowski regularly worships now at Washington National Cathedral to stay out of the way.

‘‘I need to step back and bow out. But grocery stores are interesting places to run into people,” he said with a laugh. ‘‘... The interim priest has to take hold. And when the new pastor comes ... he or she needs to take hold and not have the old pastor in a pew second-guessing.”

Kukowski’s home, where he lives with his wife of nearly 31 years, Elaine, is ready for the holidays. Wreaths and greens hang around the exterior and a small, decorated Christmas tree stands in front of the dining room window. Opposite the tree, on top of a credenza, is a town in miniature, a church at its center and cotton snow on the ground. ‘‘We really love Christmas,” he said.

Kukowski, wearing a black pullover, hair cropped close on his head and face, pauses quietly in thought before answering most questions. He first started seriously thinking about retiring in 2003 while on sabbatical in Africa. He came home with 13 goals he wanted to accomplish at Transfiguration, completing 11 of them by the time he made his decision in 2005.

He chose to retire this year in part because it would give him 30 years of service in the Episcopal Church, qualifying him for a full pension, but also because he thought ahead. Two more years at Transfiguration actually meant three more years, he said, because the church turns 50 years old in 2009 and he did not think he should retire so close to the celebration. ‘‘Three years was a long time given where the parish needed to go,” he said. ‘‘The timing was right. It all fell into place.”

Born and raised in Minnesota, where much of his extended family still resides, Kukowski was a Roman Catholic priest for five years before he left the Church. He moved to Manhattan and worked there for a year when he decided the priesthood was his calling.

He had been attending an Episcopal church at the time, and was ordained in the church in 1976. He spent time at parishes in New York, New Jersey and western Massachusetts before arriving at Transfiguration in 1979.

When Kukowski started, Transfiguration’s membership was at no more than 40 households; when he left, membership was pushing 200 households. Kukowski is most proud of building a multiethnic, multicultural and multiracial congregation, which he called ‘‘exceptional at the time.”

‘‘There have been significant transitions in membership, and there is a big difference between welcoming all people and being welcome to all people,” Thompson said. ‘‘He did an extraordinary job in melding.”

A church committee is currently creating a profile of Transfiguration and what it is looking for in a new rector, the start of a selection process that takes one to two years.

‘‘We’re always going to build on Rich’s legacy,” Thompson said. ‘‘How to grow within and outside is another question. This year is going to be a telling time to figure it out.”

Nelson agreed. ‘‘Change happens,” he said. ‘‘What you do is make an opportunity of it.”

As for Kukowski, he is keeping busy in many ways, most happily by having time to visit family back in Minnesota. He will return to Africa with the Episcopal Church next year, continues to serve on the Alumni Executive Committee of The General Theological Seminary in New York and works with diocesan bodies within the Diocese of Washington. Once a month, he serves as a chaplain at the National Cathedral, as well as teaches at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria.

It was during one of his classes when Kukowski heard a question that placed his retirement in a biblical metaphor, a realization that he had taken the church as far as he could.

‘‘One of the students asked me, ‘Who is going to be Joshua to your Moses?’” he said. ‘‘And that stuck with me.”