A rewarding and life-changing career comes to an end for Rev. Jim Short this Sunday.
After 18 years at Ladner United Church, Short will officiate his last service, which will mark 37 years since he was ordained and 40 years since he started minister’s training.
“When you start your master’s degree, you automatically start some internships, so I’ve done prison chaplaincy, institutional chaplaincy, hospital chaplaincy, did training in a First Nations community, the military work, so I’ve had a pretty broad span of work,” Short said in reminiscing about his career with the Optimist.
He said it’s going to be a relatively normal Sunday – several people have been invited to say a few words and there will be a lunch afterwards – but he also suspects it will be quite emotional.
“I’ll wake up the next day and move into the first week of my semi-retirement and think, wow, I’ll miss having an office and miss preaching sermons, so it’s something I’m excited about, but dreading a bit too.”
Short and his wife Cathy Bone and family moved to South Delta from Vancouver Island to take the job at Ladner United in 2001.
“We were ready to move. Cathy and I had both worked together at the Duncan church and we decided it was time to leave. I started applying for jobs. We were planning to come to the mainland, partly because we wanted our then young children to have some more opportunities.
“Cathy had been hired at the Vancouver School of Theology to work in their Chalmers Institute, so she was moving into that area of ministry and I had applied for various churches in the Lower Mainland and this was the one that offered me the job.”
Short started in August of 2001, but it wasn’t until that fateful day the following month when he really started to feel a part of the community and the impact he could have on it.
“One of the first things I did apart from lead worship was open up the sanctuary in September during the 911 attacks,” he recalled. “We opened for a vigil the night after. I remember going up to visit then mayor Lois Jackson and suggested we do something for the municipal staff because nothing like 911 had ever happened and it obviously impacted people who worked for the government, so we had a memorial gathering in council chambers for any of the municipal staff. I remember that as my first introduction to the larger community and city council.”
Short said reaching out to the wider community was a mandate he was given, adding he’s proud of the work that’s been done. He was named Delta’s Citizen of the Year in 2015 by the Delta Chamber of Commerce.
“When I was hired here by the hiring committee, one of the things they said to me was that they wanted a stronger community profile; they wanted to be connected to the larger community and respond to the larger needs of the community.”
He said that vision has driven the work that’s been done over the last 18 years on a variety of fronts, including the establishment of Delta’s only extreme weather shelter.
“Every community needs a leader, but leaders don’t do everything on their own, they only do that when they have people who are willing to work on these projects. The visions for all of these things, like the shelter, didn’t come from me, they came from the community and from conversations from the members who said our church can do that.”
He was instrumental in the large-scale renovation of the 48th Avenue church five years ago that had the aim of creating space to be shared with the community.
Bone said Ladner United holds a special place in their hearts.
“There is something special here for Jim. Jim can be himself here. Can I keep my coffee on the pulpit? Can I keep my office messy? Can I offer a study group in something that I heard about, but it’s not their traditional study group? This congregation has said sure. Jim wants a garage sale, let’s have a garage sale. Jim has been able to relax into himself and they have relaxed along with him.”
A military chaplain with the Canadian Army Reserve for 25 years, Short has helped train, screen and counsel Canadian soldiers getting ready to deploy into a war zone. He also helped returning soldiers acclimatize back into day-to-day life and has delivered the devastating news to families who have lost a loved one.
In 2008, Short was granted a leave from Ladner United and was one of thousands of Canadian Forces members deployed to Afghanistan. He spent eight months on the front lines of the conflict.
“I would say that I had the most support here for my military work,” he said. “I had support in other places, but people here supported that as part of their ministry. To let your one full-time employee be gone for 17 months to train and deploy overseas is a big ask for any organization.”
Short said the decision to retire has been difficult.
“It just feels like it’s the right time. I think our work is done here. But’s it’s been hard to say that to people. The hardest thing is leaving the people. Myself as a person, us as a family, we are all really intertwined. We are all like a family.”
But as one door closes another one will soon open as Short is scheduled to begin a part-time position as chaplain for the Delta police and fire departments in August. He said he welcomes the opportunity to respond to the spiritual needs of first responders and their families.
“I’m looking forward to this new challenge. I’m ready for retirement, but I’m not ready to be fully retired. I’m gratified and appreciated in the trust that those organizations have put in me to be a part of their teams.”
