<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Although not a member of Rev. Rivetti's congregation, I have always admired and respected her.</div><div><br></div><div>Rev. Rivetti speaking before the Moscow Human Relations Committee . . .</div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://youtu.be/5agxsBIvNtY">http://youtu.be/5agxsBIvNtY</a></span></div><div><br></div><div>Courtesy of today's (March 1, 2016) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.</div><div><br></div><div>----------------------------------</div><div><span class="paragraph 0" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><h1 id="blox-asset-title" style="font-size: 30px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 34px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); line-height: 38px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saying goodbye to Pullman</span></h1><p class="sub-headline" style="font-size: 18px; outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 10px 20px; line-height: 24px; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); background-image: url(http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/dnews.com/content/tncms/live/components/core_base_library/resources/images/dingbat.gif); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-position: 0% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Rev. Mary Beth Rivetti will leave her congregation of 13 years</p><p>Rev. Mary Beth Rivetti has been blessing St. James Episcopal Church and the city of Pullman for the past 13 years, but as she drives away today, she’s not sure when she will see these rolling hills again.</p></span><div class="ad-position standard"><div id="ad-mobile-article-instory" class="advertisement" style="text-align: center;"><div id="tncms-region-ads-mobile-article-instory" class="tncms-region-ads"></div></div></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Part of the protocol for the retirement of an Episcopal priest means completely relocating from the congregation’s parish and the city in which it resides.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I need to give this congregation plenty of room to look for my successor,” Rivetti said. “And also, I need to give myself space to do the work I need to do to no longer be a priest.”</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The 65-year-old Pullman resident is the first to admit that she got a bit of a late start to her career within Episcopal ministries.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I was in my mid-40s and people had been pushing me for well over 10 years,” she said. “I came to an understanding that I was called into this ministry.”</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rivetti graduated from seminary and received her first call when she was 50 years old.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Before she was drawn to seminary school, she attended the University of California-Santa Barbara and UC Berkeley.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I was a major in classics,” she said. “I had a bachelor’s and master’s in that and then I was working toward a Ph.D. ... I did all the class work but never finished the degree.”</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rivetti ended up working for a college textbook publishing company as a sales representative. She traveled to Utah for field experience and very quickly realized that the position wasn’t for her. Utah, though, turned out to be exactly what she needed, and it continued to be her home for 15 years.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When Rivetti quit the textbook publishing company, she also quit drinking.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I’ll be coming up on 30 years of continuous sobriety,” she said. “So, Utah had a great place of healing for me and almost spiritual rebirth.”</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Utah was largely part of Rivetti’s journey that brought her full circle to answering her call to the Episcopal Church.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“When I first showed up in seminary, my first class, it felt as if my whole life I had been waiting for that,” she said. “Everything I had done suddenly made sense.”</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was also the church that introduced her to her late husband, George.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I had given up ever getting married, and he came with four kids,” Rivetti said while smiling. “It was an amazing life we had.”</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rivetti, as the granddaughter of two Episcopal priests, was raised in a family that regularly attended church. She remembers running around the rectory as a child, and she has watched other children grow up in the church as well. She has seen all phases of life at St. James.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“There are children I met when they were first born, and I prayed with their parents at Pullman Regional Hospital and blessed them, brought them here and baptized them, and have grown up together,” Rivetti said. “There are people I’ve gotten to know and people who I’ve struggled with and people who have struggled with me.”</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rivetti’s husband died in 2009 while she was with St. James. The community watched and helped as much as they could through his decline, she said.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“People backed me up, took turns preaching for me,” she said. “He’s buried out here.”</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rivetti said the passion of the people in the ministry will be the hardest part of moving on.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I don’t feel half as sorrowful leaving the rectory behind as I do just leaving these memories and this congregation,” she said. “I will continue to serve the broader church in a different role, but I won’t ever serve a congregation again, watching the development of a core group of people who are growing in faith together.”</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is with the words surrounding the baptismal font of St. James that Rivetti will continue her journey of kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, love, joy, peace and patience.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">She will work with the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane as a visiting substitute priest and will mentor a recently ordained priest and be involved in the process of electing the next bishop.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We’re part of this grand procession. We step in, we’re here and then we’re gone,” she said.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As she leaves the congregation, Rivetti said she remembers her exploration of being called to the area.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“There had been snow on the shocks of wheat coming out of the black earth, and the drivers (members of the congregation) were telling us how much better this place looks in the spring,” she said. “My husband and I looked at each other and said, ‘this place is beautiful.’ ”</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tears filled Rivetti’s eyes as she reminisced of the offerings of the Palouse and the ways it became her home.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rivetti said she fully expects the congregation to welcome and embrace its next priest with love and generosity of spirit.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The congregation needs someone with greater energy,” she said.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rivetti also said when her successor feels grounded and centered, she may visit with his or her invitation.</span></p></div><div class=""><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“This place really gets into your bones,” she said. “I have spent my lifetime saying goodbye after five or 10 years, and I will be saying goodbye here. It will be very hard to leave Pullman, and I just keep memorizing bits and pieces of it as I drive away.”</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pastor Mary Beth Rivetti chats with parishioners at her retirement reception Saturday at St. James Episcopal Church in Pullman.</span></p><p><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Pullman/Rev_Mary_Beth_Rivetti.jpg">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Photos/Pullman/Rev_Mary_Beth_Rivetti.jpg</a></p></div></div><div>----------------------------------</div><div><br></div><div>To Rev. Rivetti I bid a hearty . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Happy Trails to You"</div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Happy_Trails.mp3">http://www.tomandrodna.com/Songs/Happy_Trails.mp3</a></div><div><br><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" </span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>