by Bailey Basham, Messenger Staff Writer

After nearly 20 years at St. James Episcopal Church in Midway, Rev. Linda Hutton is retiring. At the beginning of January, former director of St. Mary’s Sewanee, the Rev. John Runkle assumed the role of part-time vicar.

Hutton, who has been in ministry for 43 years, said she started at St. James when she was in seminary in 1996. After five years, she became priest-in-charge.

“St. James has just been awesome. For a little over a month, they’ve been surprising me with gifts. They gave me a beautiful Amish quilt design and a couple rocking chairs that everyone had written messages on. I’ll still be active in the Midway community — we definitely don’t plan to go anywhere. This is home, even though I’m the only member of my family that has left the west coast. I really love it here and the people. We have an awesome community,” she said.

Runkle said near the end of 2018, he was approached by the church’s search committee and asked about his interest in becoming the next part-time vicar.

“I was feeling that I wanted to get back involved in parish ministry more than I’d been in the last few years. It’s a small congregation that does a lot of good things in Midway and on the Mountain, and they’re a rock solid group of people. Linda has provided a strong foundation to keep that going, and she’s said she’s happy to help me with whatever I feel like I need help with. I look forward to joining in with them and continuing in the work they’ve been doing,” he said.

As for what’s next for Hutton, she will continue facilitating a caregivers group with Folks at Home. She also said she will keep busy with her horses and donkeys and in seeking new opportunities as a lifelong learner.

“It’s a whole new thing, I’m still kind of settling into, ‘Okay, so what do I do now?’ with not having deadlines,” she said. “I’ve been thinking back to Mr. Spock on Star Trek, who was always so concrete, but he’d still say there are always going to be possibilities. And for me, I’m always open to possibilities.”