Hello ,
Will you celebrate my ordination with me today? Thirty years (that's right count 'em 30 years) ago today, I was ordained for ministry. So much discovered, lost, and gained in these 30 years of living into a complicated, beautiful, mundane and profound calling.
When I was ordained, the times felt impossible because my childhood church and denomination was crumbling and fracturing, and my ordination was a part of the reason people could not get along with each other. In spite of the split of the national's largest protestant body, I have been
fortunate to have many beloved, kind, supportive family members, friends, and colleagues on my journey. I've also had detractors and people who do not believe in me. Most women in ministry I know, can say something similar. Thirty years later, the ordination of women is undeniably here to day, yet it remains a challenging issue in American Christianity.
I am grateful, looking back over three decades to know a sense of belonging and blessing and unwavering support from the Holy. I have rarely felt holy, but I do sense the vast, unwavering support of God who called me into this. My understandings of God and the world have changed. And if I'm honest there are days I think: what would it be
like to just walk away from all of it? But it would be a bit like walking away from my own skin.
Friends, whatever your calling...
to heal people or to help them grieve
to build new things or restore old things
to teach children or to walk dogs
to listen to sorrows or grow food
to make art or write books
to sell, serve, sing, or sweat
to discover, create, lament or protest
to do the most ordinary or the most
unimaginable...
I hope and pray for you a vocation of lasting joy, challenge, and fulfillment at the end of the day and the end of all your days. Blessings to you, .
If you are approaching your own ordination, or someone you know is coming up to time for ordination? Here is an ordination blessing for impossible times. Please do share!
