Dear ,
Last year was a tough year for me personally and vocationally. I spent time in January journaling, reflecting on unexpected losses, multi-layered crises, and the resulting griefs of 2024. Often I spend time between New Year’s and my January birthday looking back and looking forward. And 2024 was among the heaviest years emotionally on record for me
(surpassed only by 2005). Much of it is not my story alone, so I have not shared details in public forums. I'm guessing you get that, , right? To be fair, I also experienced lots of good and beautiful things in 2024. Such is the reality of this life.
The past week, however, leaves me wondering just how much more challenging 2025 may be? The reporters of this NPR weekly roundup called it a
“dizzying week.” Make no mistake that is the strategy: to disrupt, overwhelm, degrade, and leave everyone dizzy. But let us not fall for that strategy. When we
give in to the overwhelm of the distractions, we give up our agency and power in the situation.
I am writing to you, ,
this morning about how changes of the past week from the new presidential administration, and those yet to come, stand to impact the conditions of your vocation and ministry. And I’ll close with a few responses to encourage you in light of these changes.
Looking back
I was born after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg and a bevy of constitutional lawyers helped to remove laws discriminating against women. Reproductive health was liberated in 1972. Much later,
I remember vividly being on spring break with my family in Florida, and sitting high up in a giant treehouse with my daughter, when I heard the news that the marriage equality act passed into federal law. These changes in the last few decades were not simply the right ones, they made life more joyful and livable for many people, people I care about deeply.
Now, every one of these provisions and significant social infrastructure are in danger.
The positive legal and social changes in my lifetime aimed to enfranchise women, people of color, queer identifying people, people with disabilities, and migrants. We know these legal remedies are far from perfect. Biases still exist, and they still do harm. People still die in the crosshairs of injustice daily. We still live on stolen land. White supremacy and patriarchy are still encoded in most institutions, shaping our daily lives (healthcare,
government, university and public-school education, banking, the justice system, churches, and more).
This week alone, the promise to limit anderase these legal protections began in earnest to unravel the
social contract. Our civility and national rituals of democracy evaporated at the highest levels.
What is the impact of all this on ministry? On that to which you and I are called?
Looking at Ministry
In just one week, the conditions and context of ministry in the United States of America changed dramatically.
In my ministry research, we focus not just on how people learn the practice of ministry or sustain it through time and experience (pastoral imagination). We also focus on what conditions make vocation and learning possible. Conditions include things like:
- what happens in a local church,
- policies and rules set by
denominations,
- theology and practice that seminaries teach,
- the availability of mentors and feedback.
What we focus on less often are structures of the state, and political climate which set the tone for the context and practice of ministry. Yet these structural conditions of ministry, often hovering in the background, are no less important.
If you are hear and reading, then you already know: structures of the state, and infrastructure of the U.S. were not built to benefit everyone. They were made to benefit white European colonizers, the land-owners, the men. The paradox of democracy as framed in the constitution, however, is an ideal of freedom for all. Including freedom to practice one’s religion. The people left out of the “all” have
continued to work on this experiment to make it more legitimately a place for all. But the shrinking white majority has felt threatened, and they continue to launch
counter-resistance to the expansions of democratic inclusion.
Looking at the conditions that make ministry possible
Did you feel the new tensions in your church house on Sunday morning? Will you notice it when the chaplain arrives at your hospital bed or that of a loved one? Do you sense the tension in your pastoral conversations or trying to figure out what to say in your next public
prayer or sermon?
These tensions are not merely the ugliness of politics, something that will pass with the next election. This is more than a different feeling or social climate. We are witnessing changes
in the social conditions under which we conduct our leadership, ministry and service.
Consider this handful of egregious actions:
When these attitudes, actions, and strategies for disruption come from state and federal powers, from every branch of government, in collusion with some of the richest corporations
and people in the country, the social fabric is torn. Not only is democratic freedom threatened, the climate and conditions of our work in ministry and education is damaged as well.
Here is some of the effect on conditions of ministry:
- Lay people,
students, and ministers are overwhelmed and may experience a range of disrupting emotions including fear, confusion, denial, rage, panic, and grief.
- Routine activities and shared values come under suspicion and doubt.
- Widespread feelings of helplessness and paralysis allow the political changes to happen without significant protest or resistance.
- The level of confusion and low energy prevents meaningful daily actions from being carried out in the usual ways.
I'm grateful for womanist thinkers, ministers, and artists, such as Dr. Tamura Lomax, Rev. Dr. Traci Blackmun, and Nettrice Gaskins for bringing the conversations we need
online (again and again!) to remind us how these strategies work and how to choose our responses. These women and others pulled me out of my funk this week.
Looking at what we can
do
So what can we possibly do in the face of these new social conditions that impact our vocations and ministry settings?
What will I be doing in the face of these conditions?
- Finishing my book about women and lgbtiqa+ clergy, now more urgent than ever,
- Teaching my students and empowering them to remain learners,
- Discerning which actions in the public square are part of my calling,
- Praying in silent meditation to quiet my soul, ground myself, and clarify my calling,
- Supporting you, , and other ministers and theological educators as we all
resist the distractions, lead wisely, remain focused, and do the work of our calling with purpose.
A benediction for this Monday morning
Let us take courage from wise leaders and embrace our courage to use the power and privilege that is ours to resist harm and to embody love whenever possible. Let us make the beloved community in 10,000 places. And let us link those communities like new cells of a butterfly that will one day break loose from its chrysalis and fly.
