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| Comfort the Afflicted and Afflict the Comfortable: Thoughts on Ordination |
| Rev. Jill Nelson and Rev. Don Ross 30 Mar 2009 |
Eavesdrop on a conversation between Rev Don the Buddhist theosopher, Rev Jill the progressive Christian, and Rev Elder Deb the MCC pastor, as they chat about the Queer Spirituality of Ordination. Don is a Board member of the A. Austin Amerine Retreat Center in Lake County. Jill and Deb are AAARC Advisors.
Rev Don: This month the Rev Elder Debbie Martin joins our discussion. She is the pastor of MCC Open Arms in Pahoa, HI and in her past life, Santa Rosaâs first female cop (retired SRPD). Welcome Deb!
Rev Elder Deb: Aloha from the Big Island of Hawaii. Mahalo for asking me to join you to share my thoughts on ordination.
Rev Jill: Welcome aboard, Deb!
Rev Don: This month we are going to chat about the nature of ordination. 2008 was a pivotal change for each of us. Rev Elder Deb transitioned from church elder duties for the Pacific Rim to pastor her own church in Hawaii, Rev Jill pastored what may be her last church, and I became ordained through the Universal Life Church. As I write down my thoughts for this discussion, I realize I have more questions than answers.
Rev Elder Deb: I think having questions is a great place to start. It shows humility of spirit that I think God can work with. Once we think we have all the answers just because we are clergy, we're doomed. My path in ministry has always been a path of questions (and over the years I have found that asking questions makes people uncomfortable, but hey, I still ask). When I first went to seminary I thought I knew what I believed, but what I found was that the more I learned, the more questions I had and so I began my journey of deconstruction of all that I had been ãtoldä to believe. I realized that I had been seriously influenced in my faith by the church I had grown up in and that those doctrinal precepts would no longer serve me. I had to discover for myself my own theology so that I could be authentic in what I shared and taught as a minister. My fundamentalist, exclusive understandings began to break down and I realized that I was being called to a theology of inclusivity and love. After all these years I still have questions and I have learned to question anything and everything that someone tells me. I donât think anyone can tell you what ordination means. You just have to live out what it means to you.
Rev Jill: Somewhere I cultivated the view that to be ordained is to be ãset asideä for a sacred purpose, in a unique sense, beyond the understanding that we all have sacred purpose. I find in my life now in the coaching work I do, I have gifts that are meant to be used and I can not be at peace if I am not using them in service to others.
Rev Don: What does it mean to be ordained? What if there were no sectarian entanglements in the process; no requirement to hock a required creed or status quo? I suppose many people look down their nose at ULC, but I find their only commandment to be quite refreshing: To do what is Right and that can only be decided upon by each individual for their self.
Rev Elder Deb: To be ordained for me meant that I answered a call from God to a vocation of ministry. With that calling, I agreed to do whatever educational and spiritual preparation was needed to prepare me to lead others on their spiritual journey. As an ordained minister I am supposed to help others discern their call to see how and where they can serve God. I believe ordination is a setting apart, however, I donât like the concept or belief that ordained ministers are better than anyone else, or should be put on a pedestal. Many people love and serve God and the people of this world, but through ordination I have experienced a certain understanding that I would be held accountable for all that I did in the name of that call and laying on of hands that is part of the ordination experience. I felt that I was given a sacred trust that I could not ignore and that I understood as a gift from God. That comes with a lot of responsibility.
Rev Don: Does being ordained mean we should inspire religious movements? Been there, done that as a lay person. It is a most wonderful thing to inspire a renewed spirituality in another person. Inspiring a worldwide movement is not nearly as fulfilling as shedding light upon the path for a single individual. Donât you agree?
Rev Elder Deb: I think being there for that one person is the most important thing we can do whether we are ordained or not. Inspiring a movement has nothing to do with ordination. Working to serve God with all of your being and trying to live by example is a good start to a life committed to God. I think there is a seriousness about what we do, why we do it, and how we do it that is part of my understanding of ordination.
Rev Jill: Debbieâs comments about ministry as central to the state of ordination resonate for me. To be there for the one who is seeking, questioning, or struggling is central for me as well. But, I have also always understood ordination to be a call to lead, to guide and to support others in their spiritual journey. Not so much to have answers, but to be present with others and to share what I have discovered to be true. In that sense, whether I am working with individuals as a life coach, or with a church as their pastor, the work is much the same. It all comes from the same spiritual source which is love. Ministry is also communal, it doesnât happen only in dyads, but in groups as well.
Rev Don: I first decided to become ordained when I was baptized by the Holy Ghost when I was 13 years old. But then I came out at age 18 and left Christianity behind me in the dust of mutual intolerance. Not until many years later, after I left a certain monolithic Buddhist sect that possibilities once again became available. After offers of Buddhist ordination through one lineage or another, I decided I could not in good faith support any one creed or organization, and so I thought once again that I put the issue to rest for myself. But then a wonderful thing happened. In 2008 the CA Supreme Court made same sex marriage legal in California. Call me crazy if you wish, but here at the A. Austin Amerine Retreat Center in Lake County, the trees seemed to dance with joy and the wind sang to me through the leaves of grass until I listened. äGo forth and prepare the Amerine Retreat Center for many gay and happy marriages in the future!ä I cannot conceive of not responding to such a vivid experience. (Heck, long ago they locked me up in a nut house for similar visions.) Thus I went online and was ordained through ULC like dozens of my independent minded Buddhist friends before me, each for our own reasons. Even the repeal of our right to marry by CA voters does not dim my faith in humanity that the time of Marriage Equality is very near.
Rev Elder Deb: As an MCC ordained minister, I am privileged to offer ãHoly Unions and Legal Marriagesä to those who choose that path. That is just one of the rites and blessings that we can give as clergy in MCC. I know that my ordination was acknowledged and approved by MCC, but whether I always serve as clergy in MCC or not, does not take away my ordination. MCCâs license to practice ministry is for a certain period of time, however, I believe ordination is for a life time. No person or organization can take away my ordination.
Rev Jill: I agree. Organizations like MCC or ULC or any other denomination or religious movement create systems to standardize the process of sensing, exploring and confirming a call, but they do not bestow the essence of ordination. The essence is spiritual. It is the providence of no group or movement, but of the Universe, which causes it to be. Being part of an organization is always a dangerous thing, Spiritual Essence and human organizations never mix well. I am much more interested in essence, not organizations.
Rev Don: Sorting through my thoughts on ordination, I ran across a memory fragment of a conversation I had with my favorite Unity minister while we both served with the AIDS Interfaith Network of Sonoma County in the early 90s. In her opinion, her job as clergy is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. I can find no more succinct words to sum up my current feelings on the matter. While neither giving comfort nor inflicting distress upon the comfortable are the sole providence of clergy or laity, it is noble nevertheless. What do you think?
Rev Elder Deb: I like it and I practice it as often as possible.
Rev Jill: Ditto.
The Rev. Jill Nelson is a life coach. She can be reached by e-mail at StepBeyondCoach@gmail.com or through her website at StepBeyondCoach.com. Rev. Don Ross teaches CPR and is the webmaster of his interfaith NichirensCoffeehouse.net and GayWineCountry.com, a free GLBT business directory. You can email Don at Don@classes.bz. The Rev. Elder Debbie Martin is pastor of MCC Open Arms (OpenArmsPuna.com) in Hawaii. All three are active volunteers of the A. Austin Amerine Retreat Center in Lake County at AAARC.org. |
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