Guest commentary: Stand back, God is free

Among the privileges of my work is sitting on the Committee on Diaconate in the Diocese of Virginia. I've been with this wonderful group of people, lay and ordained, for a couple of years now as we discern with individuals whether they are called to be vocational deacons.

Although deacons have been a vital part of many parts of the church for decades, this order of ministry is relatively new in the Diocese of Virginia. Bishop Shannon Johnston ordained only the second class of permanent deacons last Saturday. Our committee worked with each of these three candidates for several years as they moved to that moment of ordination.

Deacons are called to be servant ministers and to be icons of servant ministry for the whole church. They are to bring the church into the world, and the world back into the church.

Our committee met Wednesday in Richmond to continueironing out the details of diaconal discernment and formation in the Diocese of Virginia. And so it happens that Barbara Crafton sent this last night from her archives, a perfect reminder of how imperfect our work of discernment is:

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By Barbara Crafton

I spend lots of time with people who are hoping to be ordained in the future -- seminarians, new clergy, people who hope to become first one and then the other of these. So I think often about what it means to be called -- not just to ordained ministry, but to any life's work.

Stand Back. God is Free. - February 2003

"He that is not against us is for us." This is what Jesus said to his disciples when a couple of them came running to tell-tale on somebody outside their circle who was performing healings. Same thing Moses had said to a couple of his folks centuries before, when they came running to tell on Eldad and Medad for prophesying, when they hadn't specifically been chosen to do so. Sometimes people we didn't authorize to exercise a gift of the Spirit do it anyway. This can happen, because the Spirit doesn't belong to us.

We keep forgetting this.

In the Church, we regularly seek to discern spiritual gifts. We have ornate processes for doing so, some of them involving phalanxes of psychologists and rank on earnest rank of interviewers, all bent on trying to figure out if God has called one among us and, if so, to what work. None of can really know what God is doing, though, so we must satisfy ourselves with the discovery of talents and predilections that seem suited to the performance of whatever calling we're hoping to discern, coupled with adequate mental health to enter into the often-thankless work of ministry. We make our call. Usually we are right, I think, but sometimes we're wrong. Still, we make our call, and hope for the best. We never really know.

History reveals it, though. A call of the Spirit lives, even in difficult circumstances. It may not always triumph -- we are not in heaven yet -- but it always remains. One at war with the Spirit withers and dies. Put a person in the wrong calling and you're doing him a terrible disservice. Refuse a right one and you miss the chance to share in the mighty works of God, but you won't wreck it. The Spirit is stronger than we are. It'll get through somehow.

What our inability either to predict or contain the work of the Spirit, our failure ever to be exactly sure of our discernment, gives us is something we need: an ongoing sense of the freedom of God. God is free. We draw lines in the sand and God hops nimbly across them. We set up systems and sometimes God just does something else. With God, Mary of Nazareth so astutely observes, nothing will be impossible. And she should know.

All this is not to say that we should aspire to anarchy. That the best rules for us are always no rules at all. We do the best we can to regulate our lives -- we must. But we should never be surprised when our careful arrangements turn out not to be the last word. We don't really have the last word.

Copyright © 2001-2012 Barbara Crafton - all rights reserved

Photos from the ordination of Nicholas Forti

The ordination of new priests is always glorious -- and I have to use the word, it really is!

The ordinations on Saturday at St. Mary's Goochland (a suburb of Richmond) were spectacular. Our own Nicholas Forti, our newest associate rector, was among those ordained to the priesthood.

It was my honor and privilege to be among his presenters, and then to stand there as part of the "laying on of hands" while Bishop Shannon Johnston ordained him.

Our other priests, Ann Willms and Heather Warren were also present to lay hands on Nik. And we had a large contingent of St. Paul's folks in the congregation.

We were definitely a sea of red -- the traditional color at ordinations meant to symbolize the Holy Spirit.

Nik's first celebration of the Eucharist as a priest will be at our 10 am service Sunday. Do please come, and come to the reception afterwards in the parish hall.

Here are some photographs from Saturday taken by one of Nik's friends, Tracey Kelly.

Change, anxiety, forming leaders: Big topics of the last few days

ORKNEY SPRINGS, VIRGINIA -- Since Sunday afternoon, I have been here at Shrine Mont, the retreat center for the Diocese of Virginia nestled into the mountains on the western side of the Shenandoah Valley.

Cell phones don't work well here, but the internet wireless gizmo in the main building keeps us connected to the outside world. But I must say, it is an odd sight to see a room full of clergy checking their Facebook pages on their laptops at a religious retreat center.

On Sunday and Monday I was part of a small group of diocesan lay leaders and clergy engaged in far-ranging conversation about the current state of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church and in the Diocese of Virginia. It was a candid and fascinating conversation and I felt privileged to be invited to be a part. We were very ably led in the discussions by the Rev. Susan Goff, the canon to the ordinary here in Virginia.

I was asked to participate as a member of the diocesan Committee on the Diaconate, which oversees the education and formation of those seeking ordination as vocational deacons. The vocational diaconate is very new to the Diocese of Virginia, and I was able to share my own experience with deacons on the West Coast (which is why I was asked to be in this conversation).

Our diaconate committee met with the diocesan Committee on the Priesthood, the Commission on Ministry, and the Board of Examining Chaplains, all of which have oversight on specific aspects of the ordination process. Everyone in the room had a different perspective on the topic of ordination, and my committee was asked to bring into focus the vocational diaconate as it might look in Virginia.

So far, no permanent deacons have been ordained in this diocese (we hope the first class will be ordained next year). It is a challenge for people in this diocese to picture what this third order of ordained ministry looks like without seeing it. We had a very healthy and fruitful discussion on the topic.

More broadly, we grappled with even bigger issues than a particular order of ministry. We talked extensively about the challenges facing the Church as it attempts to minister in a radically changing world. We talked about how well we are raising up, forming and educating ordained and lay church leaders for institutions that are undergoing tremendous change amidst a culture and society that is undergoing tremendous change.

We had to ask the hard questions: Do 1950s methods of education and formation meet the needs of the Church in 21st century? How can we adjust? How does our Episcopal tradition provide a useful structure for meeting the needs of ministry in this changing world? Where does the structure get in the way? How are the seminaries meeting these needs? How are the seminaries missing the mark?

We came to no firm answers, but many more questions. As it happens, next week I will be returning to my own seminary, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, as a member of the Alumni Board. Our conversations in Virginia will definitely inform the conversation with my seminary friends next week.

After these conversations concluded late Monday, our smaller group then joined the Fall clergy conference of the Diocese of Virginia, also here at Shrine Mont. The topic: Understanding and managing conflict and anxiety in our congregations, a rather pertinent topic for those of us who had been in the earlier discussions. We had to begin by looking at our own personal anxiety and times of conflict.

During the clergy conference, we heard presentations about family emotional systems theory, much of which I've heard before, but it is always helpful to gain a new perspective (and bring home a few new handouts). The emphasis was on how our explicit and implicit expectations combine with personal stories and our unwritten internal rule books to create emotional feelings and reactions. That is true for individuals and it is true for congregations.

Much of the wisdom we heart boiled down to this: Take a deep breath, and hit the pause button before reacting. Feelings are facts, feelings are real, but feelings don't always have to dictate how we react as individuals or as a group. We can't always manage how we feel, but we can manage how we act.

These have been very fruitful, fascinating and deep conversations, and I am grateful that St. Paul's has allowed me to be a part.

Nine years a priest today

Nine years ago today I stood before Bishop Jerry Lamb and took my vows to be a priest in Christ's Church. Many of you were there, and some of you "laid hands" upon me. In that moment I felt a moment of peace; the realization of what this was really about came much later.

This ninth anniversary of my priestly ordination has been much on my mind the past few days, partly because of the wonderful ordination on Saturday of Ann Willms, our associate rector at St. Paul's. During her ordination, I could not help but reflect upon my own journey these past nine years, and give my thanks for the support from so many of you in so many places.

So if you will indulge me, I'd like to take a few moments of looking back at this improbable journey. I am going mention names, which runs the risk of leaving someone out. Forgive me.

I was born into the Episcopal Church; my mother and her mother were Episcopalians. My father's family was Methodist, but my mother set the tone for many things including where we would worship. My earliest church memory is my baby sister's baptism in 1959. I went to Sunday school as a child, rarely missed a Sunday, and I was confirmed by Bishop James Pike of the Diocese of California. I fell away from church life in the 1970s while in college, but came back when I met Lori.

Lori and I are newspaper people. Ink is in our blood and always will be. Lori was an editor at The Sacramento Bee when I met her, and I was a reporter in the state Capitol Bureau. Together we put in more than a half-century of toil in the newspaper biz, and many of our best friends are journalists. We love them for their skepticism, their warped humor, and especially their deep sense of what is right and wrong in the world.

Yet I left that world for this one. It is a long story, too long for today.

I've had many mentors along the way, and no one looms larger than Don Brown, the Dean of Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento, the church we joined in 1988. His openness, his permission to ask hard questions, his willingness to admit that he did not have all the answers, his irreverent sense of humor (there's an understatement), and the brilliance of his preaching struck a huge chord with me. He mentored me in the ways not just of the church, but more deeply in the ways of Jesus in the world. And he proved to be a great friend, then as now. His wife Carol Anne took us under her wing, truly giving us her unconditional love and showing us grace in moments of great adversity.

I was much formed by the Education for Ministry program, first as a student, and then leading groups; Lori also went through EfM. Nearly all that I have learned about how to lead groups and how groups behave I learned from the enormously talented Michael Cunningham.

At Trinity, Lori and I shared many ministries. We accompanied our teen youth group on mission trips to Indian reservations with our wonderful friend Karen Harris Boone. We served on the vestry and as wardens (at different times) and Lori became an extraordinary cook for huge gatherings, including cooking for 2,000 people at the ordination of Barry Beisner as our bishop. Barry, I might add, was my shepherd through the ordination process when he was the rector at St. Martin's, Davis.

I went off to seminary in 1997, sponsored by the good people of Trinity Cathedral. I left Trinity, and served for two years at Faith Church in Cameron Park, in the Sierra foothills. At the time, Faith Church was a start-up Episcopal Church in a shopping center. The priest and founder, Kent McNair, gave me his friendship, showed me priestcraft and was patient with my stumbles and bumbles. Charlie Karoly, now deceased, and his wife Marilyn were caring in big ways and small to Lori and myself as we entered the ranks of the ordained. The people of Faith Church, many still my friends, showed us tremendous support and the meaning of a loving nurturing community.

I was also supported along the way by my parents' church, St. Timothy's, Danville (Calif.), where Lori and I were married. The rector, Steven Strane, has a good ear, and is a wise counselor. And Carl Gracely, now 100 years old, presided at our wedding, pastored my parents, stood with Bishop Lamb at my ordination as his chaplain, and has been my role model since I was 14-years-old.

To my amazement, I was called back to Trinity Cathedral after my seminary graduation to serve as the associate dean. It was my dream job, the chance to work with Don, to minister with long-time friends, to learn the craft of being a priest with the people who knew me best. It was my privilege to be on the staff for six years.

I learned the deepest meaning of being a priest at Trinity from Grant Carey, Winnie Gaines, Don White and Lynell Walker, and I learned what it means to be a deacon from Tina Campbell. I learned about gentleness and music from a giant, David Link.

We had many joys, many sorrows at Trinity. We traveled with the choir on its English cathedral tour in 2003. We welcomed new people, buried friends. We shared great moments of joy, and terrible moments of anguish. We showed the Sacramento community what it means to be the Church the week of Sept. 11, 2001. We stepped into the community with two Habitat houses, Loaves & Fishes and Francis House, River City Community Services, and many more projects for the poor I have now forgotten.

I was also invited back to my old haunts in the Legislature, and served for four years as the Chaplain to the California State Senate (the photo above is me in the Senate). I enjoyed every minute in the Senate, especially because I didn't have to write any newspaper stories about it.

Don retired in 2005, and so began the odyssey that brought us to Virginia. When a new dean came to Trinity, he cut me loose. I went through a difficult period of unemployment, and doubting whether I had much of a future as a priest.

That is when the Holy Spirit, or an angel, or the Great Force of the Universe, found me and lifted me out of the mire. The good people of All Souls Episcopal Church in Berkeley (my hometown) called me to be their interim rector in 2007, and the year we spent together was the best year of my life. The people of All Souls were smart, courageous, honest with each other and with me, and willing to take risks big and small. They loved to sing and they loved to share a meal. Every Sunday was wonderful, and it was my privilege to work with associate rector Kristin Krantz, music director Christopher Putnam and parish administrator Joy Shih Ng.

That is where the good people of St. Paul's Memorial Church, Charlottesville, found me. Lori and I came to this community in July 2008, and we are discovering anew what it means to be a caring, loving parish that looks beyond the walls of the church and constantly asks what role we are to play in the community. We are amazed at the life and vibrancy of this faith community, and are so very touched by so many people who have welcomed us and taken us into their hearts and homes. I am very grateful to so many of you, and especially to our rector emeritus David Poist and his wife Betsy for building such a great parish, and for taking us into their hearts; and I am grateful for the continued wisdom, humor, and support of Paula Kettlewell, our retired associate rector.

Along the way these nine years I have felt so very blessed by all of you. You have given me so many more blessings than you can imagine, many more than I have given you. Thank you for your patience, your good humor and for taking a risk or two with me.

The procession for Ann Willms' priest ordination begins in Charlottesville: Reserve your seat on the bus

St. Paul's Memorial Church ..... Bus transportation will be available for the ordination of Ann Willms on Saturday, January 9th 10:30 am - 12:30 pm at Trinity Church, Fredricksburg, VA Seats will cost $20 per person and the bus will leave St. Paul's at 8:15 am and return by 3:00 pm. If you would like to reserve a seat, please call the office or e-mail us atoffice@stpaulsmemorialchurch.org. St. Paul's Memorial Church 1700 University Avenue Charlottesville, VA 22903 434.295.2156 stpaulsmemorialchurch.org info@stpaulsmemorialchurch.org

Monday Funnies

Before we get to the business at hand (the Monday funnies), just a quick reminder that tonight we will assemble at 6:15 pm at U Hall to advocate for affordable housing in Charlottesville. If you can make it earlier, we will provide a light dinner 5 pm at St. Paul's and then carpool to the big meeting. This gathering is organized by a coalition of congregations under the auspices of IMPACT, and you can read about tonight's effort elsewhere on my blog by clicking HERE. You can also read more about the issues on St. Paul's IMPACT blog.

Now, to return you to our regularly scheduled program. As you know, there is a lot of kaffuffle in our church these days over such weighty issues as gay rights, the ordination of women and all that. So here are a few solutions floating around the internet (and I have no idea the identity of the authors), and the latest installment of Dave Walker's 'toons. Welcome to the Monday Funnies...

Why We Oppose Men's Ordination:

1- Because man's place is in the army.

2- Because no really manly man wants to settle disputes otherwise than by fighting about it.

3- Women would not respect men dressed in skirts.

4- Because men are too emotional to be priests. Their conduct at football matches, in the army, at political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force and violence renders them unfit to represent Jesus.

5- Because some men are so handsome they will distract women worshipers.

 6- If the Church is the Bride of Christ, and bishops are as husbands to the Church, all priests should be female.

Ten Really good reasons to oppose Gay Marriage

1- Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. That's why infertile couples and old people can't legally get married.

2- Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children. 

3- Straight marriage, such as Britney Spears' 55-hour, just-for-fun marriage, will be less meaningful.

4- Heterosexual marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; for example, women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5- Gay marriage should be decided by people not the courts, because majority-elected legislatures, and not courts, have historically done a swell job of protecting the rights of the minorities.

6- Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

7- Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

8- Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why single parents are forbidden to raise children.

9- Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven't adapted to cars or longer life spans.

10- Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name, are preferable, because separate-but-equal institutions are constitutional.