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Ordination Day for Deacons and Priests is coming up on June 21. Today, and next month, we'll highlight upcoming Ordinands to hear about their story, and how they will help all of ECMN engage in God's mission through Ordination.
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Ordinands are called to
use their gifts in a particular fashion to engage with their Faith Communities and ECMN as a whole. They are supported along the journey of ordination by many people, lay and ordained.
Letha Wilson-Barnard, Vicar at Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in St. Paul, writes about four ordinands and their journey of faith formation:
On Sunday, I met with our four transitional deacons:
Bao Moua, Cher Lor, Thomas Thao, and Peter Thor who will be ordained as priests on June 21, 2016. I recalled with them the path that led to this moment. It's been 11 years since the Holy Spirit led 75 Hmong families, former Roman Catholics, to the Episcopal Church - giving them a new church home and breathing new life into Holy Apostles on the eastside of St. Paul. These four (one female and three males) along with ten other Shared Ministry Team members have spent the past four years in formation, studying the usual canonical areas along with faithfully practicing their ministries in the context of Holy Apostles, the first Hmong-majority congregation in the Episcopal Church. What a privilege it has been to be their companion and mentor. I've seen these four and the other team members grow in faith, live into their ministries, and use their gifts for the common good by serving the congregation and the community. Our faith community continues to discern how and where the Holy Spirit is leading us in mission and ministry. Thanks be to God for his steadfast love and faithfulness.
Jennifer Steckel McNally, part of the ministry team at St. Anne's in Sunfish Lake, will also be ordained as a priest on June 21. Jennifer took part in a School for Formation cohort following seminary training at United Theological Seminary. She answered a few questions about the discernment and formation process, and a surprising element to her ordination story. She writes:
I didn't actually recognize I was "discerning" until I was well into it.
I was raised as an active member of the Episcopal Church, and my early memories are of church as a place that felt beautiful and separate and special. As a young adult, my questions over some of church doctrine and dogma grew, and the beauty, joy, and peace I'd found in church became more deeply experienced in other places, until eventually the church no longer spoke to me. During college, I left the Episcopal Church to join the Unitarian Universalists and soon stopped attending church altogether.
Upon the birth of my first child, and I cautiously and slowly returned to the Episcopal Church, hoping to reconnect in an authentic way, yet still carrying the apprehensions which had caused me to leave. With time, I found a mentor with whom I could talk openly: a priest who encouraged my questions and exploration, and directed me down helpful avenues. To my surprise, I found my doubts, issues, and frustrations about church not only named, but honored. It was the start of falling in love with church anew, for me. It was not my more naive childhood love for church, but a practical one, energized with new vision for what church is and what it can be. What we, as the church, can
do. There were new insights, new doors opening, and a new connection to the Holy - and I developed a gift for helping others find their own insights and open their own doors, as well.
My first day in seminary, my professor happened to be an Episcopal priest. She described for the class the story of her call to sacramental ministry, and to my utter surprise, I heard my own story being told. Tears of a dawning understanding began running down my face; I hadn't recognized until that moment that the pull I had been feeling was a call to the priesthood. After class, I asked if I could speak with my professor "for a minute". Our conversation that day lasted for three hours, and hasn't stopped yet. I officially entered the discernment process and seminary, and though it was not easy, I found myself more passionate about it, more alive in it, and more at home with it, than anything else I have ever experienced.
Most surprising to me is probably my relationship with the Bible.
Though I always appreciated that as a child I had not been taught to read the Bible literally, without another context for it, I had struggled with how to read and understand it.
My journey from discomfort, to distant understanding, to deep passion for the stories of Scripture is a large part of my journey. Ongoing study and discussion offered me the gift of a new lens. I began to understand Scripture as beautiful, messy, insightful, mysterious, freeing, nuanced - and as my own story. I began to see the Bible as a reflection of, and an opening to, deep truths. The stories of Scripture now offer me a sense of connectedness not only to God and to the teachings of Jesus, but to my core self and to the entire human experience. They guide and ground me.
Inviting others to find themselves and their place in this great and ongoing love story between God and God's people has become one of my deepest passions.
In particular, I feel called toward the "spiritual but not religious". While much focus has been put on the "not religious" portion of this phrase, it is the "I am spiritual" portion which captivates and energizes me
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My heart and God's meet there, in the middle of the "spiritual", who also long for a place to be fed and nourished, and who also long for connection to Holy Mystery. When I hear "Spiritual but not religious", I hear "Feed my sheep".
I see hands stretched out waiting to take and to share food for body, mind, and soul. I know the deep longing of that hunger, and I know there is nothing like the peace of finding a place at the table.
My specific hope as a priest is to begin hosting a dinner church, to be called Table 229. (From Matthew 22:9, "Go into the streets and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet".) The vision: an Episcopal-rooted community which draws people looking for ways to connect spiritually, but for whom traditional Sunday-morning-in-the-pews isn't a good fit. Table 229 will gather seekers across generational, ethnic, racial, and socio-economic lines around a table for an actual meal - and for liturgy, ritual, the Gospel, bread and wine, music, prayer, discussion, questioning, challenging, and figuring out what it means to follow Jesus in everyday living. The vision is for shared and intergenerational leadership, inclusiveness without exception, and a leveling of hierarchy. Table 229 will be a place your "spiritual but not religious" friends, neighbors, children, or grandchildren might want to visit. You may want to come, too!
Thank you to these ordinands and helpers for sharing their stories of hope, faithfulness, and heeding God's call to more fully engage God's mission.
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Parish Anniversary--Church of the Advent in Farmington celebrates 145 years!
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Formed as a parish on July 24, 1871 and incorporated with the State on August 12, 1871, Episcopal Church of the Advent will celebrate its 145th year of parish life with an eye to its place in the history of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota and a special communion service with Bishop Brian Prior as celebrant on July 31, 2016. Following a reception, historian Arthur Finnell will share some historical insights from his book on the historic churches in Minnesota. Guests will be invited to walk the labyrinth path on the church property, and music and story-telling will make for a pleasant gathering to remember the people who founded and supported Church of the Advent throughout its life.
To "set the stage" for the recognition of this 145th anniversary, Rev. Ben Scott will speak during a service on July 17. His research has focused on the history of ECMN and the churches in southern Minnesota in particular.
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Elected Bodies--Photos from June 4 Meeting
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Meeting of Elected Bodies on June 4
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Poetry, from Journey with Jesus
The RCC is a project of Episcopal, UCC, Presbyterian, and Methodist Churches located in the Minnesota Church Center: 122 W. Franklin Ave, Minneapolis, MN, 55404.
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Upcoming Events
June 9
, 1730 Clifton Pl, Minneapolis
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School for Formation
The School for Formation is your key to growing in your faith and growing as a leader.
Fall courses begin in August.
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GET CONNECTED TO ECMN
Visit our website:
to find more information about what's happening in the Episcopal Church community around the state.
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for regular updates, resources, events and news from around the state and nation.
School for Formation:
offers courses and workshops online and in person that allow clergy, lay people and those discerning a call to serve to build their knowledge and skills.
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JUNE
6/9:
Lindsay Freeman, p 1985
Timothy Raasch, p 1984
6/10:
Grayson Clary, p 1950
6/11:
Robert Moore, p 1963
6/12:
Elaine Barber, p 2003
Richard Todd, d 2003
6/14:
Stephen Wlosinski, p 1967
6/17:
Sue Deetz, d 2001
Barbara Hauck, d 2001
David Hill, d 2001
Alice Olson, d 2001
Jill Tollefson, d 2001
6/18:
Philip Clark, p 1994
Linda Lou Lundgren, p 1994
Arthur Wojciehowski, p 1994
Phyllis Kunz, d 2005
Phillip Schaffner, d 2005
6/19:
Susan Barnes, p 2002
6/20:
Caren Bedard, d 2015
Kathleen Edwards, d 2015
Eunice Koch, d 2015
Nor Annie Lor, d 2015
Lynne Sprick, d 2015
Betty Strong, d 2015
May Thao, d 2015
Darcy Valentine, d
2015
Mary Ellen Aschroft, p 2002
Lydia Huttar Brown, p 2002
Reed Carlson, p 2015
Debbie Dehler, p 2015
Joanie Delamater, p 2002
Tom Garrison, p 2015
Randy Johnson, p 2015
David Mowers, p 2015
Shannon Preston, p 2015
Connie Sowah, p 2015
Dana Strande, p 2015
Jennifer Walding, p 2015
6/22:
Michael Pipkin, p 2002
6/23:
Siri Hustad, p 2013
Roger Franzen, p 2013
Terry Erickson, d 2013
Lowell Johnson, d 2013
6/26:
Cindy Hillger, d 2014
Jane Quesenberry-Nelson, d 2014 Margaret Thor, d 2014
Vant Washington, d 2014
Emily Lodine Overgaard, d 2014 Phil Boelter, p 2014
Ramona Scarpaee, p 2014
6/27:
Barbara del Caro Scaia, d 2013 Judy DesHarnais, d 2013
Guy Drake, d 2013
David Gemmel, d 2013
Morris Goodwin, d 2013
George Ham, d 2013
Eileen Harvala, d 2013
Brenda Hoffman, d 2013
Matthew Johnson, d 2013
Maureen Otwell, d 2013
Harlan Strong, d 2013
John Sullivan, d 2013
Rena Turnham, d 2013
Dana Emery, p 2009
Joan Ersfeld, p 2013
Barbara Fairbanks, p 2009
Mary Groeninger, p 2010
Jason Lucas, p 2013
Philip Rose, p 2013
Toua Vang, p 2013
Pam Webster, p 2010
6/28:
Janet MacNally, d 2007
6/29:
Bill Teska, p 1969
Frederick Nairn, p 1967
Pat Markie, d 2006
Sandi Obarski, d 2006
6/30:
Colin Maltbie, p 2011
JULY
7/3:
John Peters, p 1988
7/8:
Justin Chapman, p 2008
Lynn Naeckel, p 2006
Sally Maxwell, p 2008
Leland Grim, d 2006
Ian Punnett, d 2008
7/10:
Susan Kruger, p 1986
7/19:
Thomas Winkler, p 1970
Marilyn Bamford, d 1989
7/21:
Laurie Skau, p 1986
7/22:
Rex McKee, d 2004
Debra Welch, d 2004
Kate Bradtmiller, p 2006
7/23:
Cheryl Harder, p 2005
Tom Campbell, d 2005
7/29:
Alla Renee Bozarth, p 1974
Keely Morgan, p 2010
Catherine Lemons, p 2010
Jim Shoulak, d 2010
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From The Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs:
Click here for the full list of the most recent releases.
Toolkit
The Toolkit is designed to help enhance your message, broaden your reach and offer tips for placements into regional, secular, and other media - both traditional and social.
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