REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PREPARATION FOR MINISTRY. September 26, 2017

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1 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PREPARATION FOR MINISTRY Paper O-1 September 26, 2017 The Committee on Preparation met on August 1, 2017 and submits the following report: FOR INFORMATION: Sustained the annual consultation with the following persons under care: a. Joelly Chiangong, CRE candidate b. Sadie Bolos O Neill, Inquirer FOR ACTION OF THE PRESBYTERY 1. Having met with and examined Candidate, Matthew Bauhoff, on May 3, 2016, the CPM recommends that the Presbytery conduct an examination for ordination to the Ordered Ministry of Word and Sacrament. Matthew Bauhoff a candidate Finally Assessed by the Presbytery of Detroit, has met the requirements for ordination in this presbytery, has received a M.Div. from McCormick Theological Seminary, and has received a call to serve Plymouth Church, United Church of Christ, Shaker Heights, Ohio. If the way be clear, CPM moves to transfer his credentials to the Presbytery of Western Reserve following his ordination by the Presbytery of Detroit. His biography and Statement of Faith attached. During examination by the Presbytery any question about his Statement of Faith, or in relation to his preparedness for ordained ministry may be asked. 2. The COM recommends that the Presbytery conduct an examination for ordination to the Ordered Ministry of Word and Sacrament, Candidate Leia Battaglia. (Paper O-1a) Leia Battaglia, a candidate Finally Assessed by the Presbytery of San Jose, has met the requirements for ordination in this presbytery, has received a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and has received a call to serve Peoples Presbyterian Church, Milan. If the way be clear, COM moves to grant permission for the Presbytery of San Jose to ordain Leia and transfer her credentials to the Presbytery of Detroit. Her biography and Statement of Faith attached. During examination by the Presbytery, any question about her Statement of Faith, or in relation to her preparedness for ordained ministry may be asked. 3. Having met with and examined Candidate, Blair Buckley on May 2, 2017, the CPM recommends that the Presbytery conduct an examination for ordination to the Ordered Ministry of Word and Sacrament.

2 Blair Buckley, a candidate Finally Assessed by the Presbytery of Pueblo has met the requirements for ordination in this presbytery, has received a M.Div. from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and has received a call to serve as a Resident Minister at First Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor. If the way be clear, CPM moves to grant permission for the Presbytery of Pueblo to ordain Blair and transfer her credentials to the Presbytery of Detroit. Her biography and Statement of Faith attached. During examination by the Presbytery, any question about her Statement of Faith, or in relation to her preparedness for ordained ministry may be asked. 4. Having met with and examined Candidate, Eric Koenig-Reinke, on May 2, 2017, the CPM recommends that the Presbytery conduct an examination for ordination to the Ordered Ministry of Word and Sacrament. Eric Koenig-Reinke, a candidate Finally Assessed by the Presbytery of Western Reserve, has met the requirements for ordination in this presbytery, has received a M.Div. from Union Presbyterian Seminary, and has received a call to serve as a Resident Minister at First Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor. If the way be clear, CPM moves to grant permission for the Presbytery of Western Reserve to ordain Eric and transfer his credentials to the Presbytery of Detroit. His biography and Statement of Faith attached. During examination by the Presbytery, any question about his Statement of Faith, or in relation to his preparedness for ordained ministry may be asked. Ordination to ordered ministry of teaching elder is an act of the whole church carried out by the presbytery, setting apart a person to ordered ministry. Such a person shall have fulfilled the ordination requirements of the presbytery of care and received the call of God to service to a congregation or other work in the mission of the church that is acceptable to the candidate and to the presbytery of call. (G2.0701) 5. Having met with inquirer Christina Hallam, a member under care of the session of Westminster Church of Detroit, the Committee on Preparation for Ministry presents her to Presbytery for examination on her sense of call and recommends that she be enrolled as a Candidate. 6. Having met with inquirer Joseph Chapman, a member under care of the session of Northside Presbyterian Church, the Committee on Preparation for Ministry presents him to Presbytery for examination on his sense of call and recommends that he be enrolled as a Candidate. Respectfully submitted, Rev. Mary Bahr-Jones Rev. Edward Dunn Co-Moderators

3 Matthew Bauhof Statement of Faith I believe in one Triune God, represented by a communion of fellowship of the Creator God, our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit three in one. I believe in one God of infinite possibility. This God is my mother, my father, my protector, my healer and my guide. I believe that God relentlessly pursues relationships with God s children, loves us deeply, guides us into full communion with the Triune God. Setting forth a vision of justice, God calls us into transformative ministries that bring creation to its intended fulfillment. I believe in Jesus Christ who is God s son. Jesus is completely and fully human while being completely and fully God. Because we are followers of Jesus we are called to do as he did--love, serve, sacrifice, and seek justice for ALL, while being particularly conscientious of the marginalized and oppressed. We have been claimed by Jesus Christ thus, are redeemed of our sins through his death on the cross and raised us to a new life in his resurrection. His redeeming work opened a new way for human beings to approach God, receive forgiveness and have hope knowing that God is not defeated by oppression but is present in human liberation. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the giver of life. The Holy Spirit is an actual living presence of God and moves throughout this world. This presence is here to live with us, flow through us, accompany us, exude from us and commission us by providing direction in our lives as we open ourselves up to being led. I believe in one full, complete and diverse Christian Church which is called to be united through our diversity. We are a diverse, multicultural church working together to create a fuller picture of divinity. I believe that it is through two sacraments, Baptism and The Lord s Supper that we receive God s grace, forgiveness, relationship and salvation for this world. In Baptism, through our calling into ministry with Christ we are incorporated into Christ s body as God claims us as beloved children of God. In The Lord s Supper we receive God s grace in an act of faith in which we pledge ourselves to Christ anew through the feast of reconciliation. Bringing us into closer connection with God, these sacraments unite the people of God with one another and with the church of every time and place. I believe that the Bible is God s word for God s children. As Christians we are called to interpret scriptures in our preaching and teaching in ways that bring its light and truth to our context and community. I believe humanity is created for community with one another to love and serve the Lord. Created both good and free, we have misused our freedom and fallen into sin. We have fallen into violence, selfseeking actions and the creation of social systems where the powerful and privileged exploit the oppressed and marginalized. God in Christ calls us back towards God s vision of love of service. Let my whole being Bless the Lord! Let everything inside of me bless his holy name! Psalm 103:1 CEB

4 Matthew Bauhof - Autobiography My name is Matthew Bauhof. I grew up in metro Detroit with wonderful parents and two amazing sisters. I grew up at Northbrook Presbyterian Church and that community s sense of love and relationship was foundational in my faith life. I went on to earn an undergraduate degree from Alma College, majoring in Religious Studies and Sociology. Upon graduation, I moved to Chicago to do a volunteer year at Mercy Home for Boys and Girls, a residential program for youth in the city. This was the first time I truly developed relationships with people who came from drastically different upbringings than my own; and it changed me. As a result, social justice became an integral part of my faith life and I confirmed I had a calling to work with youth. After my year with Mercy Home, I enrolled in McCormick Theological Seminary to pursue my Masters of Divinity degree. While studying at McCormick, I continued my work at Mercy Home as the spirituality coordinator and at Urban Village Church as a Student Pastor. After graduating from McCormick, I got married to my fiancée, Mary Pat Brogan, and moved to Boston (she was finishing up law school at Boston College) to do a Chaplain Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. During that year, I worked as the primary Chaplain for two in-patient oncology floors at the hospital. I found that I had a gift and passion for pastoral care and knew it would be a part of my ministry going forward. Also, after my gratifying time in Chicago, Boston helped me confirm that I have a calling to urban ministry. I have recently begun working as the Associate Minister at Plymouth Church, United Church of Christ in Shaker Heights. My position has a primary focus on youth and pastoral care in addition to ministerial duties. While this job is in the UCC, my call to ministry resides in the PC(USA). I am a life-long Presbyterian, I feel blessed to belong to this denomination, and I am looking forward to continuing my ministry within it.

5 Statement of Faith Blair Buckley Scripture is the revelatory source of authority for our covenant faith. The God of the Old Testament is the same faithful God of the New Testament. G od created humanity in God s own image and declared them good, appointing them to be faithful and responsible stewards for all of creation. God chose the Israelites to be a blessing for all nations, binding them into a covenant relationship of obedience to God s commandments. Through God s grace the church has been adopted into this relationship to serve as the people of God with thankfulness and obedience. Just as God never forsook the Israelites, so God never forsakes us. Through Jesus Christ the triune God entered the vulnerability of human experience in order to save the world. As the Son of God, Jesus Christ was fully divine and fully human. He was the essence of true humanity, yet without sin. Sin is the pervasive reality that draws us away from living in correct relationships with God and others The power of sin affects us on individual and collective levels, creating greed and domination towards those on the margins. God sent the prophets to the people of Israel so that they would turn away from their injustices and idolatries. God continues to call us to recognize and repent from these today. It is through Christ s death and resurrection that we can experience the abundant life we were meant to have, being reconciled to God. We praise God for the the atoning work of Christ, for we cannot save ourselves. God s grace meets us where we are, yet does not leave us the same. The Holy Spirit is constantly shaping all of creation, refining us and challenging us to grow. The Holy Spirit is mysterious and full of unexpected turns (Acts 2), blurring human lines of distinction. Through the Spirit, God uses imperfect human beings to serve Christ in the world and to participate in the ushering in of God s realm. The church is the concrete embodiment of Christ s ministry in the world, empowered by the Holy Spirit to continue to preach the Good News in the world. The church exists where the Word of God is purely reached, the sacraments are rightly administered and church discipline is practiced. The sacraments of baptism and the Lord s Supper are the visible signs and seals of God's invisible grace. It is through God s initiating grace t hat we receive these gifts to nourish our faith. God enacted the sacraments, as instituted by Jesus in t he New Testament, to help us understand Christ s sacrifice for us and continuing faithfulness. When we participate in the sacraments the transformative message of Christ is sealed within us. Through baptism we are engrafted into a union with Christ, entering into the covenant community of Christ s church, even before we are able to respond in faith. God carries us into a new life in Christ in which we die to our former selves. For infant bap tisms the family and the church support the child by committing to nurture them in their faith in Christ and teach them they they belong to God. The Lord s Supper, also called the Communion of Christ s Body and Blood, uses everyday objects that are accessible. These are signs to celebrate our salvation through the work of Christ. When we participate in the Lord s Supper, through God s initiating grace, we receive food for our souls. The bread and wine in the Lord s Supper are holy signs of the body of Christ given for us to strengthen our faith and Christ s blood shed for us on the cross, r eminding us of Christ s sacrifice for us. The church s mission is to recognize God s Spirit no matter the time or place. This compels us to models of ministry based on mutuality and respect. Our mission is to feed the poor, care for the homeless and the oppressed. This should not be done out of charity but rather a recognition of God s image in them. God calls those of us who proclaim Christ as our foundation to demonstrate Christ s love and capacity for transformation. God calls us to be reconciling agents in the world, as modeled by Christ, and advocates for peace and justice.

6 Blair Buckley: Biographical Sketch I was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado on July 3, I was born into a family of white, upper-middle class parents a mother who is a CPA and a father who is an ophthalmologist and a brother who is fourteen months older. My younger brother was born six years later. In my biological family, I am the only girl and the middle child. I was an athlete as a child and this taught me determination, commitment and a strong work ethic. Growing up I was involved in many different activities, most actively in gymnastics, horseback-riding and singing. The work ethic I learned as a gymnast also taught me how to be a self-imitating student. In middle and part of high school I was involved in the International Baccalaureate Program. I have always been someone with many different interests. High school was no exception to this. During high school, I participated in softball, track, diving, French club, choirs, student government, and a handful of plays and musicals. I also studied abroad in France for a month, traveling with a group from my high school. I love to travel and experience new things. Therefore, I decided to live somewhere else in the United States for college. I moved to North Carolina in 2004 to attend Elon University, a liberal arts college of about five thousand students. I majored in Religious Studies and was involved in a variety of student endeavors. These included a research program from the School of Arts and Sciences, the sorority Alpha Chi Omega, a few different campus ministries including one specifically for Greek students, and several service trips and projects. My parents had divorced in 1995, when I was ten years old. They had both remained single until I was in college and then they both remarried. Through these remarriages I gained a stepmother, a stepfather, and five stepsisters. It was a bit of an adjustment for me to go from having no sisters to five sisters but it has been a blessing. I often cite my time at Elon as formative for my faith and the beginning stage of my call to ministry. Although I had been baptized at my grandparents small Presbyterian church, and I had been involved in the downtown Presbyterian Church as a teenager, it wasn t until college that I came to truly understand these roots and let them grow. The Religious Studies program at Elon broadened my horizons, giving me opportunities to learn about different interpretations of the Bible and even different world religions. The faith I had had as a child and teenager was bound to a black-and-white mentality and my Religious Studies classes challenged me to allow for more gray area. There were times in college when it felt like my Christian faith was being completely and utterly dismantled. However, transformation and regeneration came from this and it made my faith even stronger. I also caught the service bug in college, which God used to shape the next steps of my life. After college I served as a PCUSA Young Adult Volunteer for a year. I served at a homeless resource center in Nashville and was drawn to the image of Jesus as the Suffering Servant. That program also helped me to discern my call to ministry and my subsequent enrollment in the M. Div. program at Louisville Seminary. Through this period, God continued to use other people to challenge my presumptions about the divine, the Bible, and what it meant to follow Christ. God was always humbling me and continues to do so every step of the way in my life. I graduated from seminary in the spring of 2012 and life has continued to present endless opportunities to learn and grow since that time. I moved back to Colorado after seminary and accepted a position in year-long CPE hospital residency. After this residency, I was rooted in the area for a couple different reasons. I took a ministry job in the area and have served in this position as the Director of Youth and Children's Ministries at a Presbyterian church in Boulder since them. Now it is time to pursue my call to ordained ministry.

7 Eric Koeing Statement of Faith: I believe in the Triune God, creator of the entire world a God personified in love, who loves creation and humanity despite the sinful and broken nature of humanity; it is solely through the loving grace of God that humanity has been redeemed and nothing that humans can do can earn redemption and salvation. Out of steadfast love, God s grace is given as a gift. The Church, in a faithful response to the gift of Gods grace, is called to worship God in community, and extend the love of God to all people in service. In worship, believers participate in the sacraments of the Lord s Supper (Communion) and Baptism. Through the Lord s Supper, believers remember the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and are spiritually fed to follow Jesus. In Baptism believers affirm that God claims each person, and through union with Jesus, frees people from sin. The sacraments are a sign and seal of the ongoing work of God in the world. In service, believers are called to be the transforming love of Jesus Christ in the world. The ministry of Jesus of Nazareth was the embodiment of God s radical love; a love that was extended to people from all walks of life, and backgrounds. Believers are called to work as the body of Christ in a continuation of God s radical love to all people. Believers experience and learn about God through Holy Scripture, which witnesses to the faithfulness of God in history and the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Holy Scripture helps believers discern the nature of the triune God: Jesus Christ, the prophet, priest, and Lord whose unconditional love and personal sacrifice have redeemed a broken world and who continues to work in the hearts of believers; The One whom Jesus called Abba, who out of profound love gave the only begotten Son to be in direct relationship with humanity and creation; And the Holy Spirit, who is actively working to inspire believers and continues to unite the Christian community throughout all time and space.

8 Biographical Sketch of Eric Koenig I was born and raised in the Cleveland area of northeast Ohio. Both of my parents are ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and served as co-pastors of Noble Road Presbyterian Church, a congregation that I am still a member of, until I was in middle school. I have one brother who is four years older than me, whom I did not have as close of a connection with until I was in high school. I attended public school in Cleveland Heights and played tennis throughout middle and high school. In Middle School both of my parents decided to leave Noble Road Presbyterian Church to pursue other calls within the denomination. My mother continued to work at home, my brother, my mom, and myself remained in Cleveland Heights and my father worked in Louisville and returned home when he could. When I was in High School I began working as a tennis court attendant and a summer tennis coach, jobs that my older brother served in previously and we overlapped for a few years which was a real point of bonding between us. I began my college education at Hawaii Pacific University. While I enjoyed my time in Hawaii I did not find it a place that I could concentrate on my education, so decided I would transfer schools. Because I was unsure of where I wanted to go I decided to enroll at Cuyahoga Community College. After one year at Cuyahoga Community College I decided to transfer to Bowling Green State University. I graduated from Bowling Green State University in December of 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Sociology. Upon the completion of my Bachelor s degree I applied to serve as a Young Adult Volunteer, a program of the PC (USA), and served as a volunteer with an agency that works to end homelessness in Austin, Texas for one year from fall 2012 to the late summer of Part of the program involves discerning the next steps in a person s vocational life. Through this year I felt a call to ministry within the PC (USA) and decided that I would apply to seminary. In the fall of 2013 I enrolled at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia; I graduated with my Masters of Divinity in 2016, and will receive my Masters of Theology this June. During my time in seminary I met my wonderful fiancé and will be getting married shortly after we both graduate in June.

9 Christina Hallam September 26, 2017 Personal Statement for Detroit Presbytery I felt a call to ministry young enough that it is difficult to tell my own story without telling the story of my call as well. My call to ministry has been a constant in my life, and it developed steadily over the years, which were punctuated with moments where I overtly chose to claim and affirm it as part of my journey. I made the first of such choices at the age of eight, when my family had finally settled into our Kansas home after moving four times. During that year, while my mother was cooking dinner, I declared that I was ready to be baptized. My mother, a former member of the Disciples of Christ, deemed this acceptable and I was baptized on Palm Sunday along with my older sister. From that point on, I actively tried to participate in church life in any way the church would allow me. I became a member of the church youth group, which loved, welcomed, and celebrated the punkrock middle schooler I chose to be. While other students at school might have picked on me, I felt wholly welcomed by the church, and I slowly came to view the church as my home. This sense of belonging grew until finally, after returning from a fall youth retreat, I looked at my youth pastor and told him, right there in the church parking lot I m going to steal your job one day. He looked back at me and said, Let me help you. I view this moment as my start in ministry. I gave my first devotion two weeks later, and the next summer I was on the worship team for the church s yearly mission trip. Yet my challenges were not over: after the trip, I came home to a house packed with boxes and a moving van out front. My family was moving again to Michigan. Determined to stick to my call, I dove headlong into church life at my family s new church, the First Presbyterian Church of Northville. Once again, I did everything the church would allow me to do. By my senior year, after being part of youth leadership, mission trip planning, worship band practices, and church plays, the only thing I didn t do at the church was the hand-bells. Yet this was also a time where I often reflected on what it meant to answer one s call rather than become a minister, could I instead answer God s call by becoming an art therapist, following one of my other passions? Could I answer this call by becoming an environmentalist, by caring for God s creations? It was these deliberations and doubts that led me to Albion College for environmental studies, a plan that quickly fell through due to scheduling issues. After this, considering my options, I left campus to attend a church revival with a few friends. At one point during this event, high school students were asked onstage to pray for their schools. It struck me that I used to be so like them, and I asked myself, What happened? It was during that moment of reflection where I decided that I would stop fighting my call; that I pursue a jobs as a minister. I returned to campus and declared myself a religious studies major. Two years later I found myself sitting under a tree in southern India, questioning my call once again. I was at the end of my study abroad program studying Buddhist meditation, and I was apprehensive about returning to campus. The previous semester I had been ostracized from a Christian group on campus for being too liberal and I had become frustrated with Christianity as a whole. But as I meditated under that tree, what came to mind was my baptismal scripture: I have called you by your name, you are mine, Isa. 43:1. I laughed under that tree for I realized, with a name that means of Christ, I was bound to Christianity, and I made the decision to stay with the faith that I grew up in and work towards making the church as open and accepting as the church I knew and loved. After I graduated college I took a year off to discern my next steps, working at Westminster Church of Detroit as their Youth Director. That year was what I needed to ground myself in the realities of life outside of school, reigniting my love for working with the church. Reinvigorated, I arrived at Princeton Theological Seminary unaware of the struggles ahead. I could not have anticipated having to argue with my classmates over whether or not women should be ordained, nor the bumps along my own journey towards ordination. These challenges have forced me to consider elements of my call that I had taken for granted, and led me to actively choose once again to stay in PCUSA. As a creative mind who connects easily with the people on the fringe, or those who are uncomfortable in a traditional church setting, I feel lead towards nontraditional ministry. I want to make others feel at home in the church, just as I was once made to feel at home. I want to reimagine the possibilities of Christian worship and faith while still honoring our sacred traditions.

10 Joseph Chapman Biographical Statement Even though I know God is calling me to ministry, it s difficult to tell my story. Where does it begin, exactly? And how do I tell it faithfully, when I am only, at this point, imagining its ultimate expression? Although I was raised in the Catholic church, in college I became devoted to my intense, mercurial poetry professor Alan Shapiro. The tragedies he had experienced in his own life were more than just the subject matter of his poetry: they were the raw materials out of which he built a personal theology. For Alan, life, like great art, was full of loss. In both life and art we are caught between the contingencies beyond our control exile, illness, and death and the things we desire home, vibrancy, and immortality and in that impossible in-between we exist and make art. Said another way, we live and make great art in the close quarters of our irreconcilables. I began to believe this, too, and so after his class I decided that because I wanted so badly to believe in God, because I had such a hunger for God, it would be advantageous for me not to believe in God. This was my irreconcilable, and from that pain I would write. It wasn t the content of Alan s personal theology that deeply affected me. It was his authenticity. More so, it was my belief that his beliefs were true for him; I adopted his beliefs not because they were mine but because he lived them convincingly. It s easy now to see how ridiculous this was. Maybe I wouldn t have fallen away from my own beliefs, and perhaps I could have avoided a great deal of pain brought about by my temporary, inauthentic relationship with God, if I had known a single Christian in my early and mid-twenties who could have met me where I needed to be met. Someone who thought rigorously, empathized with human struggle, and lived their beliefs with conviction. Those people probably were there and I simply failed to see them. In any case, I often imagine becoming the type of pastor who could have saved me from myself. I imagine having belief borne of empathy, rigor, and capacious thinking; I imagine showing my younger self the absurdity and beauty of a Christian belief that I ultimately could not leave behind. I did eventually find such a pastor, and I ve been immensely thankful for her guidance and care, her openness to sharing difficult, authentic questions. At a book discussion group, she shared a particularly troubling question. How can we talk about this book, she asked, a book about looking for meaning in our lives, when so many people in the world are suffering from the injustices of war, starvation, and neglect? After letting our discussion group try out various answers, she offered this one: We do not choose our wound, and the wound our culture suffers from is meaninglessness. Many of us are well provided for, but we are dying spiritually because we cannot make sense of our lives. Many of us have stopped trying. Like my pastor, I see this wound everywhere. I now see that this wound is where my ministry begins. In communities plagued by meaninglessness, I want to guide congregations into and through our culture, which happens to be lush with privilege but spiritually arid at the same time. Sometimes I think that the great victory of the resurrection is not its victory over death, as theologians commonly state, but its victory over meaninglessness. Christ s violent death on the cross was brutal and meaningless. His resurrection, as the ultimate expression of God s story, enables us to find meaning in the world again. This is not necessarily what I want or need to share with a congregation, but it will be the story behind every story I tell. It s impossible to know the exact form my first call and subsequent calls will take. I feel strongly that God has called me to serve a congregation as a minister, but perhaps chaplaincy or teaching are in my future. That said, I do believe my call will involve preaching and that it will engage my desire to guide and care for others. That I will be using my brain and heart and faith to help others to encounter the Gospel story behind their own stories.