Paper for Ordination in the United Church of Christ Vanessa Susan Cardinale August, 2011 1
Part One: Theological Perspectives. My own theological perspectives have been greatly shaped by the contexts, experiences, and relationships that have made me who I am today. My faith continues to move, shift and grow as I do. However, it is simultaneously grounded in the tradition of which I count myself a part. With that tradition in mind, I have organized this portion of my paper by using the UCC Statement of Faith as an outline. We believe in you, O God, Eternal Spirit, God of our Savior Jesus Christ and our God, and to your deeds we testify: By proclaiming that I believe in God, I mean that I root my understanding of myself within the context of God being in me, beyond me, and among me in my community. I experience God as intensely personal but also as a presence within community, and at times only understood through others. God is a presence that is continuously revealing Godsself both in ways we understand and recognize as well as in ways that we do not and cannot. To me, to believe in God is to affirm life and to accept our responsibility to live in community in a way that does the same. I also believe that God is a God of liberation, justice, grace and compassion. The ways that God breaks through in the world as Holy Spirit and the person of Jesus Christ speaks to me of this nature. God is definitely not a neutral presence and I believe that God asks of us to live out life affirming qualities. I believe that the nature of God is also further articulated through the trinity. Whether we say Father, Son and Holy Ghost; Creator, Christ, Holy Sprit; or Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, all point toward the necessary duality of oneness and relationship, which are both crucial to 2
understand God. God is the the presence of relationship, or as Barbara Brown Zikmund writes, the trinitarian truth [is] that there is one God existing in community 1 You call the worlds into being, create persons in your own image, and set before each one the ways of life and death. I value that our faith tradition holds a number of creation stories side by side: our two Genesis stories as well as Chapter One in the Gospel of John. God calls worlds into being. God consults and counsels. God is the Word. This creation centers around this communication and desire for relationship. It emphasizes a power to create that is power with rather than power over. Out of that desire for relationship, God created persons in her/his own image. God is known to us in each other as human beings, but also God is known to us in all God s creation, not exclusively human beings. To recognize this is to then be called to an intentionality of how we live in the world that God created. Industrialization and globalization call us away from this relationship with other people but also with the food we eat and the materials we need to live. In setting before each one the ways of life and death, God wants us to know these things about ourselves, and also about all that surrounds us. Ultimately God wants us to see that the self and the other is really bound together in all of this. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. articulates this point by saying that all life is interrelated, that somehow we're caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be 1 Barbara Brown Zikmund, the Trinity and Women s Experience, Christian Century, 15 April 1987, p.335. 3
until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. 2 Additionally, God created us in God s image. That makes us sacred and holy beings that demand respect and love in the way that God does. We live out that reality in the personal and interpersonal, but also in our larger community. What would it look like if we all lived in a way that recognized and respected what is sacred and holy in every one of us? You seek in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and sin. Sin is estrangement from God, the irresponsible use of God s gifts of knowledge and freedom. 3 Sin is what keeps us from recognizing and respecting the sacred and holy in both humanity and the larger creation. The negation of the sacred in all creation is sin in itself as well as the cause of sin in the world. I believe in the real evil of sin, both structural and personal. Each relates to the other and play off of each other. In recognizing the reality of sin, I also would like speak to the relationship that aimlessness and sin have to each other, particularly that of structural sin and aimlessness. I understand structural sin to be the social dimension of sin beyond individual wrongdoing. Structural sin contains the sinful actions that are rooted in systems, such as racism, classism, materialism, etc. I believe aimlessness is a result of structural sin. Aimlessness comes from a disconnection from our source, God, due to structural sin and thus we must understand it in that context. We, as human beings, commit sin, and we are called to recognize where we sin and seek repentance. We are also called to name sin where we see it. But ultimately, we are called beyond 2 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Commencement Address for Oberlin College, June 1965, Oberlin, Ohio 3 Roger L. Shinn, Confessing our Faith: An Interpretation of the Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ, United Church Press; Cleveland, Ohio, 1990, p. 53. 4
sin and aimlessness, and though we fall and fall again, God loves us through that effort. It is a tension that God knows us and loves us apart from our sin, and in spite of our sin, and at the same time wanting us to repent and work against it. You judge people and nations by your righteous will declared through prophets and apostles. God s message is brought to us in different ways. One is through the words and deeds of people. The words of the prophets we read in the Bible have been a powerful and enduring voice of justice that offers us a way to get right with God and each other in order to be truer to God s intention for us in this world. We have many other prophetic voices that have spoken up in the face of injustice throughout history and in present day. It is up to us to be seeking this message and witness, especially when it challenges us and exposes our sin. Prophesy is an invitation for repentance and right relationship. In turn, we must also be present and open to the possibility that we could be used by God as a prophetic voice. We are called to open ourselves to the gift and responsibility that carries. This responsibility often carries weighty consequences, including rejection and hostility. In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Savior, you have come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the world to yourself. Jesus Christ is the ultimate manifestation of God s in-breaking into our human history, which connects God with the human experience in a foundational way. The ministry of Jesus is both contextual and universal. Jesus ministry as a Jewish man in Roman occupied Palestine was to call for a new way of relating to each other. He challenged how those around him understood 5
God, themselves, and each other, and affirmed that love be the foundation for all these relationships. The powers and principalities he challenged through his ministry ultimately had him crucified. However, they could not defeat him in death and it is Christ s resurrection which stands as the pillar by which Christians stake their faith claim. Those who experienced the resurrection and who built the earliest Christ communities as a living confession that death did not triumph, took a definitive stance against the powers that Jesus and his followers challenged. The passion of Christ tells us that, in our sin and profound brokenness, God is with us. On the cross, God does not leave us. Ours is a God who suffers with us. God shares our suffering because through entering into our lives he shares our sin. 4 His death and resurrection redeems us because it illustrates God s refusal to give up on us, despite our many failings. In a communal sense, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus points us toward the places where life conquers death and the dehumanized regain humanity. We are called, by Jesus, to be actors, indeed disciples, in this story. You bestow upon us your Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races. I love the Holy Spirit. In many ways, it is the most underestimated and unacknowledged part of the Trinity. It reminds us where the Church truly resides. It is most active in places farthest away from established power. It moved women to preach in a time when it was unheard of. It brought people of different races together to worship and pray in the midst of segregation. It offers courage to those who face the powers that want to destroy them. As with the Pentecost moment in Acts, when people of different parts of the world who spoke different languages were 4 Shinn, 70. 6
able to communicate and understand each other, the Holy Spirit breaks down barriers that the world builds in often unsettling and unpredictable ways. The Holy Spirit reminds us we are a covenant people, not seeking merely comfort with like minded people, but striving to be in authentic, sometimes messy relationship with each other and our God. It also connects us with that cloud of witnesses that stretches back through the ages. All this serves to remind us that the members of the church do not own the church, but care for and nurture it. The church is more than just us and to remain authentic must be renewed by the Holy Spirit. You call us into your church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be your servants in the service of others, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ's baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory. For two thousand years, people have gathered to remember, worship, and practice the life and ministry and witness of Jesus. The centrality of Christ as the head of the Church has been the foundation of the Christian faith. This binds together our church through space and time. From the earliest Christ communities, chronicled in the Book of Acts and the Pauline Epistles, a diversity of communities and peoples, baptized in the Holy Spirit, are made one as an outward manifestation of the body of Christ in the world. The message of the New Testament breaks down the false barriers and power constructs that divide people from each other and thus from Christ. As Christians, we are called to reconcile the world with God. Our call to discipleship reminds us that the gospel exists not simply for spiritual comfort but gives real directives for how we are to participate in this effort of reconciliation. Discipleship is the action of aligning our 7
lives with the will of God, and the example we set by striving to do so proclaims the gospel. The burden and blessing of discipleship is the opportunity to speak and live the truth and justice of God s message in a world where perhaps many do not want or are not ready to hear it. To proclaim the gospel is to share the good news that we belong to God, who loved us into being and desires for us to live out that love in community. Our sacraments of baptism and holy communion stand as living symbols of God s love for us and allow us to join him in his passion and victory. Baptism binds the person being baptized to Christ and thus to the Christian community. It is both God's gift and our human response to that gift" and sign and seal of [our] participation in God's forgiveness 5 During holy communion we share a meal to give thanks and remember the story, our story, of the last supper that Jesus shared with his disciples. The sacrament of communion creates a space where God s grace can be felt, and we can experience a glimpse of the kingdom through unity with each other. You promise to all who trust you forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, your presence in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in your realm which has no end. Despite the fact that we are so broken, and so unworthy, God still loves us unconditionally and calls us back into the struggle to create a more just and sustaining world for all. This final piece of the the UCC Statement of Faith recalls the prophet Micah s words, words that I constantly return to when I feel as though I strive for clarity and connection to my own path of discipleship. What is required of us but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God? This 5 UCC Book of Worship 8
simple question allows all us to be constantly returning to this humble walk with the knowledge that we are constantly being invited back in, which for me, is what grace is all about. Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto you. Amen. Part Two: The UCC The UCC is fortunate to be made up of four historical denominations with rich and distinct histories. When the Separatists and Puritans arrived in what is now Massachusetts in 1620 and 1630, respectively, they were both fleeing repression in their home state of England and beginning what came to be known as the Holy Experiment. The community we have come to know as the Puritans was composed of priests, intellectuals, and lay people pushed both openly and subversively to reform the Anglican Church. The influence of John Calvin helped sharpen their theological lens as well as develop models of organizing themselves as a church body which would have enormous importance as they journeyed to what they would name New England to create a new society. 6 It was in this context that one of the main elements that would come to describe the Congregationalist community emerged: Covenantal relationships and Congregationalism. The focus on covenant as a way to be together in community and in relationship with God is central in understanding the way in which the Puritans, as well as Separatists, left Europe and arrived in the New World. The Puritans used this model in their colonies to live in covenant as an ideal Christian society. By creating a civil body politic 7 their religious vision for their community 6 Johnson and Hambrick-Stowe, 25-26. 7 The Mayflower Compact, 1620 9
also shaped the way that the English Settlers understood and practiced government which greatly shaped our governmental structure. The next historical denomination that makes up part of what today is the UCC was known as the Christian Church. The Christian Church was originally formed in 1811 and was embodied by the phrase No Creed but Christ. 8 With roots in the Second Great Awakening and more importantly the Cane Ridge Revival, the Christian Church existed mostly in the frontier and in the southern states. A legacy of the Christian Church is the commitment to ecumenism. Members came from a diversity of denominations and saw their commonality based on the autonomy to worship freely, creating a sense of unity in diversity. The German Reformed Church has its roots in the Palatinate region of Germany, where many of the Calvinist reformed people lived. In addition to Calvin, this group also looked to Zwingli and Luther as influencing their understanding of doctrine and Church. The sacrament of communion as central in worship. Through studying the Heldelberg Catechism they were able to assert the holy mystery and mystical presence of Christ, as manifested through the eucharist, which placed doctrine as central to their faith and worship. The Evangelical Synod was formed in the Pietistic movement in Germany. This movement began in the late 17 th century by Philipp Jakob Spener who inspired a moral and spiritual reformation, emphasizing personal warmth, Christian experience of everyday living 9 He achieved this through beginning assemblies of piety in which groups of people came together for Bible study and worship involving the laity in a new way. 8 Ibid, 58. 9 Evangelical Syond class handout from UCC History and Polity course, created by Rev. Paul Bradley 10
The processes that led the creation of the United Church of Church in 1957 began first with the Congregational and Christian churches and then the Reform and Evangelical churches developing a sense of unity and Ecumenism that was emergent in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries. The Reform Church and Evangelical Synod came together in 1934 to form the Evangelical and Reform Church. The uniting of these two churches was a melding of a warm, experiential understanding of religion with the Evangelical Synod and a more orthodox and catholic approach focused around the sacraments with the Reform Church. The Congregational and Christian Churches also joined together during this period to form the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches. Conversations between the two churches had begun in the late 19 th century, but were taken on in full in 1923 when a Plan of Union was created, and eventually implemented. These two churches shared their autonomous spirit and were organized the same way, making the union relatively straight forward. Finally, the initial talks for a union of the Evangelical and Reformed and the Congregational Christian Churches began unofficially in 1937 and officially in 1943 around the recognition that among the two churches there was a sense of family 10 Joint work had already begun in 1938 when the two churches worked with a number of other United States Churches to denounce the incarceration of Martin Niemoeller in Nazi Germany. It was this ecumenical spirit that brought the two churches into a process of Union, which would serve as a uniting force that lives out the understanding of Christ as head of the Church. This process culminated on June 25 th, 1957, when the two churches joined to form the United Church of Christ. The UCC remains committed to a church that strives to be United and 10 UCC Merger Class handout from UCC History and Polity Class, 2007-8, Created by Rev. Paul Bradley 11
Uniting. It is from this covenantal relationship as well as the statement of faith that was first created in 1959 that the UCC poised itself to become a prophetic church that calls it self to live out in community the message and example of Jesus Christ. The focus on congregationalism and covenant balances both personal freedom and mutual responsibility that has allowed the UCC to speak prophetically and authentically throughout its history. Part 3 - Ministry and Pilgrimage I understand my ministry through the imagery of bridge building between people, communities, institutions, and any other two individuals or groups. To develop this metaphor, bridge building also can include building bridges between all those entities and God. Working to build bridges with people also means being able to connect pieces, or islands in a persons life in order to piece back together the whole person, physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual so that we can understand ourselves as all of these things and live out the implications of what that means. My ministry plays a vital role in this bridge building process. As a pastor this metaphor also extends to connecting the congregation with our story, ancestors, and tradition through worship and other spaces, like Bible study. This is yet another area where through knowing the other we can come to better know ourselves and God. There are personal and political implications to this ministry, and it is often difficult to maintain the constant effort and maintenance to insure bridges stay functioning. Cultural differences and the dynamics of privilege can create barriers to authentic community and impede willingness to give of oneself and be vulnerable. This approach to ministry comes from my own journey that has led me to seek ordination in the United Church of Christ. Theologian H. Richard Niebuhr s four part understanding of call 12
for to ordained ministry 11 is helpful in explaining my own pilgrimage. At its most basic level, I understand call as the articulation of a relationship with God. The relationship is always there, but call refers to a certain type of interaction in which God communicates a desire for one to be of service in a particular way in the world. Niebuhr builds this out into distinct calls: the call to be a Christian, the secret call, the providential call, and the ecclesiastical call. My call to be Christian came through my baptism in the First Congregational Church in Branford. My membership and involvement in the Branford FCC as a child into adulthood provided me a faith community to grow in and push back against when I needed to. Through my involvement in the youth group I was able to grow in faith as well as find refuge during challenging times in my life. It is this involvement in my church growing up that allowed for me to first recognize Niebuhr s second call - the secret call. The secret call is the feeling that one is being called to pastoral work. The first moment I remember having a strong sense of wanting to become a minister was the summer entering my Senior year in high school, just after I spent a week in West Virginia with my church youth group building houses for Habitat for Humanity. In that moment, I recognized how my opportunity to travel to a region where I had never been, and learn from people who lived a very different reality then I did, gave me the opportunity to know myself better and better contextualize my world view and how God fit into it. I was able to essentially step out of my reality, and in doing so, my world became larger. I had an overwhelming feeling that I wanted to be able to do work creating opportunities for others to have that 11 H. Richard Niebuhr, The Purpose of the Church and Its Ministry: Reflections on the Aims of Theological Education, Harper, New York, 1956. 13
experience. From that point on, the idea of ministry as a vocation as been ever-present in my consciousness through my various study, work and life experiences. I pursued every opportunity to engage in peace and justice service. This led me to focus in Faith Justice Studies at St. Joseph s University in Philadelphia, participate in and eventually lead student service projects, and participate in and lead student retreats through the office of Campus Ministry at the university. By attending a Jesuit University, I was immersed in an academic setting where issues could be openly examined and debated through a theological lens. St. Joe s gave me the space to study and connect subjects such as economics, education, poverty, and violence with spirituality and theology, particularly liberation theology. This growing sense of call led me to live and volunteer in a rural community in El Salvador following college. In El Salvador I heard stories of war and loss, lived among the grinding poverty and the illness, suffering, and difficult decisions that go with it. My time there was challenging in that it forced me oftentimes to exist in a difficult and uncomfortable place, learn a new language, and overcome cultural barriers. However, it was through these challenges that I was able, within in the community in which I lived, piece together just who God is in such places. Upon returning from El Salvador, I found work as an organizer with a migrant farmworker organization in South Jersey. This was an opportunity to work with a community of people who are deemed invisible in U.S. society. Through my work advocating on behalf of this community to farm owners, mayors, senators, church folk, the police, and others, I developed courage and a voice to challenge fear and prejudice and defend the rights of others, and also learned to how to build consensus and overcome barriers to understanding one another. 14
Starting from my early adulthood, I found myself in situations where people, mentors and peers alike, affirmed my gifts of pastoral leadership and encouraged me to pursue ministry. This outward affirmation - what Niebuhr calls the providential call - helped me to think seriously about my gifts and abilities in relationship with my inward sense of call. Over the years I simultaneously struggled with my call and my own personal and faith challenges and doubts. Responding to my call was possible when I had done the work in my own life and was able to, in a sense, submit to it. By becoming a member in discernment with the New Haven East Consociation and completing my seminary studies at Union Theological Seminary, I have been able to further prepare myself for a call to ordained ministry. In this past year I have been serving as a lay minister in Trinity Lutheran Church in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. I have been fortunate that my path has led me to a church where I can continue to grow and learn while ministering to a vibrant and diverse community. I have been fortunate to be able to share and grow my gifts in very different types of communities, all of which have deepened my relationship with God and informed my ministry. I accepted the position at Trinity Lutheran Church in Sunset Park with the plan of spending a year here before seeking my first official call elsewhere. However, I quickly understood why I was called to this place, a church with progressive values, strong faith, and a talented and committed senior pastor who is an excellent mentor and under whom I can develop my own sense of ministry. All this leads me to this moment, where I am seeking what Niebuhr calls my ecclesiastical call - the call to ordained ministry. For me, ministry is the effort to recognize the face of Christ in every person and live out the consequences of that recognition, individually and communally. (Mt. 25:33-40) This includes 15
those who we consider to be part of our congregation, but also calls special attention to those who are most marginalized in our culture - the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the immigrant. Through this effort, I strive to embody Christ through modeling my life after him. For this reason, part of my ministry is leading by example through healthy relationships and respect. My understanding of ordained ministry is two-fold. The church both affirms that the person possesses the gifts necessary to fulfill the role of an ordained minister, but also charges this person to serve the church in a particular way. The ordained minister is set apart from the non-ordained community in a way that holds the minister to a particular set of standards that aim to serve and respect the Church. The UCC s Ordained Minister s Code is helpful in understanding the role and responsibilities of the ordained minister, which are, broadly speaking to preach and teach the gospel, to administer the sacraments and rites of the Church, and to exercise pastoral care and leadership. 12 Additionally, within the UCC, there is a tension between the particular role as a leader and pastor who fulfills the office of ministry and the central theological tenant of the church being a priesthood of all believers. It is within this tension that I best understand my call - to be able to faithfully serve the church in this role as ordained minister so that others may recognize their own call and ministry in the larger church. In one sense the Church is the community of believers committed to making meaning of our world through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, I believe that a healthy community of faith must also acknowledge a level of struggle and doubt, as well as a diversity in beliefs. The Church is a body that shares a common story and sacraments. While 12 The Ordained Minister s Code - UCC 16
having many different opinions about how to interpret these stories and sacraments, the Church ultimately claims unity for the sake of love and Christ. Beliefs are important in that they should inform how we act as a Church. If we are truly to be known as the Body of Christ as the Apostle Paul teaches us, we also need to care for the Body through actions and use the body to build a world that better reflects God s kingdom. For this reason, the Church and the concept of mission go hand in hand. Mission acknowledges that we live in a broken world and bearing witness to people s realities, sharing ours, and engaging mutually in kingdom building work. This circles back to the idea of recognizing Christ in the face of all human beings, and doing what it takes to live out the consequences, be that simple acts of charity, or rooting out structural sin. To be ordained in the UCC is to be asked to represent the UCC both in the Christian community as well as in the wider world. As a child growing up in a Congregational UCC church I always had a clear understanding that what made us special was that we were open and most importantly affirming to everyone, regardless of who you are and where you come from. As I have grown up in the UCC and developed a deeper understanding of the denominational history and polity that support my childhood awareness, I look forward to being a leader and representative of this diverse and vibrant community of faith and thus of the ecumenical church as well. My experiences in the ecumenical church have both strengthened my desire to minister in ecumenical settings and deepened my identity with and commitment to the UCC. The history and polity of the UCC have given me a solid foundation and identity within which I feel at home. My experience with different faith communities outside of the UCC has been an opportunity to 17
grow in faith through better understanding the larger church, as well as to share the gifts of the UCC with this same community. 18