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13 de Julio 2009
!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Dear friends and family,
As some of you know I will be the next intern at our church. I have been employed there since 2007 as the Children and Family Minister and will continue in that position as I take on additional responsibilities as the Vicar.
This internship will satisfy the Field Education requirements for my Masters in Divinity at Mars Hill Graduate School. After the 2009/2010 school year, I will have only two more trimesters of a sort of supervised Master's Thesis process and then will graduate at a commencement ceremony in June of 2011 (if things go according to plan). After that, Martin and I hope to stay here, in Seattle, in our little house, and I will stay on as Children and Family Minister. We like it here; we are putting down roots and bearing good fruit.
On September 13th 2009 I will take my place in the Chancel, wearing an alb and clerical collar among my fellow ministers and looking especially official. This is another in a series of important firsts along my journey toward ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Rites of passage, like this, whether in the form of liturgy, ceremony, a common meal or simple prayer are important to me and to the larger Church, of which we are all members. This journey is meant for traveling with companions and so it will mean a whole lot more if those I love most are invited to participate fully.
The preparation for professional ministry, for ordination, calls everyone who loves me into the process. I have unwittingly dragged all of you my beloved family and friends into the deep waters of discernment so that we might hear God calling.
I realize now: what I have supposed all along
to be,
what I assumed was
my calling,
is not my own at all
it is your call, my call, our call,
and we will only hear clearly
when we listen together.
If you would like to join us on the 13th of September, there is no need to rsvp--we will be welcoming all God's children that day and you will find yourself among a church family that has welcomed Martin and I warmly from our very first Sunday in the fall of 2006. Our church family will be so very glad to embrace you.
Please pray that these last weeks of preparation for my internship will be restful, warm and hopeful. Pray with me that family and friends will come together in a way that honors our different beliefs about women in professional ministry as well as our myriad hopes and fears about what it means to be the Body of Christ.
yours,
Abigail
just in case | By crymytinyflood | 9:40 PM
