Today is the Feast of the Annunciation, and my parish celebrates it as our Patronal Feast, since we are the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation. (Patronal feast? Titular feast? Potato, potahto.)
This Annunciation is a very special one for our community: we will be hosting our second priestly ordination in our 50 year history, and the first in this sanctuary. Our Super Curate, who is wonderful and well-loved among us, will be ordained a Priest in God's Church this night.
We expect very many guests - bishops and priests - friends from her long-time church home in this diocese - seminary friends, life friends, family members, those who have supported and loved her on this long journey.
The choir has worked very hard on special music (as I happen to know). Every single ministry has contributed to bring the best possible offering of their gifts for this woman who is so much loved by us, who has contributed so much to our lives together in worship, in pastoral care, in adult formation, in our Montessori school.
It is going to be a BIG, BIG celebration. In Lent, yet. With Palm Sunday around the corner, and with Holy Week coming along right behind it. In the midst of death, we are in life...and vice versa.
Almost a year ago when it was discussed that this seminarian might be hired as our curate, someone I know opined that the fact that she was female and African-American should make no difference at all. "As long as she is well-qualified, those things don't matter," he said. And I replied, "(Name), I disagree with you. I believe those items are absolutely value-added to the other skill sets she brings."
The person who was speaking is a white male. He has lived his life with pulpits and pastorates filled with people who are white males. He has no idea what it is like to never, never see someone who looks like him, is like him, in a position of power…or to see many, many people who are like him blocked from those positions because of their gender or their race or their sexual orientation or…
This ordination is bittersweet, because I have a dear friend who was in this diocese many years and who should already have been ordained priest, who has been turned away and rejected for the most spurious of reasons…and, in my suspicion, largely because she is a strong woman and a victim of our diocesan leadership.
I have three other friends, all ordained clergy, who are searching for their next calls. Two have been brutalized by congregations and systems unable to cope with the idea of a strong woman in leadership (and really, what sort of leader does a weak woman/man make?) The other seeks the right fit for ministry while trying to also juggle all of the issues of a mother and spouse: how to make it work out perfectly for everyone?
I know that there are men in ministry who might fall into the difficulties above, but not nearly so many do, I think.
In e-mailing with a wonderful soul friend this morning, having asked for prayer for these pastors, I received a fascinating insight. She said, “To put my feelings in perspective, I am “spent.” Other than when we sleep, hopeful that we rest, we work 24/7 caring for others. Loving all – sometimes not liking all – but nonetheless, loving all. I am unable to comprehend why the male species think they can use powers that have really not been given to them, to destroy another’s life, by control.”
Here was my reply: “I can only hope that the work we do today, and the outrages suffered by our sisters, will be part of the foundation for a future in which gender (etc.) is not an issue. The fact that there are larger numbers of women than men in almost every moderate seminary gives me hope. We may not see the day, but I believe we are part of creating it.”
So, tonight’s ordination celebration is (in my opinion) a huge victory for the church universal, and for the cause of equal access to ministry. And it is a victory as well for those of us who feel marginalized, brutalized, disregarded, betrayed. I believe that God has a vision for God’s churches in the world…to be open, accepting, affirming places for everyone.
And that vision will be exemplified by the leaders of the churches in the generations to come.
May it be so…amen.
Image: The Annunciation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
