Northern Light June 2007

June 3 Rethinking Walden. Thoughts on the practice of retreat: a guide for summer.

June 10 Religious Education Sunday. Our annual intergenerational celebration of religious education in our congregation.

June 17 Father’s Day: On Being Good Enough. How the important men in our lives can help us to understand that we are loved, exactly as we are. (Summer Session RE begins)

June 24 Finding Harmony and Balance in a Hectic World. A service offered by our commissioned Lay Leader, Teri Cornell.

July 1 On the Nature of Man: Good, Evil, or Something Else Entirely? A lay service by Rebecca Morse.

Also in this issue
Page 2 Events & Activities. Find out what's happening in June!
Page 3 From the Committees and Board. Allison Fagan talks about Family Values and the future of our Religious Education program. Also read our recent Treasurer's Report.
Page 4 A Call to Action! See how you can support your congregation and your world!

OK, I’ve heard the question in the air in myriad forms. What makes someone a Unitarian Universalist minister?

In our tradition, one can only be ordained to the ministry by the vote of all members assembled at a congregational meeting called for that purpose. This is our congregationalist polity at work, which recognizes no higher authority than the democratic process of the body of membership.

It is important to distinguish ordination from the professional credentialing work of the Ministerial Fellowship Committee of the UUA, which perhaps you’ve heard about. Persons in ministerial fellowship are recognized as having the education and the skills consistent with ministry as a profession. They demonstrate this by completing a masters of divinity degree, passing a battery of psychological tests, undergoing a supervised internship as a hospital chaplain, by demonstrating long term involvement with a church, by having the sponsorship of a congregation for ministry, and doing an additional church-year long internship in the area of their focus (either in the parish, hospital, or other community setting). Twice during this process candidates meet with representatives of the fellowship committee—once, to affirm them as candidates for the ministry, and then, at the end of their training. At that final interview students are examined on an array of subjects (pastoral care, religious education, worship, anti-oppression, church administration, UU history and polity, church history, theology, world religions, scripture, there are so many I’m forgetting some). The candidate is expected to demonstrate more than just an understanding of academic content; they are also meant to show the personal traits consistent with successful ministry.

And yet—even after all this-- ministerial fellowship is itself a completely separate process from ordination.

Traditionally, most UU congregations have ordained persons who are also credentialed by the fellowshipping committee. However, there is no such obligation: again, the authority of the congregation for ordination is absolute. There are examples of persons ordained by congregations without being in ministerial fellowship, and of persons who have received ministerial fellowships who were not ordained by their congregations. Again, only the congregation gets to say.

Not only does the congregation vote for ordination, but that the act of ordination itself is performed by the congregation. While an ordination service traditionally includes participation by numerous ministers and representatives of the UUA, the act of ordination itself is accomplished only by the members of the congregation, as directed by the President of the Board, standing and reading together the ritual words.

On June 10 a Congregational Meeting will be held after service to vote on Chris Jones-Leavy's request that this congregation ordain her. And you need to know, you are no rubber stamp to some process that happens elsewhere. You, and only you, get to say who the ministers of our living tradition are.