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[Back to index of April articles] Discernment process is suspended for one year By Lucy Chumbley Bishop John Bryson Chane and the diocese's Commission on Ministry recently announced they will freeze for one year the process in which people in the Diocese of Washington discern whether they are called to ordained ministry. The decision came into effect immediately after the March Discernment Conference, an annual gathering at which people in the diocese who feel called to ordained ministry and are supported by their parishes meet with the Commission on Ministry and the bishop to determine whether the diocese will support their application to a seminary or recommend that they pursue lay ministry. The freeze comes in response to calls for substantial review of the discernment process from within the diocese and as a result of changes in the canons - rules - of the national church, said the Rev. Mary Sulerud, canon for deployment and vocational ministry. In the "Three Years Out Report"-commissioned by the bishop as a means of reviewing his episcopacy-respondents complained about a lack of clarity in the discernment and ordination processes, and expressed disappointment that those called to lay ministry were not given the same level of attention and care as those chosen for ordination. In 2003, the General Convention of the Episcopal Church passed legislation that significantly changed the Title III canons related to ministry of all kinds. The changes in church law require that the commission assume oversight of all the church's licensed ministries, such as Eucharistic ministers, Eucharistic visitors and catechists. Over the next year, the commission, an 18-member panel appointed by the bishop, will work in three groups to study baptismal ministry, the vocational deaconate and the priesthood, with the goal of creating a comprehensive model for lifelong Christian formation, Sulerud said. The current discernment process has been in place since the 1970s, and while it has been modified over the years, it has not been substantially altered, she said. "If all we really had to do was tweak the process, we wouldn't have had to [stop it]," she added. "I really want us to sort of step away for a moment." Sulerud believes that part of the commission's work will be to untangle two distinctive processes which the church has confused: discernment and evaluation. Discernment is prayerful listening, she explained, while evaluation is examining a person's gifts to determine how they can best be used to serve God and the church. In the months ahead, the commission will look at how best to help congregations identify the gifts of all those called by God to serve and support them in their journey - "how they're going to be discerned and formed and called forth; how they're going to be educated and trained" - whether it leads to ordination or not, Sulerud said. "In light of this larger, expanded vision, we have to look at what constitutes a valid process for ordaining people to the priesthood," she said. Ordination is not the right path for everyone who is called to the ministry, she said, so part of the commission's work will be to explore "how to move away from [a focus on] ordination and back towards a gifts focus. "We are all entitled to a place and a space and to have a community to support us as we go through the process of discernment," she said. "What we've done is to make that highly specialized around ministry." Under the existing model, rejection at the end of a long process that calls for intensive work and rigorous self-examination can be devastating, she said. "Those 'nos' are very, very painful, because I can think of no more processes right now that are more visceral, that leave you more vulnerable or exposed," she said. During its hiatus, the commission hopes to develop a better process for both those who feel called by God to the ministry and the congregations raising them up. "I want words and language that really are rooted in theology and Scripture and Christology, and that we don't borrow from a secular world description about what is essentially a life process that is fundamentally about who we are," Sulerud said. "I think what we're engaged in is so serious and important and so little understood." [Back to index of April articles]
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