Washington Window: September 2007: Diocese Issues New Guidelines for Ministry

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By Dana M. Wilkie
Washington Window
Vol. 76, No. 9, September 2007

Were the Rev. Jeff MacKnight to embark today on the discernment process necessary before becoming ordained in the Diocese of Washington, he would likely find it a far more exacting and varied experience than the one he went through years ago in Nebraska .

After a more than a year of discussion, the diocese has embraced new guidelines for ministry that put far more emphasis on the vocation of the laity, while requiring those seeking ordination to have more frequent contact with church higher-ups, be more flexible about where they serve and spend time in parishes unlike those they're accustomed to.

I believe the new guidelines are more clear and honest about the demands and expectations of any who seek ordination," said MacKnight, rector of St. Dunstan's, Bethesda , and a member of the diocese's Commission on Ministry. "These ministries exist to serve the church and its people; they are not just for the fulfillment of the individuals who seek to be ordained. The church's needs are paramount, and our diocese is now much clearer about what we need in new clergy."

Under the new guidelines, the core aspects of the discernment process for those seeking ordination remain the same — recommendation by one's congregation and clergy, consideration by the Commission on Ministry and final decision by the bishop. But whereas the old process confined the committee's personal contact with aspirants to a single day, the new guidelines — adopted by the Commission in March — call for regular meetings between aspirants and liaisons to the commission and to the bishop.

Additionally, the new guidelines require that candidates work closely with rector and parish.

Candidates also must spend a year at a site unlike their home parish. If they're from an urban parish, they might be asked to consider a small-town congregation. If they come from an Anglo-Catholic parish, they might be directed to one with a less "high church" approach to the liturgy.

" This provides a working view of a congregation which may be much larger or smaller than one's own, in a different type of community, or having a different liturgical style," MacKnight said. "This year is important to get a broader view of the whole Episcopal Church."

For the past decade, the diocese has asked seminarians to learn Spanish. The new guidelines require ordination candidates to have a functional knowledge of Spanish.

"Spanish-speakers are one of the fastest growing portions of the population of not only the U.S., but this area," said the Rev. Mary Sulerud, the diocese's canon for deployment and vocational ministry. "Our Spanish-language congregations are doing well, and our goal is to make it possible for them to be served by all the clergy in a congregation, not just the one who speaks Spanish."

Candidates must remain flexible about where they will serve if ordained.

"Those who are preparing for ordination are called to serve the whole church and not just a single diocese or congregation," Sulerud said. "The ordained are called and sent to where God and God's people are calling, and that rarely, if ever, is one's own backyard, or one's 'dream' church."

Finally, the guidelines seek to better handle the expectations of those who seek ordination.

I am aware of dissatisfactions with the previous screening process for ordination in this diocese," MacKnight said. "The respective roles of rector and parish and diocese did not always function well. Some aspirants seeking ordination felt disappointed , which is inevitable, and sometimes poorly treated, which is not inevitable."

Sulerud notes that the process of discerning a call to ordained ministry requires a significant investment of one's self — spiritually, psychologically and even to some extent physically.

"Such a process becomes the major focus of your prayer, your thinking, your expectations and your hopes," she said. "When the answer is 'no' to going forward in the ordination process, it is profoundly disappointing and it hurts."

And because candidates are not allowed to reapply for the ordination process, this can make a "no" an abrupt ending to a hope and a dream that perhaps has been part of the candidate's life for several years.

To address this, the Commission on Ministry spent time with former candidates who were not selected for ordination to incorporate their experiences into the new guidelines.

"One of the reasons we emphasize ongoing work with the rector is to help those discerning a call to claim some detachment," Sulerud said. "We have tried to make all our encounters with those discerning this call — who have put themselves in a very vulnerable position — as straightforward and open as possible so that people don't meet with members of the commission thinking that there is some agenda at work that is hidden in any way."

Perhaps most notably, the new guidelines pay far more attention to the direction given to those not called to be priests by incorporating lay ministry more fully into the spiritual discernment process. This was in keeping with the 2003 Canons of the Episcopal Church, which expanded the Commission on the Ministry's role in lay vocation and shifted its focus on ministry to embrace the vocation and call of all the baptized, not just those seeking ordination.

" We take very seriously the new canons' direction to create processes and opportunities for all members of the diocese to explore and test out God's call to them - whether that call is to a vocation within the church, or within the wider world," said the Rev. Patty Downing, chair of the diocese's Commission on Ministry.

According to many involved in the commission's work, the ministry of the laity had largely been an afterthought. This lack of attention needed to be addressed for the many in the diocese who feel called to some kind of ministry, Downing said.

"All persons have a vocation," said Downing, adding that her vision is for every congregation to become a community of discernment — with a group of prayerful, thoughtful and trained people available, along with clergy, to address the potential vocation of all parishioners.

Seminaries have taken a number of steps to train lay professionals, especially in the areas of Christian formation, youth and school ministry. But the guidelines take an extra step - asking each parish to examine the ministries that their members embrace in the workplace, their neighborhoods and their children's schools.

"Ministry isn't what the 'professionals' do, it's what we've all been called to do," said Sulerud. "Vocational formation is as much about how to be a faithful attorney or teacher as it is about becoming ordained. The new presumption is that all calls matter if they take the good news of God in Christ into the world."

For instance, a parishioner may discern a profound call and gifts for practicing hospitality. This may not necessarily mean taking over the coffee hour at the Sunday church hour, but instead using one's position in a company's human resources department to recruit more diverse people into the firm.

"Honoring the various callings of baptized lay Christians has been neglected until now," MacKnight said. "The doors are now wide open to the ministry of all the baptized, not just ordained ministries. This changes the whole shape of ministry development in the diocese. We are no longer focusing on a couple of hundred clergy, but are reaching out to thousands of church members with meaningful help in finding their Christian calling."

The guidelines call for congregations to develop groups of people who — through prayer and conversation — can help parishioners discern ministry not only inside the church, but outside of it.

The first model for this occurred this past June during one of the diocese's quarterly Vocational Ministry Retreats. Led by Marjory Bankson — president of Faith at Work — the retreat incorporated the new guidelines with talks about vocation and call, prayer, silence and small group discussions — all designed to help participants wrestle with God's call in their lives.

" The vocational ministry retreats are the beginning of our work to provide everyone in the diocese with an opportunity to come together and listen for the voice of God in their own lives," Downing said, noting that Bankson will lead a similar retreat Sept. 14-15 at St. Mary's Seminary University , Continuing Education Center in Baltimore. "Several parishes in the diocese currently run discernment groups for their members. We hope to learn from their experiences and provide other parishes with training necessary to create those groups within their own communities if that is desired."

MacKnight, who attended June's retreat with his wife, said "the atmosphere was one of opening up great possibilities for Christians to pursue callings other than ordination." "Some attended who are interested in ordination," he said, "but the general tone was inclusive of all sorts of ways to be a Christian in the world."

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