The Feast of Saint Ireneaus, Bishop and Martyr of the Church, marked this year the fourteenth anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. What a fourteen years it has been!
My ordination took place on Saturday 28 June 2003. It was an event that is quite fitting to where I am now and how my ministry has unfolded. At the time of my ordination, I was numbered among the clergy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. By that point this church and The Episcopal Church were in the third year of Full Communion. In recognition of that relationship, and out of a desire to show a sign off visible unity, my consecration to the priesthood was at the hands of two bishops; one Lutheran and one Episcopalian. It was also reflective of my seminary formation. In the four years it took to earn my Master of Divinity, I served as a seminarian in 4 parishes; two Lutheran and two Episcopalian. It was in the first of these two Episcopalian parishes that I discovered and feel in love with the Book of Common Prayer. From the experience of that parish, I was dubbed the "Anglican Lutheran" by my seminary peers. It was no shock to many, therefore, that almost six years into ministry, I began the process that led to my reception as a priest in The Episcopal Church soon after the seventh anniversary of my ordination.
Thus my ministry has been an exercise in Full Communion. Of these fourteen years, six found me as a Lutheran minister serving among Lutherans, seven as a canonically resident Episcopalian, and one as a Lutheran clergy licensed to serve among Episcopalians while in transition.
There has been another divide in these years, and this is the issue that is most at the heart of my review not simply of my ministry but rather the overall ministry of the Church. During the first six years, I served as full-time clergy in a solo pastorate in a parish. Presently I have been bi-vocational for seven years. In between these experiences, for a little more than a year I was serving full-time as a hospital chaplain and assisting when available as an unofficial priest associate serving at the pleasure of the rector of the parish.
In my present bi-vocational status, I serve as a full-time staff chaplain in a secular hospital and as a quarter-time rector of a parish that for some time has not been able to support a full-time priest. Until my arrival, this parish depended on sharing a priest with another parish or having a retired priest serve in their midst. In recent history it was more the later than the former.
These seven years of bi-vocational ministry have been quite the experience. It has not always been an easy experience. Early in these years I had parishioners who believed that I was volunteering at the hospital and who were quite shocked to hear that this was not the case. At this point I have not had to deal with such misunderstandings in some time. That does not mean this experience has become easier. There are still challenges that are felt and observed largely only by those who have lived for some time with this realty. My hope in discerning ministry in an extended period of journaling that begins here will open more eyes to the present challenges faced in the world of ministry that is becoming more bi-vocational in our generation than would have been anticipated in recent history. And as discernment is always necessary individually in order to keep one's own purpose and mission defined and articulated with a vision, I look forward to seeing how my own eyes will be opened through this endeavour.
The Rev'd Timothy Alleman, M.Div.
Sunday 2 July 2017
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
No comments:
Post a Comment