Ramblings of Daniel Ross-Jones
Faith & Values
Letting go
May 1st
A story in this week’s Chronicle highlights the shifting change in communication strategy for college and university admissions in light of electronic social media. (For anyone with some sort of interest or connection to higher education marketing, Brad J. Ward, who is referenced in this article, is a great resource. Check out his blog and his company.) I can’t help but connect this to a similar shift in the structural church.
How does the church do church in a social media world? How does the church do church in a social media world when fewer and fewer of its participants are millenials who expect a democratic communication process?
I was having a conversation with someone a couple of days ago about this very problem. An organization we are both affiliated with was following the typical prototype of so much church planning and communication: the leadership team makes a proposal, seeks the silent involvement of clergy, the two groups make a final decision in a closed meeting, and announce the results in a newsletter article. Even those of us who are supposedly knowledgeable of the situation are lost and confused.
I, only quarter-jokingly, added that if the church just ignores what goes on around it, the problem will fade away — you know, because the Vatican proved that model successful after that troublesome monk in Germany started spouting off 500 years ago.
Last Sunday I met with my congregation’s in care committee, a group I relate to as I progress through the ordination and education process. I shared with them one of my greatest fears for the church — that we continue on our path of being generally 50-60 years behind the mainstream society, which as we go forward will have the social impact of being 150-200 years behind. Technology now changes on a daily, hourly basis. Its not a matter of getting e-mail to solve the problem.
The creativity that is shaping up in these admissions offices requires no small part of letting go, of recognizing that the university as a social institution must change and adapt to its new role. No longer is its voice the “expert opinion.” Just as much, this is a wonderful opportunity for the church and religious organizations to step forward and model this new behavior, to let go of complete message control. Especially for those of us in traditions which emphasize mutuality and covenant, democratic governance and the universal priesthood, anything less is simply anathema to our theological understanding.
What’s on my mind?
Mar 21st
Today I participated in my required boundaries training before I go to my field site next year, and before I can get ordained. I was thinking of a great deal of things as a result of it, but I went on a tangent thought that clouded most everything as a result of a very brief discussion on social networking. Here’s an excerpt of an e-mail I sent as a processing brain dump:
Just because one discerns a calling into ministry doesn’t mean they cease to be human. It doesn’t mean they cease to have the same struggles, the same frustrations, the same challenges, the same personality as they did before, and as the people in their congregation do.
The progression of communication and technology gives us as Christians — moreso as Christian leaders — such a wonderful gift. In some ways, it is the fulfillment of the Reformer’s visions (I’m including Luther, Zwingli and Calvin — and all the others) in democratizing the church, in allowing for the priesthood of all believers. How do we live our faith in a way that honors both our contextual location, our calling, and our relationship to the Creator? How do we participate in this world where we find ourselves? How do we relate to others and honor and respect all humankind? How do we look at church? How do we understand church?
Communication is a boundary issue — no doubt about it. One must exercise confidentiality, non-anxiety, etc in all their undertakings as a minister. But one does not cease to be their own person. I’m not afraid of what professors or call committees or parishioners or future employers or past employers or anyone can find on my Facebook or my Twitter. I’m not afraid of the pictures I’m tagged in. I don’t feel that its inappropriate for me to make references to alcohol, or speak frustration at assignments or exams, or voice my opposition to structural defects within the organization. I’m not afraid that its a public venue. I know its a public venue, and I know that all of those people can find it, read it, shape their opinion of me, and even challenge me on it. That’s the point! Its not a boundary issue — its an opportunity to live authentically. Its a new level of accountability that didn’t exist before.
I’m not afraid that people will see those things and think that I’m less than I am, or that they will bring shame to the office I currently — and in the future — hold. I see this new era as an asset, as a demonstration to those who feel “less than” themselves, for them to see that all of us are created in God’s image, are called good, and are wrestling with the same issues that confront our human condition.
If humanity is a boundary issue… then we’re all in the wrong business…
I’m sure these are all things I’ll write on later. But for now, I just wanted to get some record. (Especially for those call committees who will see this and think twice about my name on their list now…)
Signs of promise, signs of defeat
Feb 20th
Yesterday the ELCA publicly released its proposed statement on human sexuality today, along with a series of resolutions (“enabling actions”) based on its standings. While a vast improvement from its original, it still, in my opinion, has a long way to go.
One of the hardest things to accept, though, is that the church that left me no other option but to leave — yet I still wrestle with in love — still won’t take a definitive position and instead is willing to compromise the integrity, value and God-breathed nature of an entire group of people in the name of a futile attempt at preserving a false sense of unity and uniformity.
Let me establish one thing here: division in the church is painful. It is painful to Jesus Christ, our head. It is painful to a world already shattered and fractioned, seeking a place of solace and refuge. It is painful to churchgoers who take seriously the fundamental truths of the Christian faith and see no reason for “frivilous disagreements” of non-fundamentals. But, I will dare propose, occasionally division is inevitable and the space it creates allows for creative growth, Spirit-led innovation, and the future possibility of reunification.
The final thing I love about the UCC is our ability to wrestle together over life’s tough questions. Our structure allows for difference of opinion. Our theology has developed in such a way that dissent is (generally) not a communion-shattering event. Following yesterday’s announcement, one of the organizations around the ELCA dedicated to a conservative, traditional Lutheran witness in the United States slammed the church for failing to recognize the ‘movement,’ if you will, of voters in states that have “[upheld] traditional marriage better than church leaders.” Likewise, an organizaion committed to an inclusive, progressive momentum issued a stark critique of the church for not providing enough resources for the local option they are proposing.
The ELCA doesn’t have the flexibility in their structure for such division. (I’d like to point out that the church leaders there would tell you they do, but the fact of the matter is they don’t.) The calling and leadership system doesn’t allow for congregations to search for qualified, rostered ministers on their own without going through synodical offices. That means conservative congregations in liberal synods might not be able to call conservative ministers, and are instead subject to the wishes of the synodical office. The reverse is also true. Even a local option like has been proposed doesn’t really solve the problem. People on both sides feel hurt, not listened to, unrepresented.
And so the continual decline of the church presses on. In efforts to prevent large-scale schism, individuals and groups leave the ELCA — sometimes for other denominations or independent churches, but all-too-often in a feeling of abuse and defeat they leave the organized church altogether.
I am convinced that the ELCA will look significantly different following the Churchwide Assembly this summer in Minneapolis. I do believe a large-scale exodus will result. There simply are no remaining options without a complete reestablishment of the denominational structure. Certain caucus groups affiliated with the church already have the resources — monetary, people, publishing and theological/educational — to break en masse and establish another Lutheran body in the United States. And while this will create immediate pain, confusion, and frustration, when the dust settles I do believe that both groups will be the better for it — because it will provide a safe space for people as they continue to wrestle within their own, local settings, and perhaps in the future allow for reunification in a positive setting that allows for the growth and development of all God’s children.
UCC Series: We Play Well With Others
Feb 15th
One of the things that attracted me most to the UCC was its diversity of thought within the denomination, and its deep and abiding partnership with other traditions both inside and outside the Christian faith.
In other countries like ours, the 20th Century included a number of united and uniting church movements. The United Church in Canada included the vast majority of Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational churches in that country — and there was even talk and preparation for the Anglicans to join in. The Uniting Church in Australia has a similar story. The United States, though, never fully realized the movement. That’s OK. We’ve still got room in the UCC even for those who cling to their own labels and definitions.
Some challenge us because we have no prerequisite acquiescence to a set theology or creed. But how wonderful it is to join together with those who do! We are able to teach and learn from each other as we are on the great pilgrimage of faith. On Sunday mornings, one is bound to find as many theological outlooks as there are individuals in the pews. But we are not a group of individuals, instead we join together to fully engage and employ our God-given intelligence to attempt to understand God better, to more fully be about God’s work in our lives and in the life of the world around us through our discipleship. In a community like ours, how can we help ourselves from reaching out across sectarian lines?
So, yeah. We play well with others. Its a really neat thing.
UCC Series: We’re a Creative Bunch
Feb 8th
Read the first installment of this series.
One of the things that I love about the UCC, and that I think we do exceptionally well in comparison to the other mainline denominations, is we’re creative. Now before the Lutherans start litigating about their creative forces, and the Presbyterians start pontificating about their artistic following, let me remind you I’m not here to start a war. This isn’t an all-or-nothing summarization. But you’ve got to admit, the UCC is creative.
Our structure breeds creativity. Worship is not standardized among the congregations in our church; you’re free to use (or avoid) the UCC Book of Worship… or the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, or the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship, or the Evangelical Lutheran Worship, or Joe’s Book of Pub Rules, or Sally’s Order for School Playgrounds.
Furthermore, Christian Education is equally diverse. And there’s a growing movement for bringing in the visul arts — probably because after centuries of whitewashed walls, we’re ready for some living color. And then there’s our national structure itself. Describing it as *creative* would be an understatement!
We’re a denomination leading the way for the use of technology in evangelism, mobilization and advocacy. Church House is twittering, facebooking and blogging. And for heaven’s sake, we’ve successfully replaced an image of suffering and death (the cross) as our church icon with a comma. A comma! It signifies not the end, but a continuation; not resolution, but open-ended freedom.
As a denomination committed to social justice, it makes sense that we breed creativity. Tough decisions require creative solutions. The UCC is definitely a place where the right brain need not check itself at the door.
On the wrong side of history
Feb 8th
A blog I frequent, “Real Live Preacher,” is written by a Baptist minister deep in the heart of Texas. His writings often compel me to reflect on my own life, and he gives me strength to keep on keeping on as I pursue my call toward ordination in a faith tradition that has far too many boxes and heartbreaking too few gray areas.
I encourage you to read his most recent post. Once again, he’s given me chills with his writing and moved me in such a way that I won’t be able to let go from this sacred space for a while. An excerpt:
How can joy and sorrow be melded together in such a powerful way? I could hear the voice of God speaking to me, straight and direct, but also with love.
“You look a little shook up, Gordon. It hurts, doesn’t it, when you see the faces of the people you have been so quick to condemn? And yet, is it not also wonderful to see my other children, your brothers and sisters?”
Go. Take a look. Leave comments on his blog to continue the conversation.
Critic by association
Feb 7th
“If you believe love should be uncritical, you may soon be thinking that I do not love this church. But my experience has been that to be a member of the United Church of Christ is, almost by definition, to be a critic of it. To be uncritical is to be the real oddball in this church. Perhaps to be uncritical is to be un-Christian”. -From “The United Church of Christ Tomorrow”, THEOLOGY AND IDENTITY: TRADITIONS, MOVEMENTS, AND POLITY IN THE UCC (Pilgrim Press: 1990), ed. Dan Johnson and Charles Hambrick-Stowe
I have a love-hate relationship with institutional church. For any of those people who know me even slightly well, they will attest to the convoluted paradigm that is my absolute devotion to structured religious practice within the covenantal church standing next to the uncompromising commitment to the institutional ideal — what should be, what could be, what ought to be instead of what presently is.
To be certain, I have faced my own personal series of dark nights where the church was little more than a cannon aimed in my direction. But the enduring power of the faithful assembled wouldn’t let me go. Time and again I come back to this place with all of its faults and failures, roll up my sleeves, and say to those around me, “Let’s get to God’s work among God’s people.”
Because of my commitment to that ideal, I couldn’t in good conscience remain in the faith tradition of my upbringing. As a confessional tradition, it takes its cues and inspiration from ancient statements of faith, 15th and 16th Century methods of interpretation and practice, and holds a certain suspicion to those models which emphasize freedom in the Gospel. I don’t say this to reject that community’s faith; far from it, there are myriad good and faithful people who work to build the Beloved Community on earth there, and I am shaped and molded by their tradition more than I can ever unravel. But in the end, my instinctive understanding of religious freedom for the sake of Jesus Christ led me down a different path of searching and discerning before I arrived in my home in the United Church of Christ.
I love the UCC. I love that I can walk into two local churches sitting next door to each other and receive a completely different message. I love that I can talk with two UCC members and receive eight different opinions. I love that I can be about faithful risk, challenging the structures which define us, while maintaining solidarity with those around the edges. I love that I can (even ought to) challenge church leadership yet stand side-by-side at the wonderful Table of Grace and receive heavenly food to sustain each of us.
I love the ideal of the UCC: a church rooted in no fewer than four Christian traditions in North America but affected by so many more, that celebrates its diversity in all of its forms while requiring uniformity of none.
There is much to celebrate in the UCC, but yet I am constantly reminded of where we fail. In our attempts of inclusion, we fail to name — and even sometimes reject outright — those who we are purposely or indirectly excluding. In our attempts of promoting religious freedom, we reject those who, in their freedom, subscribe to or promote a more conservative Christian faith. In our attempts of promoting diversity, we provide a narrow definition rather than subscribing to the comprehensive whole.
One of my requirements as I work toward ordination is to take a course on UCC History & Polity. I’m enrolled in that this semester and after one class period, I can speak with certainty that its going to be one of two classes that will pull me and stretch me in ways I can’t name now. Over the course of the next few postings here, I’m going to address first three things that are cause for celebration in our beloved church, followed by three things that hinder us in our work.
For those who are “church people,” especially who might be involved in the life of the UCC, I hope that you will join the conversation. For those who are “people of the world,” I hope you will also join the conversation and keep us grounded in the here-and-now of our work together. Finally, for those of you who can’t stand church talk, I hope you, too, will join the conversation and let us know what it is we have done to push you away.
We’ll see where this goes. I’m excited.
Advent Conspiracy
Dec 1st
Please, take a moment to watch this video and consider conspiring with us.
Walking with the Ancients
Nov 24th
Back in the day.
(I love it when people start stories with that phrase. Back in the day. It sounds folksy, yet demonstrates the history attached. It wasn’t too long ago — say, within the last 70 years or so — but long enough to go that it was in the day. There’s a charm to the stories that follow.)
Anyway, back in the day, Christians of certain traditions observed the Nativity Fast. During the season of Advent, up until Christmas, the faithful would abstain from certain foods and drink as a method of spiritual discipline. By their participation, they were exercising self-control, rebuilding in themselves the necessary mind to witness to Christ’s salvific act for the world.
The tradition had been handed down through the ages, from the earliest, ancient Christians, and the traditions of some Jews before them. But then Vatican II came and screwed everything up.
For every good thing that came from Vatican II, and there were plenty, there were a couple of sacrifices that had to be made as well.
This year, I have prayerfully decided I am going to participate in the Nativity Fast during the Advent season. I know one isn’t “supposed” to talk about such things, but I’m going to anyway. For starters because I’ve never done this and want to share it with others, and secondly because I think its an excellent, external accountability tool.
I created an outline of my fasting covenant, drawing upon resources from the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches, the Lutheran World Federation and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. Here it is:
Daniel Noel Ross-Jones, child of God and baptized in the Three Persons, does hereby commit himself to participation in the spiritual act of the Great Nativity Fast for the Advent season of 2008. By joining together with the ancient Christians and descendants of Abraham in all times and places, in greater service and commitment to God and all creation, agrees to the stipulations following:
I. Fasting Dates: The Nativity Fast will follow the traditional Protestant calendar, beginning on November 30, 2008 AD, the first Sunday of Advent. It will conclude on December 25, 2008 AD, the birth of Jesus Christ.
II: Fasting Regulations: The fast will include restriction of all meats and meat products. On Fridays, the fast will further include the restriction of all eggs, dairy, and oils. A daylight fast from all foods will exist from sunrise to sunset daily. Further, abstinence from alcohol, anger, greed, and covetousness will be expected.
Other than as required by prescription, all drugs and supplements will also be restricted, including caffeine, energy supplements, etc. Only water, teas, dairy drinks and natural juices (unless otherwise restricted) will be consumed.
A full fast will be in place on Sunday mornings prior to worship, and on the festival days during the Advent season: Great Martyr Barbara (Dec. 4), St. Nicholas (Dec. 6), St. Spiridon and St. Herman (Dec. 12), St. Ignatius (Dec. 20) and Christmas Eve (Dec. 24).
Upon beginning the day’s fast, the daily office shall be recited.
The breaking of fast shall occur following worship on Christmas Day, Dec. 25.
Should fast intentionally or unintentionally be broken, it shall be appropriate to pray with thanksgiving for God’s grace, strength for self-control, and to make special alms appropriate to the mistake to a worthy cause.
III. Commitment to God: At minimum, 30 minutes each day shall be spent in personal, meditative devotion to God.
IV. Commitment to Others: Each week, a special contribution shall be given to a church or argency dedicated to serving the poor and oppressed in society. This shall be above and beyond that given to Plymouth United Church of Christ.
V. Commitment to Self: Regular journaling/blogging and spiritual reflection shall be an integral and important growth element of this sacred journey.
So there you have it. I’m preparing by cutting back on the extra foods I eat, and trying to load up on fruits and veggies now to adjust my system. (I’m going shopping this weekend when I’m up in Wisconsin.) I’ll select some reflections to make public on here as I’m going along. I’m excited to see what growth comes of this process.
LTSS president rescinds invitation to minister with standing
Sep 25th
Pastor Katrina Foster, an ELCA pastor in good standing, is no longer welcome to preach at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary (Southern). She’s a graduate of the Columbia, South Carolina, seminary – 1994. She’s also a graduate – 1990 – of Newberry College, a college of the ELCA. (The college & seminary are about 45 minutes apart from each other.)
Both institutions often invite alumni to return to speak to students about how having graduated from Newberry and Southern prepared them for their successful lives in the world and for their response to their call to ministry. Alumni who are also pastors are also routinely invited to preach for chapel services at both institutions.
Such invitations were offered to Katrina in early 2008. She was invited to Newberry College during the week of 15-19 September to present the Fine Arts Lectures which meant presenting 2 public lectures, teaching 3 classes and preaching in the College Chapel for Wednesday morning services. After informing Southern that she would be close to campus, an invitation was made to visit the seminary, stay on campus, eat with students and faculty, sit in on classes, meet and talk with students and preach at the seminary’s Friday chapel worship. These arrangements and constant coordination for them were done through Rev. Dr. Tony Everett, Professor of Pastoral Care. Dr. Robert Hawkins, Professor of Worship and Music and Dean of Christ Chapel at the seminary, coordinated the text she was expected to preach on for the Friday service. Her visit was well and widely known.
Katrina was ordained in December 1994. She is on the roster of ELCA clergy in the Metropolitan New York Synod. For the last 13 years, she has been the pastor of Fordham Lutheran Church in Bronx, New York, a congregation that describes itself as “a welcoming place to an amazing array of people. We come from Africa, the Virgin Isles, the Caribbean, Central America, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and different parts of the United States. Many of us are immigrants or first generation American. We are single parent families, widows, gay and lesbian families, young, old, somewhere between, well educated and some who have difficulty reading. One thing we all share in common: our trust and faith in Jesus’ love for us and our faithful response to this love.” This, a church that serves its community well: the two blocks the church occupies are the only drug-free ones in the neighborhood. This, a church that is about to begin a $22 million redevelopment project to better serve the community and the church’s ministries. This, a church that is growing. This, a pastor presented the ELCA’s Dr. Richard Lee Peterman “Good Steward” award, in recognition of her gifts for stewardship, and held up as exemplary at synod assembly. All subjects that should be of interest to the seminary’s students…
Katrina is also an out ELCA pastor, living in a committed, long-term, same-gender relationship with Pamela Kallimanis, together raising their daughter, Zoia. Katrina was among the 82 LGBT ministers who introduced themselves to the larger church at the 2007 Chicago ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Her story and a picture of her family were published in “A Place Within My Walls,” the devotional booklet distributed to voting members and visitors at the assembly.
Until Thursday, September 18th, everything went as arranged and coordinated over the months. Katrina went to Newberry, South Carolina, last week, participated in the Fine Arts Lecture series, taught classes, preached at the Wednesday service in the College chapel. On Thursday, the e-newsletter for the seminary went out, reminding all that Katrina would be visiting the seminary, meeting with students, and preaching on Friday.
Thursday morning, Dr. Everett informed Katrina that the invitation to preach on Friday had been withdrawn by the President, Rev. Dr. Marcus Miller shortly after Drs. Miller and Everett had announced to the class they co-teach that Pr. Foster would be arriving on campus that day to meet with students and preach the next morning. Subsequently, that evening, she had a conversation with Dr. Michael Root, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Systematic Theology, who said the reason that she had been dis-invited to meet and preach was that, because of her self-declared non-compliance with Vision and Expectations, she would not now be admitted as a student-candidate for ordination, and so would not be allowed to preach.
Friday morning she met with the president of the seminary, who was upset that the dis-invitation of her had resulted in lots of calls and emails to him, protesting the action. He was dismayed, thinking that she was causing a controversy, instead of quietly accepting his dismissal and going home. She wasn’t causing the calls and emails. His action had.
Rev. Dr. Miller told her he had not known she was to preach until the e-newsletter on Thursday, despite announcing it in the class he was co-teaching on Thursday morning. The time spent on arrangements from early in the year to last Thursday and that one of the classes she was going to visit at the seminary, whose students she was going to meet, was the class that Dr. Miller team-taught with Dr. Everett, raise questions about what actually caused Dr. Miller to rescind the invitation.
Emily Eastwood, Executive Director, LC/NA, said, “In an environment where bishops have been encouraged by the 2007 Churchwide Assembly to exercise restraint or to refrain in matters of discipline, in the environment of the decades-long struggle over the issues of LGBT people and the church, in an environment where the ELCA Social Statement on Human Sexuality is going before the 2009 Churchwide Assembly and is in draft with hearings being held all over the ELCA, in an environment of dwindling membership numbers, reduced benevolent giving and shrinking numbers of congregations, you would have thought that someone at the nexus of LGBT, LGBT family, rostered pastor, growing congregation with increasing ministries, award-winning stewardship, and redevelopment to the benefit of church and community would be precisely the someone an institution trying to graduate real-world pastors would want its students to meet.”
The president of Southern Seminary can be contacted at 803-786-5150 or by mail at President, Southern Seminary, 4201 North Main Street, Columbia, SC 29203.
