As I mentioned in our last post, we decided after about six months of living in England that we needed to commit to worshiping and serving in the Church of England and the best way to do that long term was for Zac to pursue ordination within the CoE.
I spoke to Steve the Priest-in-Charge (A title I love, theologically speaking--perhaps I'll elaborate in a further post) at All Saints' about ordination and he encouraged me to check it out, but warned me that my age and possibly my nationality might be factors going against me.
At the beginning of November I met with the Diocesan Director of Ordinands (Get ready for long (occasionally pompous) titles to start showing up in my blog posts) of the Canterbury diocese as a very first step in the process. He was a nice gentleman by the name of Clive (I mentioned that I named my son after him, I figured it might help) and after praying about it for a few days gave me the go ahead to start the process.
If all goes to plan, here is how the process will play out.
For a period of nine months to a year I will meet with an Assistant Diocesan Director of Ordinands to pray, read, and discuss ordination. There are nine criteria which the CoE uses to help consider a candidate for ordination. They are:
Vocation: basically, you should feel called to the ministry and be able to articulate that calling.
Ministry within the CoE: You should be able to explain why ministering in the CoE is different from other denominations.
Spirituality: You should have an active prayer life, be studying scripture, and attending church regularly.
Personality and Character: You should be self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses and be a person of integrity.
Relationships: You should be able to build and maintain healthy relationships with others.
Leadership and Collaboration: You should be able to offer leadership within and without the church, and be able to identify and nurture the gifts of others.
Faith: Similar to Spirituality, but more related to living out the spiritual disciplines.
Mission and Evangelism: You should be able to articulate Christ's message in various contexts, and in an attractive way.
Quality of Mind: You should have the necessary intellectual capacity to cope with the intellectual demands of ministry and have a commitment to lifelong learning.
Once my ADDO feels that I have a good grasp on these criteria, I will face two examinations. The first will be a one-day local panel who will question me about these criteria and other matters. If approved I would move onto a Bishops' Advisory Panel which is a three-day national panel that will ask the same types of questions but to a much greater level of depth.
Ideally I will have sucessfully completed all of this by the spring/summer of 2013, will be ordained as a deacon, and can start to apply for university programs. Because I will be under the age of thirty, the CoE will pay for three years of further education. The UK has a bunch of great theological colleges and I would love to end up one of them whether it be Wycliffe Hall, Cranmer Hall, Ridley Hall, or Oakhill.
Following further theological training I would appoint to a curacy (basically a position as an assistant minister) for four years.
Following my curacy I would then be then be ordained as a priest and would then be able to take on a role as head of a local church.
The downside to all of this is that at any point in the process, it can be decided that I am not currently suited for ordination and the process stops. If this happens, I would be required to wait two years before restarting the process.
Even though the process is long I am enjoying it. I have met with my Assistant DDO twice now and am doing my best to not get bogged down with the process and to press myself to get the work done.
So that's where I am at, and that's the direction we're heading, (until told otherwise).
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Proto-ordination
The short story is that we came to England so that Erica could pursue her master's degree and we could have an adventure. Mixed in with that though was a thought that perhaps God was calling us to the British Isles long term so that we might live for the sake of the salvation of those living in the UK.
This idea first presented itself while we were still considering coming to the UK, before Erica and I were even married. Erica is much more adventurous than I am, and I was still struggling with the idea of living cross culturally. I spoke to Peter (a British professor at Moody, who along with his wife Kelli did our pre-marital counseling) and he encouraged me to really consider England as his opinion was that the state of the church was pretty dire, and that I might fit into English culture well. (Peter, you might not remember this conversation, but I thank you for it.)
As I mentioned I was not anticipating living cross culturally. I had imagined spending the rest of my life within 50 miles of where I was born, and my biggest criterion for living cross culturally was that they spoke English (or kind of spoke English) Erica was enthused to study abroad however, and Peter's opinion stuck in my head so we decided to come over, she would study and that I would look for a ministry job.
No jobs opened up for me in the area of Erica's school, so we decided we should just settle down, allow Erica to study, and that I would get a 'real' job. Along with this, we had to find a church home. Our original default church was a CoE church, and they had a great heart, but sadly not a great mind. They tended to be heavy on emotion and Erica and I never really felt that we fit in well. It remained our default church as we church-hopped (In theory I hate the practice of church-hopping, and our general philosophy is to attend the church nearest to us, but for reasons that require a long-winded explanation we didn't do that). We visited United Reformed churches (a mix of Presbyterian and Congregationalist theology), free churches, a multi-national church plant, and smaller CoE congregations, and for a variety of reasons none of them worked out. We had just about resigned ourselves to the fact that we'd stay at our default church because it was the strongest of the weak, and because we had invested a reasonable amount of time in it, when I suggested that we make one last church visit, All Saints', Loose. On one occasion at a smaller CoE church we heard a guest preacher who was one of the clergy at All Saints' and I had been impressed with his sermon. Erica told me it was the last church we were going to try (at this point we were six months into our stay), and if it was a dud we'd stick with our default church.
Now that we've been at All Saints' for almost two years, am leading a home group, and on the PCC (Parochial Church Council--akin to elders? congregational board?) I'll spare you the details, but we were blown away by the care of the church and it's vision for reaching the area. It's not a perfect church, but the parts I don't care for are personal preferences and not theological issues, so we serve alongside those whom we love.
At this point though I still didn't feel very Anglican or committed to the CoE, but I was intrigued by it. I had never been a part of the 'established' church, (In fact my view of the established church was that they were nearly always the bad guys) and the idea of the corporate worship service being reinforced by a liturgy had been growing on me since graduating from Moody. I also started to realize that at least at All Saints', not-yet Christians would just show up to a service, especially christenings (infant baptisms), weddings, and funerals. It was like it was in their blood.
I'm not sure when this fascination started turning into commitment, but I am pretty sure what sealed it for me was reading Jonathan Fletcher's pamphlet, Why the Church of England? published by Reform There's a fair bit where Reform and I differ in general, but Fletcher's piece really spoke to me. Take a minute to read it, it's only about a page long. His three reasons for sticking with the CoE in it's present state are, 'because of the clear doctrinal basis on which it was founded', ie. The 39 Articles, and the Book of Common Prayer, 'it's glorious liturgy', the BCP and it's emphasis worship being 'intelligible, congregational, biblical, and edifying', and lastly 'historically the CoE has great strategic influence, ie It's the best boat to fish from. As I said before people will regularly wander into their local CoE (because of the building's beauty, because they want to have a child christened, because it is where their parents were married--somewhere within them the CoE is still a part of them) while they will not walk into another church because it might be 'happy clappy', or cultish, or worse yet, foreign.
After reading Fletcher we decided that at least while we were able to live in England, we would commit to being a part of the CoE. Initially that meant being at All Saints', Loose, but what would it mean when our time at All Saints' was finished?
One possibility; ordination
This idea first presented itself while we were still considering coming to the UK, before Erica and I were even married. Erica is much more adventurous than I am, and I was still struggling with the idea of living cross culturally. I spoke to Peter (a British professor at Moody, who along with his wife Kelli did our pre-marital counseling) and he encouraged me to really consider England as his opinion was that the state of the church was pretty dire, and that I might fit into English culture well. (Peter, you might not remember this conversation, but I thank you for it.)
As I mentioned I was not anticipating living cross culturally. I had imagined spending the rest of my life within 50 miles of where I was born, and my biggest criterion for living cross culturally was that they spoke English (or kind of spoke English) Erica was enthused to study abroad however, and Peter's opinion stuck in my head so we decided to come over, she would study and that I would look for a ministry job.
No jobs opened up for me in the area of Erica's school, so we decided we should just settle down, allow Erica to study, and that I would get a 'real' job. Along with this, we had to find a church home. Our original default church was a CoE church, and they had a great heart, but sadly not a great mind. They tended to be heavy on emotion and Erica and I never really felt that we fit in well. It remained our default church as we church-hopped (In theory I hate the practice of church-hopping, and our general philosophy is to attend the church nearest to us, but for reasons that require a long-winded explanation we didn't do that). We visited United Reformed churches (a mix of Presbyterian and Congregationalist theology), free churches, a multi-national church plant, and smaller CoE congregations, and for a variety of reasons none of them worked out. We had just about resigned ourselves to the fact that we'd stay at our default church because it was the strongest of the weak, and because we had invested a reasonable amount of time in it, when I suggested that we make one last church visit, All Saints', Loose. On one occasion at a smaller CoE church we heard a guest preacher who was one of the clergy at All Saints' and I had been impressed with his sermon. Erica told me it was the last church we were going to try (at this point we were six months into our stay), and if it was a dud we'd stick with our default church.
Now that we've been at All Saints' for almost two years, am leading a home group, and on the PCC (Parochial Church Council--akin to elders? congregational board?) I'll spare you the details, but we were blown away by the care of the church and it's vision for reaching the area. It's not a perfect church, but the parts I don't care for are personal preferences and not theological issues, so we serve alongside those whom we love.
At this point though I still didn't feel very Anglican or committed to the CoE, but I was intrigued by it. I had never been a part of the 'established' church, (In fact my view of the established church was that they were nearly always the bad guys) and the idea of the corporate worship service being reinforced by a liturgy had been growing on me since graduating from Moody. I also started to realize that at least at All Saints', not-yet Christians would just show up to a service, especially christenings (infant baptisms), weddings, and funerals. It was like it was in their blood.
I'm not sure when this fascination started turning into commitment, but I am pretty sure what sealed it for me was reading Jonathan Fletcher's pamphlet, Why the Church of England? published by Reform There's a fair bit where Reform and I differ in general, but Fletcher's piece really spoke to me. Take a minute to read it, it's only about a page long. His three reasons for sticking with the CoE in it's present state are, 'because of the clear doctrinal basis on which it was founded', ie. The 39 Articles, and the Book of Common Prayer, 'it's glorious liturgy', the BCP and it's emphasis worship being 'intelligible, congregational, biblical, and edifying', and lastly 'historically the CoE has great strategic influence, ie It's the best boat to fish from. As I said before people will regularly wander into their local CoE (because of the building's beauty, because they want to have a child christened, because it is where their parents were married--somewhere within them the CoE is still a part of them) while they will not walk into another church because it might be 'happy clappy', or cultish, or worse yet, foreign.
After reading Fletcher we decided that at least while we were able to live in England, we would commit to being a part of the CoE. Initially that meant being at All Saints', Loose, but what would it mean when our time at All Saints' was finished?
One possibility; ordination
Sunday, January 29, 2012
A Workin' Mama
This is the second church website Erica has done. The first being Firestone Baptist in Akron, Ohio.
If you have any graphic design needs, (religious or not)(digital or not)(<--See I told you), she's the lady for you.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Goal!
I realize that I put this up on Facebook as well, but I wanted to elaborate a bit.
Tim Howard is the goalkeeper for Everton (A Liverpool based club) in the English Premier League (Think Major League level). Tim is one of a handful of Americans playing in the EPL and is the first string goalie for the U.S. Men's Soccer Team.
On Wednesday night Tim did something rather extrordinary. He scored a goal. In doing so he joined an exclusive club; becoming only the fourth goalie to score a goal in the EPL.
If American Football players can whoop and holler just for making a tackle, what kind of celebration could you expect for a historic and unlikely goal?
None.
As you can see in the video, Howard accepts the congrats of his teammates, but then just goes on with the match.
In fact, Howard felt bad about the goal. In reference to Bolton's keeper, Adam Bogdan (who incidently was playing in only his second game of the season, for a last place team), Howard said this,
“It's not a nice feeling for a keeper. It's really awful actually. For the back four (defenders) and the goalkeepers at both ends, there was an awful wind swirling. You could see everybody was mistiming balls. I think the wind is the hardest condition to play in. Snow, rain, sun doesn't matter, but the wind really does play tricks on you.”
“I let (Bogdan) know that I was feeling for him,” Howard said. “It's not a nice place to be. I've been there before, a long, long time ago, and that was why I didn't celebrate.”
For a play that will be on highlights for a long time, that is a classy stance.
It is Howard's talent, and his attitude that made me consider supporting Everton when we first came over to England. In the grand scheme of things, Liverpool is just too far away, and I am happy to be supporting Fulham and their attempt to climb into the top ten as the EPL pauses for the January transfer window.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Day 2
 |
| The Alliance Review 17 December 2011 |
According to the internet, Mark Twain once said, “If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.” In the case of my hometown, I would add, if you read the Alliance Review you are mal-informed. Being mal-informed is like being malnourished. In the instance of malnourishment food is entering your body, it just isn't the food that you need to live a healthy life. I would argue that a glove shaped (really a glove? more like a deformed chicken foot) is not the kind of information one needs to live a healthy life. Mr. Beach didn't grow it himself, he just found it "in a bag of spuds". And note the small print in the bottom right hand corner. It isn't a submitted photo. A Review photographer actually took time to specifically photograph Mr. Beach and his "unusually shaped potato"!
Granted, the picture occurs on page B8, amongst some local information such as the weekly school menus; and while not a strong candidate for a Pulitzer; it is edited well. It is nowhere near the prize for dumbest headline in the Review. A few years back there was a photo of some local senior citizens doing Christmas crafts. The headline? "Alzheimer patients create Christmas memories".
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Day 1
All of my siblings are now in Ohio. Anna arrived from Geneva a few hours before our original flight was supposed to arrive. Alas, we missed our connection in Chicago and spent the night in a hotel and arrived about nine hours later than we were supposed to. Becky caught a flight from a conference she was at in D.C. and we're sitting around and chatting as the first snow of the year falls outside.
Clive is reacclumating himself to his extended family and to my parents' dog Maggie. He did okay on the flight, but is still a bit jet lagged. Last night he went to bed at 4pm and got up at 5am. I can handle that. Hopefully tonight we'll restore him to a more convenient schedule of 6 or 7pm to 7 or 8 am. He will have his hands full tonight though as we're having aunts, uncles and cousins over.
Erica and I ventured out into my hometown yesterday afternoon. For as much as things change, they also stay the same. Alliance is grim (as Simon Mitchell would say). We talk of England's weather, but the sky here is just a different kind of grey. We did stop by a charity shop though, buy some (non-alcoholic) apple cider, and stop by Heggy's for some chocolate.
Other highlights? My brother building an open fire in the fireplace last night, beating Anna at scrabble, realizing that I didn't miss Graham Crackers that much, and listening to my dad snore as he sleeps on the living room floor.
Until Day 2...
Clive is reacclumating himself to his extended family and to my parents' dog Maggie. He did okay on the flight, but is still a bit jet lagged. Last night he went to bed at 4pm and got up at 5am. I can handle that. Hopefully tonight we'll restore him to a more convenient schedule of 6 or 7pm to 7 or 8 am. He will have his hands full tonight though as we're having aunts, uncles and cousins over.
Erica and I ventured out into my hometown yesterday afternoon. For as much as things change, they also stay the same. Alliance is grim (as Simon Mitchell would say). We talk of England's weather, but the sky here is just a different kind of grey. We did stop by a charity shop though, buy some (non-alcoholic) apple cider, and stop by Heggy's for some chocolate.
Other highlights? My brother building an open fire in the fireplace last night, beating Anna at scrabble, realizing that I didn't miss Graham Crackers that much, and listening to my dad snore as he sleeps on the living room floor.
Until Day 2...
Saturday, December 10, 2011
An Infographic
I (Zac) love information. I especially love when information is presented visually. They even have a term for this nowadays; infographics.
The above infographic shows how the various parts of the islands we currently live on relate to each other. The bluish (I hope) circles represent legal definitions and the other colour represent geographical definitions.
Enjoy.
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