This Saturday I had the enormous privilege of being one of the two featured speakers at the ordination of Lisa Garcia-Sampson. Excuse me, the Reverend Lisa Garcia-Sampson. Lisa is currently the Executive Director of the Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry in North Carolina.
I’ve known Reverend Lisa for many years, ever since she wandered in the First Unitarian Church of Providence while working her first job out of college. Among my last tasks as minister at Providence was presiding at her & Ry’s wedding. As I watched her grow into her vocation and keeping in touch during her seminary years at Boston University, I’ve often thought I might be a small part in the formation of one of the Association’s great ministers.
But important on larger stages or not, what she will be is a wise and generous minister. I am a bit of an agist in these matters, suspicious of giving the care of souls to the too young. One’s heart needs breaking, and then there needs a marinade of loss and gain before one can genuinely take on the mantle of ministry. However, that noted, I would have no problems with Lisa being my minister. I feel and profoundly that I could put my heart into her hands and it would be cared for with gentle wisdom. So while age is a factor, and so is formal preparation, neither is an absolute. Mostly it is a matter of the heart. I’ll come back to all that in a moment.
But first a thought about ordination itself. The rituals of it. Unitarian Universalism has a congregational polity and that means ordinations are performed by congregations. For Lisa the First Unitarian Church of Providence did the honors.
First there was an invocation of the Holy Spirit.
And then the act of ordination.
“We the members of the First Unitarian Church of Providence, recognize and affirm your calling to the ministry of our faith. By these words and by the authority of our common spirit and heritage, we ordain you, Rev. Lisa Garcia Sampson, to Unitarian Universalist ministry.”
As the words of ordination were pronounced, after the full flush of the moment itself, I thought how for UUs the various issues around ordination in a time of Pandemic that cause significant problems for other religious communities such as Catholic or Episcopal churches, where one must put hands on head as a signal part of the rite, are not an issue.
Here words convey the act. “We ordain you” carrying all the magic to make the moment.
Like other professions such as law and medicine, there are acts signaling the completing of preparation and the inauguration of the work. So, Lisa’s spouse Ry is a medical doctor, and has gone through such moments, as well.
And the ceremonial acts are not absolutely necessary. Ministers in the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Church in Great Britain simply have their names added to a directory. They have no necessary, and I believe, even expected public rite. And while I think that’s fine, each community does what it finds necessary and sufficient, I think it a small sadness.
There is a place in human affairs for decency and good order. And we need markers along the way of our lives.
We live in an era where the place of religion is less and less sure. In Europe religion is almost vestigial, a civil service department providing those rites of passage for the community, where historic buildings are otherwise more museums than anything sacred.
But, and this is so important. They still have those rites. In Japan another country where religion is in rapid decline, there remains a profound need for these markers in our lives.
America is still a very religious country. But the hold of organized religion on hearts and minds is increasingly part of a subset of the culture. Religion’s hold on the formally educated is ever more tenuous. And for everyone religion is increasingly a private matter.
Possibly the only growth area in professional ministry is chaplaincy. Itself a sign of the increasing privatization of religion, where so many are unchurched. But there remains a need, someone with whom one can address the fundamental matters, especially as they arise in sickness and, often, facing death. That meeting in the confines of baring one’s heart can be vitally important.
And actual rites of passage remain the major task of religious professionals in our culture. Weddings, for one. Although increasingly that task is taken on by friends who pick up a technical authorization upon payment of a small fee. I think it usually a mistake. Back to that adequate preparation.
Okay, there is no adequate preparation. But the three years Lisa spent at the school of theology at Boston University provided in addition to history and theology and practical things, also gave her a cloister for her heart and companions with whom to explore the mysteries of a religious life. That time mattered.
Now what that mistake in not being prepared is, doesn’t become painfully apparent until we get to the ends of life. We all need markers for coming into the world. For Christians that’s either baptism or a dedication. Some sort of dedication seems important for all of us. And very important is some marker at death. Those who ask there be no funeral or memorial for them are missing the point. The rite isn’t for them, it’s for the living.
And in between, there are those tasks that are increasingly taken up by chaplains. Where do you go in a crisis? When is it that the matter is not best taken up with a therapist?
That part of religion is going to continue for a very long time.
So, we’re going to need people like Reverend Lisa, whatever happens to the churches themselves.
Cultures need priests. Ideally priests with a bit of the shaman in them, as well. People who will tend to the rites of religion as they’re needed. People who will bring their hearts to the grave matters of life and death.
A bit of preaching is rarely out of order, as well. People who will harangue on occasion, reminding us of our better angels, and our obligations to others.
And with that whether small or large, gatherings of hearts with some regularity, attending to the deep matters, I hope we don’t lose those.
And most of all, those who are prepared and can accompany us through the dark valleys of our lives, to bring gentle hands as we come into the world, and as we depart.
We need them.
So, thank you, Reverend Lisa, for taking this on.
We need you…
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