Called, Part 1

In the United Methodist Church, a calling to ministry starts in the local church. Once a congregation has affirmed a clear call to ministry in a person, he or she becomes a certified candidate and moves to the district level where the District Committee on Ordained Ministry (DCOM) asks probing questions and looks for fruitfulness in ministry. Candidates who are approved by DCOM move on to the conference level and the Board of Ordained Ministry (BOOM) where the questions are more challenging, the requirements more stringent, and fruitfulness must be clearly evident.

I had graduated from seminary and been approved by DCOM when I was appointed as the pastor at Saxapahaw United Methodist Church in 2010. I was ordained in 2014, following four years of theological reflection with colleagues, hours upon hours of reading and writing (and re-writing) papers, and the daily work of prayer, reflection, and spiritual growth.

The reason I share this background information is because one of the questions before us as we explore the future of the United Methodist Church has to do with ordination.  I’m ordained today, as a woman, because in 1956, after decades of disagreements, The Methodist Church granted full clergy rights to women. Sadly, even now, 63 years later, many local Methodist churches struggle to accept that God could call a woman to ordained ministry.

I’m thankful for the men, both clergy and lay, who looked past gender back in 1956 and affirmed a woman’s call to ordination. I also recognize that there are still many denominations – from the Roman Catholic Church to the Southern Baptist Convention – that still do not affirm the ordination of women. They turn to scriptures like 1 Corinthians 14:33 which says, “Women should be silent in the churches,” to support their position.

As Methodists, while we affirm the authority of Scripture, we also know that texts like this one were written in a particular time and place to address a particular situation. So we turn to the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, reading Scripture through a broad lens and balancing our understanding of Scripture with Tradition, Experience, and Reason.

This practice led to the ordination of women in 1956. Today I wonder if it isn’t time for us to use this same practice to look past sexual orientation and affirm that God calls people from all walks of life to ordination.