Ordained

Surrounded by so Great a Cloud of Witnesses - May 20, 2011

The following was originally published in the worship bulletin of the Saint Paul Area Synod's Opening Worship/ my Ordination. The event took place at 8:30am on Friday, May 20 at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Burnsville, MN. You can find video of the Rite of Ordination here.

It was in the chapel in Tungamalenga, our companion congregation in the Iringa Diocese, in August of 2004, that my call to ministry was most forcefully and finally articulated.

Kneeling there, at the communion rail, shoulder to shoulder with my brothers and sisters (Men and Women, Americans and Tanzanians, Maasai and Hehe), vocational yearnings were given concrete expression and the vision of being a bridge-builder - connecting people of faith from different parts of the world - was born.

It is a call rooted in my immediate family: in the nightly prayers spoken by a mother to her child; in the work ethic and character passed on from father to son; in the inspiration and constant best-friendship of a younger brother.

It has been shaped by extended family and the different expressions of the Christian faith that they embody – a Charismatic awareness of the Spirit paired with a Social Concern for justice and for compassion.

It has been informed by the work of close friends, speaking hope and bringing renewal to our world through their service as teachers and healers, as policy shapers and advocates for our common wellbeing, both here and abroad.

It is a call that has been supported and shepherded by institutions: the Saint Paul Area Synod, its Candidacy Committee, and the Bega Kwa Bega partnership; our companions in the Iringa Diocese, Tumaini University, and Ilula Hospital; the Global Mission unit of the ELCA and its International Horizon Internship program; Hamline University, Luther Seminary, Yale Divinity School and all of the faculty, staff, and fellow students that have accompanied me along the way

It is a call that has been encouraged by congregations the world over: by Saint Luke’s in Waukesha, WI; First Lutheran Church of the Reformation in New Britain, CT; Tungamalenga Parish in Iringa, Tanzania; Luther House Chapel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and, of course, Shepherd of the Valley in Apple Valley – who took a chance in 2001 and hired, as a youth director, the guy who applied from Bali and interviewed with a muffin crumb lodged in his eyebrow.

As I prepare to live into that call and to depart for service as the Country Coordinator of the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission program in Malaysia, I realize that I do not go alone – that I am accompanied by so great a cloud of witnesses.

For them, and for all of you gathered here on this day, I give thanks.

God’s Peace

-peter