Not just hoops

Earlier this year I attended an ordination service for a good friend. During the course of that worship service she went from being a faithful lay member of the United Church of Christ to an ordained UCC minister. She took the vows required of clergy in our tradition and received the symbols of ordained ministry all in the sight of a community that had affirmed God’s call on her and overseen her formation. I love ordinations because they remind me of what it is I and other clergy do, and of what ordination means to me.

I have been listening to a few different conversations on the ordination process, both in my tradition and in others. I’ve heard people saying that the ordination process is just a bunch of meaningless hoops, that it’s just buying into the “system” of denominations, that it’s elitist, that the expectations are unreasonable, and that it’s all just a bureaucratic distraction from the work of the church.

With all due respect, I disagree.