prayer of ordination and laying on of hands

What an honor it was to be able to have so many friends and family join me for my ordination service on Sunday, October 18!

Though I don’t yet have the video of the service (I hope to have it soon) I do have many wonderful photos, as well as the text of some of the pieces of the service:

Ordination photos – thanks to Leanna, Arturo, Trish, Dave, Deb, Tommy, & Marty

Order of service - this is a full list of the service order, with links to the various parts, including photos

Opening Prayer – Rev. Erica Thompson

Opening Words – Rev. Candie Blankman & Rev. Dr. Steve Wright

Passing of the Peace – greetings of peace from around the world

Ordination sermon – Erin Dunigan

Ordination charge – Gary Wilburn

Presentation of gifts – Los Ranchos Partnership, La Mision, family

Happy Easter from Mexico!

Just wanted to give a quick update…I’m back in the country, well, on the continent. I got back late Thursday night, spent Friday unpacking, doing laundry and re-packing in order to drive down to Mexico on Saturday.

You may remember (though I don’t blame you if you don’t—I can barely keep track of my life, and it’s mine!) that last Easter I told a story of meeting Gary Wilburn, a retired Presbyterian minister, who is living here in La Mision where my family has had a house since my grandparents built it some 50 years ago.  Gary and I have both mutual friends, we came to find out, but have also quite mutual paths—Princeton Seminary, St. Andrews Scotland, Bel Air Presbyterian Church and Immanuel Presbyterian Church in LA, to name a few. Gary and his wife Bev moved down here to Mexico full time after finding out that he had ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Gary and I met last year on Palm Sunday, and a week later, on Easter, hosted a La Mision Easter celebration service and pot luck.  In December we hosted a Christmas celebration as well, for a mixed group of Spanish and English speakers, Mexicans and Americans, all part of the community here.

At one point not long after we met last year—I think we were at Tuesday Taco Night at La Fonda Restaurant, Gary looked at me and said, “You could have been Lutheran!” to which I replied, “You could have been Pentecostal!” Meaning…of all the situations, how crazy is it that he, a retired Presbyterian minister and me, a…hmm, not sure what to call myself!, would both end up being here in a fairly small community.

That’s all the back story.

Gary preaches to the La Mision Easter service

The update is, I had the great privilege to again, this morning, help put together and host an Easter service for the community here. Gary, with the help of a small microphone which helps him speak (his breathing has become very difficult and he spends much time on oxygen and is pretty much always in a wheel chair now) was able to preach.  Other members of the community helped with readings, prayers, reflections and a benediction. We sang to Cat Stevens’ “Morning Has Broken” and Judy Collins’ “Amazing Grace” and even had an impromptu round of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” I’ve heard plenty of sermons in my day, and now even preached quite a few, and I’ll tell you, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such attentiveness to a sermon as I did this morning.

Here’s just one excerpt from the sermon, entitled ‘Outrageous Hope’ : “I’ve got to tell you—time is not on my side, but hope is…Having hope doesn’t change anything—it makes us want to change it.”

I recently had the opportunity to write an article about Gary for the Presbyterian News Service.  It’s entitled Lots of Hope, which is the title to Gary’s newly released book.  You can also see pictures from the service as well. 

Peace to you this Easter.

Saludos (greetings) from Mexico,

Do you ever have a story to tell that you can’t figure out where to start? Let’s just hope I can figure out how to end it!

At the moment I’m in La Mision (Miss-ee-own), Baja California, about 40 miles south of the border. I’m here to teach a photography class.  I’ve been coming to La Mision my entire life (my grandma used to live here) but for most of that time just came down to the house or went to the beach, without really getting to know the surrounding Mexican community.  It occurred to me that I have been teaching photography to teenagers in LA and in Ecuador (www.photopiece.org for more info) so why not do a class here in La Mision as a way of building bridges and relationships? I pitched the idea to Marty Harriman (who has also been coming here her entire life and whose parents knew my grandma) and before I knew it we had the students and the sponsors for the first ever La Mision Photopiece.  We’re now in week 3 of the class. We hope to have an exhibit at a local fiesta over Memorial Day Weekend (consider yourselves invited!).

In the course of planning for class a couple of weeks ago, Marty happened to mention a book that she was reading, written by a retired Presbyterian minister, who happens to live here in La Mision. I had never met him or heard of him, but the book sounded interesting.

The following week I happened to be talking with one of the staff in my own presbytery and mentioned that I would be in La Mision. “I know someone who lives in La Mision,” he said, and of course, it was that very same retired Presbyterian minister! Turns out this same man had worked at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, where I worked right after college, and also at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church, which is where we teach the photography classes in LA.  Oh yeah, he also went to Princeton Seminary and spent time in St. Andrew’s, Scotland!  He and his wife recently moved here full time (from Connecticut) after he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease.

So, last weekend Marty Harriman arranged for us to meet and this weekend he and I will be leading an impromptu Easter service together!  As my dad used to quote from the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together.”  The service will be on the beach at 10:30AM (complete with a Karaoke machine to amplify the sermon) to be followed by a brunch pot-luck.  Feel free to join us if you find yourself in the neighborhood!

I don’t have a phone or internet here at the house. So, in order to send this out I have to climb under my neighbor’s porch to get to their patio to pick up their wireless signal (not quite the pony express) so I might as well bring it to a close and start that process.

Feliz Pasqua y hasta luego.