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

At the presbytery examination, answering questions (and apparently demonstrating a new pilates stretch)

After ‘languishing in the process’ (well, not actually, but having been ‘threatened’ with the category…) for the past six and a half years, believe it or not, I am finally going to be ordained!

Details are still TBD, but consider yourselves invited October 18 to a late afternoon service, followed by a reception/party.

For those of you from out of town, there are plenty of folks with whom you can stay if you’d like to make the trip–you are invited!

waiting to go before the presbytery

prayer following approval for ordination as Minister of Word and Sacrament

“Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.”  -Parker Palmer

Somehow, the above quote seemed rather appropriate, no?

I’ve been wanting to post an update to my plea for ‘why Erin should be ordained’ responses earlier this summer, but I’ve also been waiting until I had something to say other than “we’re still meeting…”  We did meet. Multiple times. (How did you spend your summer vacation?) There is only one step left…

But here’s the amazing thing—the product of all that meeting is a ‘call’ that is solid in all the ways that it needs to be for Presbyterian stuff, and yet is also vibrant and creative and willing to engage in the unknown of trying something new. I’m so thankful for the partnership of churches within the Los Ranchos Presbytery that has come together to make this ‘legitimate’ but that is also willing to take a risk to (hopefully) ordain me to be more of a minister to the world, rather than a minister to one particular congregation.

There is still one step remaining in the process—next week, September 17, I will be going before the entire presbytery (pastors and elders from the 50+ churches) to be ‘examined’ for ordination. This is a time when they can ask me pretty much any question and then vote whether or not to ordain me to what is technically called a Minister of Word and Sacrament. Supposedly no one, if they have gotten this far, has ever been voted down at that point. People keep telling me that, I think as an encouragement. I remind them there’s always a first time for everything.

Anyway, for those of you who are in the area (the meeting will be in Fullerton) and who would like to come to the presbytery meeting you are more than invited and I can give you the details. However, the bigger event, provided my ordination is approved, is a “Service for Ordination to Word and Sacrament.” Since I won’t know for sure until next week that this will happen, don’t book a plane ticket yet, but if you are able to keep the afternoon October 18 available, it is looking like that will be the date of the service. I would LOVE for you to come—some of you have been along for the ride on this journey since it began 9 years ago, others of you I’ve roped in along the way, and I am so thankful for all of you and appreciate the part that you’ve played in helping me ‘listen for what life intends to do with me.’

Today is also the 5th anniversary of my dad’s death. In some ways it seems like a very long time ago, and in some ways I wonder how five years could have already passed. My dad had hoped to live to see me ordained. This process clearly was not on that time schedule, nor on the one I would have chosen, had it been up to me—who wants to ‘languish’ in the process for so long? But at the same time, the call to ordination that will be voted on next week could never have happened in this way, five years ago—I just didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle then. Though the waiting was often frustrating, and felt as though there was no end in sight (I remember writing an email about Shasta Daisies taking two years to flower and thinking that was WAY to long to wait for something), I am amazed at how, out of that waiting and the not knowing, this has come to be.

Another quote from the book by Parker Palmer: “Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening.” Thank you for listening along with me, even in the midst of my sometimes willful journey.

Greetings from Newport Beach, home of John Wayne and the Christmas Boat Parade,

Ever since I sent the email about the plight of Bethlehem, I have been trying to come up with some sort of a follow-up. But what I found, on the remainder of my two weeks in Israel/Palestine, was that I was becoming more and more angry about what I was witnessing (due to the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank) and could not figure out a way to write about it without simply inflicting the anger onto all of you.

Now, though I am no stickler for logic, somehow it just didn’t seem to make a lot of sense to have the message be one of peace, but the method be one of not peace.  Sure, there are definitely times in life to be angry especially when dealing with injustice.  But what has been percolating in my mind is this idea that if you want to promote peace, then somehow the way you go about it should match up, no?  Thus the old, “let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”  Somehow it always seems easier, though, to say “let there be peace on earth and let it begin with you.”  Hmmm, not a bad sermon topic.

Speaking of sermon topics, I recently had to report to my ordination committee why in the world it has been so long and I still have no ‘call.’  (Explaining that I have been busy outrunning mad cows in Austria or planting Shasta Daisies didn’t seem like the answer they were looking for.)  I was at risk of being categorized as ‘languishing in the process.’  I kind of like the title, personally, so was a bit disappointed (but please don’t change your mind, committee members that might be reading this) that I passed inspection.  I can just see it printed on a business card, “Erin Dunigan, Languishing in the Process.”  It’s definitely got conversation potential.

But on a more serious note, (though not too serious, since we have already dealt with peace in the Middle East, which seems serious enough for one email) I am still in the ‘call process’ but let’s just say I am trying to, at the same time, listen for alternate ring tones.  Don’t press me on that one, because I have no idea what it means, but somehow it has a nice, shall we say, ring to it.

In the meantime (which I think might be a good title for this period of my life, though I guess it would assume that there is actually something that will come after the meantime…) I have been involved in a variety of endeavors such as working freelance as a writer, photographer, computer geek, house-sitter and church stewardship campaigner. If it all sounds a bit like a random combination, it’s probably because it is.

So, there you have it.

In weather news, it is cloudy today, definitely dropping into those colder winter temperatures they have been talking about. The thermostat reads 62 degrees, so it looks like I will be able to wear my favorite winter accessories after all. I mean, nothing says down coat, scarf, beanie and gloves like 62 degrees…

By the way, I have new photos (Middle East, Mississippi trip, Huntington Lake) posted for your viewing pleasure.