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.

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.