Candidate 33 Profile

Section A. Background Information

10. Year of Ordination

1997

11. Denomination of Ordination

UCC NY Conference ordained in Metro Assoc. current: Reformed Association

12. If not RCA, what classis or supervising body from the ordaining denomination recognizes your ordination?

UCC NY Conference ordained in Metro Assoc. current: Reformed Association

13. Present denomination

UCC NY Conference ordained in Metro Assoc. current: Reformed Association

14. Present classis or judicatory

UCC NY Conference ordained in Metro Assoc. current: Reformed Association

15. If you are not now a member of the Reformed Church in America, can you, in good conscience, agree with the doctrine, discipline and government of the RCA?

Yes. I currently serve, with pleasure, an RCA church as interim pastor. It is open to queer people and seeks to do justice in ministries. If this is consistent with the RCA, then I’m aligned.

16. Do you support the mission and division of the Reformed Church in America?

I don’t know how to answer this. I am not steeped in RCA mission and vision. If an RCA congregation is open to all people and ecumenically and interfaith responsive, then I’m supportive.

17. Citizen of what country? If not USA, do you have permit to live and work in the USA?

Yes

18. Previous Experience

19. Formal Education

20. Continuing Education

21. Languages (list any languages, other than English, in which you can preach or converse fluently)

N/A

Section B. Reflection

1. Describe your strengths, the best of who you are, and what you bring in service to the church.

I bring years of experience working in rural, urban, and suburban churches from the UCC, Presbyterian USA, and RCA traditions. My work has included settled ministry as a senior pastor and assistant pastor as well as numerous transitional pastorates when I helped congregations work through grief and sometimes conflict, and to move on. Trained in the Interim Ministry Network, I have learned much about churches in transition, the need to grieve loss and change (“every change is a loss and every loss must be grieved”) and to celebrate God-with-us and our callings to serve. I bring faith that I continually nurture by practices of prayer, worship, study, and service. I bring an improvisational style that is playful. When I couple with a congregation that is willing to be creative, curious, and playful, I have great fun. I bring a sense of purpose to pastoring that includes the care of individual souls as well as a commitment to social justice as foundational to any church ministry.

2. Name two or three mentors who have significantly contributed to your ministry, and explain why these people are important to you.

Rev. Robert Pierce, a former congregant and a well seasoned retired pastor who headed the Long Island Council of Churches for many years, has been an encourager to me, a witness to challenges and celebrations in my ministry and an advisor at times of confusion. Dr. Phyllis Trible, OT scholar, and Rev. Dr. Robin Scroggs, Pauline scholar, were important seminary mentors for their encourgement and affirmation of my scholarship. Among important mentors to me are literary ones, Henry Nouwen, Mother Teresa, Frederick Buechner, Parker Palmer, Thomas Merton, Matthew Fox, Richard Rohr, Father Thomas Keating. I am enlightened by biography, spiritual autobiography, and memoir and often find wisdom gleaned in reading valuable for myself and to share with others. I am trained in the method of prayer called Centering Prayer that Father Keating championed in life and I count some teachers from prayer retreats among mentors as well.

3. What caused you to enter ministry, and what are the core values that define your vision for ministry?

From early years I felt called to religious work. I wanted to share the gospel. I wanted to share Jesus. I never would have conceived of preaching as part of it since I grew up S. Baptist where women do not serve as clergy. Sharing the gospel was my value, my calling. I wanted to share the grace of God we find in Christ, the hesed of God— and while I may have understood this in a more limited way earlier on in my more fundamentalist thinking of youth — I now understand it expansively. Loving others, taking care of those in need, working for just systems so that all persons have what they need— even when Christ is not mentioned at all— are still the work of Christ in the world. Being part of that work is my vision for ministry.

4. Explain the strategies or ideas that most excite you for helping a church to become and remain missional.

Cultivating genuine Christian community for one another, porous enough to welcome others in, is the first task. Creating what is relevent as local ministry, reaching the people nearby, offering hospitality and meaningful relationship, teaching, opportunities for service, and worship—these things matter. Even a small church can choose a ministry that is relevant, faithful, and manageable and then do it with perseverence and joy. Celebration is part of the work even when the work is difficult and involves lament. No church can be everything to everyone, however, the church with vision will understand its own modest (perhaps) calling and live it vigorously. Congregational mission certainly begins locally. It may be expansive beyond the local, of course, however, every congregation has plenty to do within its own community, mindful of the world beyond and its needs. There are people to love, to feed, to visit, and to befriend close by. To be missional is to do mission.

5. Name three of your most passionate hopes for the Church at large, and why they are significant to you.

One, I wish for wise compassionate interpretation of the Bible so that a few verses are not used as weapons against the queer community, for instance, and our environment and women. The Bible is not ahistorical, after all. It is our foundational text with ancient words that are like a deep well of grace for us. It needs scholarly prayerful reading. Two, I wish for a vision of the gospel that includes social justice as part of the spiritual work of the church and a vision that includes the contemplative aspect of prayer and worship as well. Also, one that is open to interfaith dialogue and shared mission. Three, I wish the church to offer spiritual formation for its members, shaping persons to be mature, wise, loving people of faith so that anyone looking would know something of God’s love. The community itself is the curriculum for us all as well as the word of God spoken and embodied.

6. Give an example of how you would theologically address an issue facing your contemporary world. Please be thorough enough to help the reader to understand your thought processes and your life commitments.

The environmental crisis is the issue of justice that concerns us all. Ecojustice certainly concerns the younger among us, many of whom hold older generations, boomers especially, responsible for the state of our earth, air, water, and soil. As such, to foment mission in this area is to invite the participation of many people of various faiths and ages. Theologically, it is necessary to undo some poor learning that most of us grew up without questioning. Somehow we humans got the idea from a creation story in Genesis that we were to dominate the earth and we have done just that. “Having dominion over” is not domination and oppression as it has been interpreted and lived. Its right meaning is stewardship of, nurture of, and care for. Humans are called to participate with God in cherishing God’s creation. We have not worked with nature, but often against it. We have privileged humans over animals and our healthy environment and we are paying a heavy price.

7. What theologians, pastors, authors or other leaders have had the greatest influence upon your life and thought? (List up to 4 and explain.)

Too many to priortize but here are 4 that were mentioned already, except for the last here. Father Thomas Keating for his teaching about Centering Prayer and the importance of the contemplative practice in spiritual development.

Father Richard Rohr for his expansive, open hearted and open minded teachings about scripture and the tradition that includes advocacy and activism that begins with contemplation.

Mother Teresa for her perseverence in the face of decades of her experience of ‘the dark night of the soul’ in which she continually found Jesus ‘in his most distressing disguise’ of the poor, the sick, and the unwanted and served tirelessly even though she had no inner consolation.

The Jesus Seminar, those scholars that have made it their work to identify authentic sayings of Jesus as opposed to those added on by gospel writers and the early church.

8. How do you hope someone influenced by your ministry would describe what s/he considers to be most important?

I hope someone says that my work helped them be in touch with God and themselves. I would rather my sermons open up conversations between congregant and God than be considered an answer, fixed and certain. I hope my ministry helps people to pray. I would hope that my work helps people to heal, to reconcile, and to celebrate, to be open to Spirit and one another. I would hope that my leadership would help a congregation engage ministries of mercy and justice making, both.,

9. Name at least one challenge for a pastor who accepts a Call to lead a church whose culture is other than his/her own.

Relevance. One must understand another culture to be able to communicate the Gospel.

10. Describe your vision and hopes for the Church over the next 5-10 years.

I think some local congregations can become or continue to be vital and engaging, however, the larger instituion will continue to diminish. This is not my hope or my vision, but I believe it is reality. My hope is in the local congregation, any given one, where even a few people can be faithful, devoted, and participate in the life of God in the world by service and community building.

11. If there is anything else you would like to add about yourself that you think would help a search team to better understand and consider you as their next pastor, please elaborate here.

As I have read about your neighborhood, I see that it is largely Asian. That makes me wonder if you might be best off ultimately selecting a pastor who is Asian. I am not Asian, however, what I would bring to this position is experience of many transitions, working with change, with grief, with conflict, and moving forward. Some people find my preaching meaningful and so I bring that as well. I am not a young pastor who would want to remain in place for many years. That, while it may seem a detriment to some reading this, is not a bad thing. You might do well to have what I would call a bridge pastor for 5 to 7 years, someone to help the congregation negotiate what is a transitional time for most churches. Covid had an effect. Most every church is having to cope with changes, losses, new information, and what we may call a paradigm shift. If I seem an apt candidate at all, I hope we can talk. I’m praying for your discernment and my own. Blessings in your search.