A Month of Celebration

On February 16th, I celebrated my 60th birthday. Normally, it would seem like a milestone birthday like this would have been the highlight of the month if not the year but not this time. This February was just chock full of highlights and celebrations.  
The celebrating actually began back in January when this congregation voted to call me as your Associate Pastor.  After studying and training for years, and after living and working with this community for just about a year, nothing could have made me happier than to receive as my first call to ordained ministry a call to join the pastoral staff here at CLC alongside Pastor Dawn.

And so on Friday, February 8th, after a month of frantic planning, family, friends and colleagues gathered at my home church, Christ the King Lutheran Church in Cary, NC and surrounded me with prayers and blessings as I was ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Two weeks later, on Saturday, February 23rd, my friends, family and colleagues here in California gathered in my new home church to once again surround me with prayers and blessings as I was installed as Associate Pastor of Coastside Lutheran Church. Both major milestones involving much celebrating, praise and thanksgiving.

There are parts of these services which will stick with me forever. One such part during my ordination, was the “Questions and Answers.” The Questions and Answers are basically the promises a pastor makes to God to, among other things, teach, preach and live according to the scriptures and the creeds, and to show God’s love in all that one does. In the days leading up to the ordination, the magnitude and impossibility of what I was about to promise began to hit me. At the ordination, as the Bishop asked me these questions one by one, I knew I could only answer with “I will” if my assent was followed by “and I ask God to help me.” The other moment that will stay with me came just before I received a stole, the symbol of the yoke of Christ and the promise to serve Jesus.  At this point in the Rite of Ordination, all the clergy in attendance came up to bless me and to ask, on my behalf, for the help and guidance of the Spirit in the “laying on of hands” or what is affectionately called the “dog pile.” To be blessed by my new colleagues was indeed a powerful moment.

The Rite of Installation also contained many powerful moments. The incredible music of the choir and David on piano; the preaching of my long time friend and mentor Pr. Danielle; CLC’s youth: Grace, Lilly and Javier assisting with the worship; and the list goes on. One of the most meaningful moments came near the end of the Rite when members of CLC met Pr. John (the Dean of our conference) and me at the font, the table, the lectern and in the midst of the congregation to call me to the various aspects of ministry: to baptize, preside over the Sacrament, preach the word of God and equip the saints for ministry.  These are responsibilities I take very seriously and again I ask God (and you) to help me fulfill them as we work together in ministry.
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Throughout all of this, I have had the most overwhelming sense of gratitude; to be called to serve God and for all the support I’ve received. I included the following note on the last page of my ordination bulletin and I’m reprinting it here because you have been part of my faith journey too and for that I am grateful. We are called into the body of Christ to do ministry together, to shine the light and love of Christ into the world together, each bringing our own unique gifts to the whole. I am so looking forward to worshiping and serving and sharing the Gospel together with you, and I ask God to help us all.  In Christ’s love, Pastor Sue Holland
 
A Word of Gratitude
 
Thank you for your presence here today, in person or in spirit, and thank you for your
continuing support throughout my journey.  They say that it takes a village to raise a child; according to the Lutheran understanding of call, it takes a village to raise up a pastor too. An individual hears the call of the Spirit internally: leading, nudging, challenging. But the Spirit works through community also to help the individual discern what she is hearing, to encourage and support her as she pursues her call, and finally to affirm and validate that call.

I have been blessed by being a part of many nurturing communities along the way and to you I say thank you: the young adults’ group at St. John’s Lutheran in Poughkeepsie, NY where I fell in love with God; my home congregation, Christ the King, Cary which for the past 25 years has provided opportunities for me to explore my calling, and has supported, encouraged and enabled me in so many ways to pursue it; the faculty, staff and students at Duke Divinity School who academically challenged and nurtured me; my field ed congregation, Our Savior in Durham which gave me my first taste of pastoral ministry while supporting me through my father’s illness and death; the chaplains, staff and patients of Duke Raleigh Hospital who formed me as a chaplain; Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary which immersed me in our Lutheran understanding of grace; my internship congregation, St. Paul’s in Durham, which allowed me to develop my pastoral identity, nurtured and affirmed me, and where I felt my spirit joyously resonating with the calling of The Spirit; and my calling congregation, Coastside Lutheran Church, in Half Moon Bay which gave Bill and me a church home and a California family when we first moved west and has now made a way to call me as their associate pastor.  Throughout it all, my husband, Bill; my sons, Steven and Sam; my entire family; and many dear friends and neighbors have helped me balance the demands of seminary and internship with family life and have encouraged me when things got tough.  Today I remember with gratitude Gigi Strohbeck and Joanne Brisbin, my sisters in Christ and mentors in the faith who are no longer with us here on earth. Thank you all for being my village.

As I embark on this next exciting step of the journey, I ask for (and need!) the continued support of your prayers. I will always be grateful for your love.