We recently hosted the ordination of a Roman Catholic Woman Priest at Good Shepherd. Here’s a short message I shared with the congregation
the next day in response to some phone calls, emails, and traffic on our Good Shepherd Olympia Facebook
page:
Yesterday morning (May 31, 2014), something amazing happened at
Good Shepherd. Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice was ordained as a Catholic priest in
our sanctuary. Kathleen is a member and now pastor for the Holy Wisdom Inclusive
Catholic Community in Lacey. We provided space for her ordination in our
sanctuary as an extension of our ongoing efforts to be a welcoming
congregation. Like many of the good things that happen here at Good Shepherd,
the person who did the most to bring it off without a hitch was also the person
who received the least amount of credit—Darcy Huffman.
The responses we’ve received for this simple act of
hospitality have been most gratifying. Countless people came up to me yesterday
to tell me how grateful they were for our congregation’s willingness to host
Kathleen’s ordination. Apparently, people who are better informed about these
things than I am have turned down the opportunity that I so blithely accepted
on behalf of the congregation. They were afraid of the blowback.
My first hint that this might be bigger than I imagined came
at 5:45 A.M yesterday morning when my cell phone rang as I was enjoying a cup
of coffee with my daughter. The caller was from Ft. Myers, Florida, (apparently
unaware of the time zone difference) and declined to give his name. He wanted
me to know, however, that he hoped I was uneasy about the upcoming ordination
service. He inferred that I was single-handedly setting ecumenical relations
back to the sixteenth century. I was stunned.
If you’ve been following our Facebook page, then you know my
caller isn’t the only traditional Catholic who was upset about the events of
yesterday. When I realized that my dialog partners did not share the same sense
of humor as me, it became apparent that some sort of thoughtful response was
necessary. So here’s my response. And then on this issue at least, in the words
of Chief Joseph, “I will fight no more forever.”
Women’s ordination: One Facebook comment read: “Wow,
Fake ordination of a "Catholic" Womynpriest coming up? Stay classy,
Lutherans!” To which I responded that women pastors have been sharing their
gifts with Lutherans in the U.S. since 1970 when Elizabeth Platz was ordained. [Incidentally,
I was privileged to be a colleague of Beth Platz when we both worked together
in campus ministry during the 1980’s.] Women pastors have enriched our ministry
immeasurably and (dare I say it?) added a touch of class. We were pleased and
proud to be the site of Kathleen Bellefeuille-Rice's ordination this morning.
May God bless her ministry with the people of Holy Wisdom Inclusive Catholic
Community.”
Ordination: On this particular issue, we Lutherans have a very
different understanding than our Catholic sisters and brothers who believe that
ordination is a sacrament, like baptism or Holy Communion. Since they believe
it to be a sacrament, they also believe it is under the control of the church
and specifically the local bishop. Our Lutheran theology of ordination grows
out of our theology of Baptism which holds that we set aside and ordain
candidates for the office of Word and Sacraments “for the sake of good order”
and not because of any special power on the part of the bishop or the ordained
one. All baptized Christians are part of what Luther called “the priesthood of
all believers.” The ordained ones, including bishops, have no special powers or
privileges that any baptized follower of Jesus doesn’t have by virtue of God’s
grace.
The fact is that we Lutherans
have been practicing illicit (that
is, literally, “outside the law”) ordinations since the sixteenth century. Rick
Jaech, my classmate and our current bishop, along with many of our Seminex classmates
was ordained outside of normal church policies and procedures by his father,
Pastor Emil Jaech. Ordinations outside the norm are nothing new for us. We are
Lutherans after all! What better place for a woman to be ordained as a priest
than in a Lutheran church. I’m proud we were blessed to be the host! This is a
longer discussion, of course, but not one for Facebook.
Ecumenical relations: We, of course, always try to be
gracious and desire unity with all people of faith and all people of goodwill.
This is especially true for our Catholic sisters and brothers. We came from the
Catholic Church. The founder of our movement was a Catholic priest who retained
much of Catholic tradition as reflected in our worship and theology. But
desiring unity with our Catholic sisters and brothers does not mean that we abdicate
to every doctrinal nuance in canon law, particularly when, in our opinion,
there is no Biblical or theological support for it. This includes issues that
have been in dispute since the Reformation like priestly celibacy, the power of
bishops, and the theology of ordination. It also includes more recent issues
like the role of women in the church (which we believe is any role!) and the
right of local assemblies to identify qualified candidates, including women and
members of sexual minorities, in order to train them and call them to the
office of Word and Sacrament. On matters such as these which go to the very
heart of the gospel, like our founder, Martin Luther, we reserve the right to
follow our own consciences and obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).
We are sorry if our decision to
host Kathleen’s ordination has offended some of our Catholic sisters and
brothers. That was not our intent. We are not sorry we hosted it, however, and
we wish her and the members of Holy Wisdom Inclusive Catholic Community God’s
richest blessings as they share the Good News of God’s inclusive love in Jesus
Christ with the people of Lacey. jpr
