Ordination

I just read that Scott Anderson will be re-ordained in the PC(USA):

The high court for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) early this month cleared the way for a re-ordination ceremony for Scott Anderson, who is executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches (and held a similar post in California). Anderson set aside his ordination in 1990 when a congregation revealed that he was a partnered gay man.

I'm all for the turn of events in the PC(USA) that have led to this action. But I wonder about "re-ordination."

I was ordained in 1986 a deacon in the United Methodist Church. I was also "credentialed" by my annual conference and appointed or assigned to continue divinity school. After I finished up divinity school I was appointed to serve first at Trinity, Durham and then Jefferson, Goldsboro. A year or so later it became apparent that I was not going to be a good fit for continuing as a United Methodist pastor in eastern NC. So I surrendered my credentials. But I did not end my ordination, at least to my thinking. I'm just orthodox enough or Catholic enough to think that ordination is a sacramental thing, something that one does not un-do. I doubt that's majority opinion among other Methodists, and it does not seem to be the case with Presbyterians. (And now, as I am editing myself, I recall that deacons and elders in the PC(USA) are not re-ordained if they rotate off a stint in those offices and then are selected again later in time; they are re-installed.)

I have no illusions about trying to pastor a congregation with the ordination that I hold. I fully recognize that a second component to filling the role of pastor at least in the United Methodist Church is to be credentialed.

But the whole Scott Anderson thing struck me not because a gay guy is being ordained. But rather than anyone is being "re-ordained." For me it's kind of like being re-baptised; you don't do that. Did he really get himself un-ordained a few years back; or is it really necessary that he be (or is it possible to be) re-ordained? I believe the answer is "no" to both questions.

I believe that something indelible and irrevocable and unrepeatable happened when I was ordained. As far as serving as a pastor in a UM church, there's another component required. But the fact of my ordination remains. I am living out my vocation not as a pastor but as a pastoral musician, so I feel okay about being faithful to my calling.

There's probably more to what Scott Anderson will go through in the next few weeks; for some reason the word "Byzantine" come to mind when I think of Presbyterian or Reformed polity. There are no doubt intricacies of which I am not aware. But just that language in the article struck me. And I needed to climb up on a soapbox.

I'll get down now.