Day Three in Berlin

I stayed up too late last night working on the World slideshow that I volunteered to create for this gathering,  For the last two months I have been gathering slides from groups around the world so that those of us here can catch a glimpse of the depth, the breadth and the width of the ministry that is the work of DIAKONIA around the world  It has been a blessing, a prayer blessing for me, and one that I am so pleased to be able to share with the participants of this gathering  We will play these 524 pictures after the formal presentations tomorrow night which is "Culture Night".  People will be able to watch it while holding conversations, or come and go when they feel like it.

Our presentations today challenged us to think about how diakonia is lived out in our world and we learned some about Hildegard von Bingen and her holistic approach to wholeness and healing. I took copious notes from the first speaker, not so many on Hildegard, just listened.  It is hard work to listen to simultaneous translations, and by mid afternoon, it was warm and I was sleepy.  I didn't succumb, but it was very hard work! I will need to spend some time pondering the first speaker's words before I can reflect on them. 

This afternoon we had time with our small group once again.  It was a rich time of sharing and reflection  Today, Doris Horn had to attend a meeting of the Executive Committee, so we had to translate among ourselves.  It was truly wonderful to see people step up to the job, and others recognize that they actually could speak English with clarity, (and that I am getting much better with my German!)

After dinner we held our first DOTAC regional meeting, which was attended by about 100 people.  We are so pleased with our turnout, we have 6 from Brazil, which is more than have ever come before, 6 from the Diakonia of the United Churches of Canada, 30 from the Lutheran Deaconess Association, 40 from the Order of Deaconesses, Home Missioners and Home Missionaries of the United Methodist Church.  Forgive me that I don't have the counts for all of the other groups. Everyone  participated fully in the get acquainted activity and truly seemed to enjoy themselves.  The only disappointment is that they  didn't get to hear my Treasurer's report which I KNOW is the highlight of every DOTAC gathering! :)

Then we finished with wonderful worship!  I have learned so many NEW songs this time around, I can't wait to try them at home and to teach them to my friend, Julie Kae.  It's time for pictures.

Blessings abound at this place.  Thanks be to God.

 

Back view of the Church, from Festsaal

 

ELCA Deaconesses- Liz's Community!

 

I can't resist pictures of these hats :)

 

DOTAC Regional Meeting

 

Proof that I am here -with my friends from DIAKONIA Asia Pacific

 

 

Evening Prayer on Tuesday

 

Morning Prayer this Morning

 

 

End of Day Two in Berlin

It is 7:30 pm in Berlin and I am sitting in the Hotel Christophorous on the Campus of the  Ev. Johannesstift just outside the city of Berlin.  This is the first full day of meetings as yesterday was devoted to arrivals and settling in.  My travels went very well, although we left bout 20 minutes late from Seattle we picked up time and arrived in Amsterdam only 5 minutes late. Even so, it was a VERY FAST walk through the airport and security to make it to my connecting fight to Berlin.  When I arrived at the gate, whom should I meet but Nazgul Williams from the National Association of Deaconesses, Home Missioners and Home Missionaries (NADHM)  of the United Methodist Church.  I had met Naz at the last World Gathering in Atlanta in 2009 and also again at the DOTAC Gathering in Oklahoma City in 2011.

When we landed we were given instructions to find the DIAKONIA steward in the airport who would direct us to our hotels.  As we gathered together waiting for all the scheduled arrivals for a full van, I met Vernon van Wyk, with whom I had been emailing from the Order of Deacons of the UMC of South Africa. He had given me access to many photos from his community for inclusion into the sideshow I was preparing for the gathering.  It was so fun to meet him so quickly!  Then I discovered that I was waiting with Sister Janet Stump, the newly installed Directing Deaconess of the Deaconess Community of the ELCA, and three of her other Sisters. 

This is what I love most about these gatherings, the chance to make new acquaintances and to renew those made previously.  I have seen one member of my small group from Atlanta, she comes from Norway, and lots of people who remember meeting me at their community gatherings when I have been able to attend.  I will leave this time with many more new friends.  These connections are the meat of this community  When I arrive back home I will be part of a larger community with friends around the world When I hear of tsunamis in Indonesia or uprisings in Egypt, I think about my friends Ristua and Sister Joanna.

We officially opened the gathering with an evening prayer in German and English in the beautiful church on the grounds of this place.  The Hotel Christophorus, which is where I am housed is a mere 150 meters from the church and meeting place in gorgeous grounds full of sycamore trees, cobbled walkways and green lawns.  I will try and upload some pictures, but I hear the connections are slow.  We'll see, if you see pictures, it was fast enough for me! :)

So today, Tuesday, was our first full day, and it was full, beginning with Morning Prayer in the beautiful Church on the grounds and continuing with a marvelous greeting brought by Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches and a presentation by Cornelia Coenen-Marx on Diakonia as the healing and liberative ministry of the church.  These talks were very interesting and filled with many good thoughts to ponder, but the highlight of the day for me was the first gathering of my small group. It is a tradition of these gatherings that we are placed into small groups that seek to combine people from different countries for relationship building and discussions.  Generally they fill the groups with people who can all understand either English or German, the two official languages of Diakonia.  My group was half and half; half had no English while the other half had no German!  Thankfully, Sister Doris Horn the President of DIAKONIA, joined our group and served as translator  I am finding that my German is returning fairly quickly, but I was so thankful she was there, as the conversation would not have been able to be as deep or thoughtful if they had to rely on my German and one other Sister's English!

We ended the day holding our election for our new president, and holding a DOTAC Central Committee meeting to touch base about our Regional meeting time held tomorrow.  There we all had a chance to meet "the new Anita Wood" Victoria Reback from the order of Deacons of the United Methodist Church. Anita retired this year, and Victoria is her replacement.  This is her first world gathering, as is also true for Rev. Pam Nesbitt of the Association of Episcopal Deacons, who also serves on the DOTAC CC.

As I anticipated, I have already had good, thoughtful discussion with people about my discernment process in looking for another call.  The care and concern of this diaconal community for one another is something that perhaps needs to be experienced to be fully understood.  As I spoke with Ingrit about my summer of the "B"s - which is what I am calling my travels to Berlin, Baltimore and Brazil this summer - and sharing my hopes for good insights form these diaconal gatherings, she thought about "bees" and how they move from flower t flower, picking up pollen and taking it to other flowers, and that from their travels honey is created, and flowers bear fruit.  Good analogy and metaphor with which to close this day's ponderings.  Tomorrow evening we have the Cultural night, and I expect that might run late; but I will post as I have time and the ability to sit and ponder.

Jan and Naz at the Amsterdam airport

 View of the Church at Ev. Johannesstift

 

Gathering in the courtyard in front of the Church

 

In front of the Festsaal

 

NADHM representatives Judy and Scott

Naz and friends.

 

Wiedersehnen!

Transitions: Part Two - What's Next?

What comes next? Well, I will spend the next two months travelling, and the schedule follows.  I will be visiting with friends and colleagues from around the world, attending various gatherings of our community, talking with others who are diaconal people.  I will spend time thinking about  what it means to Live Diaconally in this time, in this place. From those conversations, and those thoughts, I hope to shape or uncover the next steps in this journey.  I commit to anyone who feels like reading this blog, that I will post pictures and thoughts from all of these visits over the summer as I continue on this journey.

 

June 30 – July 8:  DIAKONIA World Federation Gathering. This quadrennial event is being held in the birthplace of the modern diaconal movement, Germany, and will be attended by members of Diaconal Associations from around the world. 

July 8-13: Following the Gathering in berlin, Jan will participate in a post-Gathering tours through Western Germany, visiting several Diaconal motherhouses, including Kaiserwerth.   In 1875 Pastor Theodor Fleidner and his wife, started the Deaconess movement in Kaiserwerth, Germany and opened the first Motherhouse for deaconesses.  This allowed unmarried young women to live outside of their family home and to do social work within the community in a socially acceptable manner.   Pastor Fliedner and his wife lived in the house with them.  These young women served primarily as nurses; in fact, Florence Nightingale was sent to the Motherhouse in Kaiserwerth from England to learn their nursing skills.  The first Deaconesses in the United States were brought to Philadelphia by Pastor William Passavant in 1895, and are the foremothers of our current Deaconess Community of the ELCA.

July 17-20: Jan will fly to Baltimore to attend the triennial National Gathering of the Diaconal Ministry Community of the ELCA, of which she is a member.   

August 16-24:  Jan will be in Porto Alegre, Brazil with the Central Committee of DOTAC (DIAKONIA of the Americas and the Caribbean). She serves as Treasurer of this Board and is the representative for the Diaconal Ministry Community of the ELCA, her own group.  The Central Committee is meeting in Brazil because the quadrennial Gathering of DOTAC will take place there in 2015, hosted by the Diaconal Ministers of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confessions of Brazil. 

 

 

Transitions - Part One: What has Happened

May 31, 2013 was my last day of work at the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University. For a variety of reasons, most of them good and valid, the School has decided that they would not renew my contract as Ecumenical Liturgical Coordinator.  They have lots of work to do, we have done good work, much has been accomplished, and it is time for me to move on.  I am grateful for the six years that I spent at this place, learning to articulate fully both my Diaconal call, and my call as a liturgical theologian. I anticipate that God has much in store for me in the future. This has been a good place for me, a safe place, but it is time, and as it always happens, transition is not easy, it is scary; moving into the unknown can cause great concern.

On June 4, the School celebrated the leaving of four members of their community, two faculty, and two staff, one of whom was me.  It was wonderful sending.  I attended the event with mixed feelings, not really sure how it would play out, but it was very good, and I recognized that I was being lifted up and blessed on my way together with three other amazingly strong, faithful women, Dr. Mary Rose Bumpus, Dr. Marianne LaBarre, and Sue Hogan. 

My daughter videotaped my portion of the event, and you can view it here: Jan's "Closing Remarks"

If you don't like to visit YouTube (and that link also includes the generous and kind remarks of Dr. Mark Taylor, Director of the Office of worship at STM, and my friend and colleague, I insert the text of my remarks.

Sung: “Through our lives and by our prayers, your kingdom come.”

One thousand, one hundred and eleven Morning Prayers, One hundred and fifteen afternoon liturgies, sixty Mid-day Prayers, thirty Noon Eucharists, seventy prayers at seven Summer Institutes of Liturgy and Worship, ten City/Countywide Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Prayers; a total of one thousand, three hundred and ninety six liturgies….approximately… in ten years, four as graduate assistant for liturgy and six as your Ecumenical Liturgical Coordinator. 

I know, in the very core of my being, the truth of this Iona prayer, which speaks eloquently of my call to both liturgy and to diakonia. 

I know, in the very core of my being, that prayer forms us, and that corporate prayer, prayer together, in assembly, forms us in ways that are different from the ways that individual prayer forms us.

I know, in the very core of my being, that the ecumenical prayer that we experience here, in this unique School of Theology and Ministry, forms us in a way that cannot be done in any other way, into the one Body of Christ. 

I know, in the very core of my being, that the Church is the Body of Christ, a creature of the Gospel, and not only is it not ours to dis-member, but that corporate prayer is one of the primary ways in which we re-member it.

I know this, in the very core of my being, because I have been gifted with the opportunity to pray together, corporately, with members of this community, one thousand, three hundred and ninety six times…approximately… over the past ten years, and I thank you for that opportunity.

As I leave, and as you continue as a school to hold conversation about the place of corporate prayer in this school, this is my prayer for you:

Sung: “May you cling to Wisdom, for she will protect you. And if you cherish her, she will keep you safe.”

Finally, I remind you and myself, that while I have been the steward this corporate prayer for six years for you, continues to be held in the good hands of Mark and John; and I know, in the very core of my being, that the only true response to this type of event, to the work that we do together, is to give God the glory:

Sung: “Gloria, Gloria, in excelsis Deo! Gloria, glory, Alleluia, alleluia!”

Amen and Amen. 

 

 

 

 

Sermon on Advent 4: Mary's Song

Well, we are drawing to the end of one of my favorite liturgical seasons, Advent.  And this year, we have traveled through almost the fewest number of days that Advent can be, the fourth week of Advent is only two days long, tomorrow is Christmas Eve, the last day of the season.  This is a season of anticipation for me, of preparation, of waiting and watching as the days grow shorter and the nights grow somehow darker. Liturgically we use the color blue to signify hope, to me it seems brighter, more anticipatory than the old liturgical color for the season, purple. I know, I know, how does a color express something like hope? But it does to me.  

If this is the season of Hope, Where do we see hope in our lives? I n this congregation?  Where do we see hope amidst the fear that is rampant in this day and age? After tragedies like Newtown last week? In today’s gospel? We hear this reading every year on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and during Advent.  What does it have to say to us today?  How does this reading, which is closely associated with Christmas, read differently in Advent?  Does it? I hear three Advent messages: “Hail, O favored one,”  “How can this be”, and “Nothing is impossible for God.” In this short passage Mary traverses the journey that we all make as we step out in faith to live out God’s love in the world.

First, Gabriel’s greeting: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you” What does it mean to be favored by God? Is this a good message?  Does it necessarily bring fear? The text simply says that Mary was perplexed by these words and pondered them.  What would it mean to you to be favored by God, to simply be favored.  In this busy time of preparation, what does it mean to be singled out?  When all of our thoughts and activities are centered on others, on buying presents, baking favorite cookies or candies, getting to holiday concerts, decorating our homes, what does it mean to be favored by God?  Do you ever think about that? Seriously?  I have to admit that it stopped me cold when I read this suggestion in one of the weekly text resources that I consult when preparing to preach.  Have I ever thought of myself as favored by God?  Our Scandinavian heritage tells us to deflect praise and compliments, so how could we ever stop and think that God favors us, individually?  This text tells us of a simple girl, a poor girl, who is visited by an angel and given that message.  There is nothing extravagant said about Mary, she is simply a young girl.  God comes to each of us, not in the shape of angels as the artists of the ages have pictured this event, but through messengers, the translation of the word angel, just the same. 

Today is Lille Juleaften, or little Christmas Eve.  I did not grow up with this idea, even though my heritage is Danish as well as Swedish.  But when I first learned of this idea, of noting that today, the 23^rd of December, is the Eve of Christmas Eve, I found it enticing.  In our home we have observed this day as a pause, as a time to take note of what is coming, a bump in the road over which we race towards Christmas,  a day to take note and leave the hurriedness behind.

On this next to last day of Advent, can we take the time to sit for a moment, and to reflect upon the things for which we give thanks?  Can we begin to contemplate the ways that God has favored us?  Can we believe that God truly has tasks for us to do, and promises to be with us through the accomplishment of those tasks?  Even if they seem to be impossible to us? Hail, O favored One! Listen to what God is doing with you.

Gabriel simply tells Mary what is going to happen. He does not ask her if she would like to do this, or if this seems like a good plan, Gabriel simply tells Mary what is going to happen to her.  And Mary’s response is “How can this be?”  This is impossible.  A natural response.  How many times do we read in scripture of the response of God’s people to announcements of God’s plans:  Sarah laughs, Moses says “Not me, Lord,” Zachariah is so full of unbelief that God doesn’t let him speak for nine months.  How do we respond when things just seem to be impossible? What is our first reaction when a request made of us is just too much, when we can’t see a way to accomplish it?  How do we do anything in the face of a world in pain? When prices keep rising, when health care doesn’t work, when people are homeless, when the disparity between the rich and the poor just seems to grow bigger and bigger? God tells Mary that God will be coming to earth, literally.  If we can accept that basic premise, then how can we say anything is impossible?  Faith draws us to belief, and the basic tenet of our belief is that God became incarnate and dwelled among us.  This is what we are celebrating Tuesday, the incarnation of God.  After that, what is impossible for God? Nothing, and that is hope!

Mary asked “how can this be?” and Gabriel responded, the Holy Spirit will be with you, and then told her that Elizabeth was expecting.  Gabriel said, in effect, God will be with you, and if you need assurance of this, here is proof….she who had given up hope of ever having a child is already six months pregnant!” We move from the stage of “this is impossible” to all things are possible for God, when we hear the stories of God’s work among us.

Last year Bishop Boerger shared his answer to the question:  “Where do you see hope”?  The answer was “I see hope where it has always been, between faith and love.”  This is what is happening in this text. After experiencing doubts and questioning the probability of the angel’s statement being true, Mary is given hope, she is told of another miracle of expected birth. Gabriel reminds her that nothing is impossible with God, and Mary remembers.  She remembers Hannah and the birth of Samuel, she remembers Sarah and Abraham, she remembers that God took a man who didn’t speak eloquently and turned Moses into a leader, Mary remembers the stories of her faith and of her community and Mary feels hope.  This hope, this response to faith, enables her to respond to God’s announcement to her with the prophet’s words: Here I am, the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.”

In this season of preparation for Christmas when it often seems that it is all we can do to get everything done, when our thoughts and activities seem to be more than we can possibly complete in the hours and days left, where do we see hope? Where do we see hope amidst the fear that is rampant in this day and age? Where do we see hope after reading of malnourished children in Chad whose parents take them to the local medicine man who pulls their teeth, rather than to the international aid clinics where doctors and nurses wait to help them?  Where do we find hope amidst the overwhelming stories of funerals in Newtown?

We find hope in the stories shared around the tables after church in the Augustana Room.  We find hope in the stories of our faith, in the things that we have done, in the promises of God.  We find hope as we gather together around this table and eat this bread and drink this wine.  When we do this, when we participate in this meal, we are in effect becoming like Mary.  Mary held the incarnate God within her body, and she sang a song of radical transformation, of God’s work in the world.  We eat this bread and drink this wine and we too hold God within our bodies.  Can we embrace this?  Can we be as Mary was and sing of the radical things that God has done?  Can we sing about and believe that God has already turned the world upside down?  Can we live with the reality that the promise of God’s presence with us has already been fulfilled and then step out into the world, filled with hope to live that presence into being?  Can we love the world, can we love those who seem unlovable, can we advocate for those who are left out? 

From faith to hope and out in love, that is the transforming journey to which we are called every day. God loves each one of us, we are all favored by God, and we are all called to do seemingly impossible tasks.  In the face of that, we are reminded of Emmanuel, that God is with us; we are reminded that we are filled with the Holy Spirit; just as Mary was. We are fed at this table, and then we are sent out, filled with the body and blood of Christ, transformed by this meal into Christ’s body, to be God’s love in this world. 

In this time of waiting, in this pause before the glory of Christmas, we remember that God is a God of action, that God is revealed not only in the still small voice, in the sleeping baby in a manger, but also in the tempest and the whirlwind, in the earthquake and in the thunder. God meets us quietly at this table, at that manger, and then sends us out, enlivened to do God’s work in this world, to shake it up, to scatter the proud and lift up the lowly, to stir in us love’s restlessness.

With God, nothing is impossible, let it be to us according to God’s word.  Amen.

 

Diaconal Travels

Sunday, June 24^th, 2012 - 12:10 pm

Gate S-8  Seattle – Tacoma International Airport

I am SO excited! I am waiting to board Delta Flight 232 to Amsterdam en route to Copenhagen! There I will meet up with 13 other members of the DIAKONIA World Federation Executive Committee for 6 days of meetings. I never thought I would get this chance as I am the alternate to our second delegate from my region.  However, Ingrit couldn’t make this meeting so voila! I am going!  Seven of us will meet up and stay tonight (well actually Monday night, for it will be Monday morning when I arrive in Denmark) in Copenhagen, then meet the remaining seven members of our group at the home of the Danish Deaconesses for lunch on Tuesday.  We will board the train after lunch and travel to Gilleleje where we will be guest of the deaconesses at their retreat center.

Six days of meeting, hearing stories of Diaconal work around the world, talking about common areas of interest in social justice, and planning for the next World Gathering to be held in Berlin in July of 2013.  I am hoping to be able to post some pictures and some reflections here each day to let you share some of these experiences.  For those of you who are members of diaconal communities, I am also hoping to entice some of you to begin thinking and planning on attending that World Gathering.  If you have never been to one, I promise it will transform your experience of this particular call to the Diaconate that we all share.

Next post: Copenhagen!

Lectio Divina on "Waiting, In-Between"

Dr. Mark L. Taylor, Director of Worship at the School of Theology and Ministry, offered this meditative reflection to our graduating students yesterday at our Liturgy of Celebration.  I found it very provocative, especially as I heard it not only in the context of the graduating students, but in my own congregational context of being in transition between pastors.  Aren't we all in places of "in-between" in our lives?  Enjoy the reflection.

Pondering what it means to Wait

Here we are amid one of the stranger weeks in the Western Christian year--between the Ascension of Jesus and Pentecost: after the risen Christ has departed and before the Holy Spirit has come newly clothed in wind and fire.  Time out of time, almost. But perhaps this week of waiting discloses something deeply true about the other fifty-one weeks in our year. I invite you to meditate a little on this in between time.

From the Acts of the Apostles:

After his passion, Jesus presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the reign of God. On one occasion, he told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of God. “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Do you find yourself in between and waiting this afternoon? How do you find yourself waiting and in between? I mean really, in the real stuff of your life? I think especially of you graduating students. For weeks now, we’ve been treating you as if you have already completed your education and formation. We celebrated you at a luncheon and now we bless you at this worship service. But you have not yet made all of those final presentations; not yet written and turned in those final papers; not yet seen those final grades. In between. Waiting.

From the Gospel of John:

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith in me as well. In God’s house there are many dwelling places; otherwise, how could I have told you that I was going to prepare a place for you? I am indeed going to prepare a place for you, and then I will come back to take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.

And I will ask Abba God to give you another Paraclete, another Helper, to be with you always—the Spirit of truth. You know the Spirit, because she abides with you, and she will be within you.

I will not leave you orphaned.

This much I have said to you while still with you; but the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom Abba God will send in my name, will instruct you in everything and she will remind you al all that I told you Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubles, and do not let them be afraid.

As you wait, in between, can you, dare you, acknowledge the loss, the change—the end of a particular kind of presence and intimacy and community?  And dare you, can you, hear the thin, barely audible promise in the air that a new mode of being and acting and relating lies on the horizon?

From the Letters of Paul, Peter and John:

“Not that I have already obtained this or already reached the goal; but I am running the race in order to grab hold of the prize, since Christ Jesus has grabbed hold of me.”

“What sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God. In accordance with God’s promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by God at peace.”

“My dear friends, now we are God children; it has not yet been revealed what we are to become. We know that when it comes to light, we will be like God, for we will see God as God really is.”

How do we live in between? How do we wait? What do we do after the old way has passed and before a new way has arrived? Well, we do, we work, we run, we get sweaty – physically and spiritually. And yet deeper, we are invited to let go, to receive. Like cold water on a feverish face, we are reminded that we do not have mission, a mission has us. The Holy One does not belong to any church or helping agency; rather our churches, our agencies belong to the Holy One. We don’t’ grab hold of Jesus, Jesus grabs hold of us. Waiting. In between. Already. Not Yet. Do and leave off doing. Give and receive. Exert yourself and relax.

~ A reflection given by Dr. Mark L. Taylor, at the Liturgy Celebrating the Graduating Students of the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University. May 22, 2012. The Chapel of St. Ignatius.