POTOMAC ASSOCIATION UCC Ministry Institute February 2, 2008 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
NOTE THE CHANGE IN LOCATION!
Location: Cleveland Park United Church of Christ 3400 Lowell Street NW Washington, DC 20016
Bring a lunch or snack, we will take very short breaks
This Institute is part of a sequence of four Institutes that will be offered each year in History, Polity, Theology and Ministry of the UCC by the Potomac Association, following the guidelines prepared by History, Theology and Polity teachers on the essentials of a basic one semester course. (see the Essentials list by clicking on UCC Institutes at right). They will normally meet from 10 am to 4 pm on a Saturday, with the exception of the Polity Institute which will meet on Friday from 10 am to 4 pm and require Saturday attendance at the CAC Annual meeting at the University of Delaware. The Institute format is designed to serve the needs of persons who cannot enroll in a regular semester length seminary course to cover this material.
Participants may start the cycle of four Institutes at any point in the cycle.
If a person needs formal evaluation in order to gain privilege of call or ordination, s/he is expected to do the reading and other types of assignments before coming to the Institute (resources posted here). Observer participants (those not seeking evaluation) are strongly encouraged to do the advanced reading and assignments.
Required reading assignments may be downloaded from this website or from other websites on the worldwide web. In some cases practical field assignments are assigned before the Institute. These UCC Institutes are enrichment opportunities for all members of the UCC who want to learn more about the history, polity, theology and ministry of the UCC.
INSTRUCTORS:
Jonathan L. Heaslet, Senior Pastor, St. John's United Church of Christ, Richmond, VA
Gloria Van Houten, Pastor and Teacher, St. John's UCC Women's Group, Richmond and Christian Educator, Second Presbyterian Church, Richmond
Goals for the Ministry Institute: (from the Essentials document) Ministry
* Forms of ministry?licensed, commissioned, ordained; ministerial partners (CC/DoC); emerging patterns for authorized ministry; ministry of all the baptized * Structures and patterns of accountability?i.e., ordination, standing, discipline * Ministerial ethics (Ordained Minister's Code, in MOM; other ethics documents) * Understandings of ministry in the UCC: "embodiment" and "empowerment" models
BEFORE YOU DO ANY OF THE ASSIGNMENTS PLEASE WRITE (no more than one single spaced page) answering the question: If the 16th century Reformation rejected the clericalism of the medieval church by upholding the "priesthood of all believers" why do Protestants still have clergy?
INTERVIEW (by phone or in person) an ordained UCC clergyman/woman and ask them the same question. Continue your conversation asking them to tell you what ordination, or authorization for ministry in the UCC means to them? How do they understand ministerial authority? Where do they get it and how do they lose it?
BRIEFLY ASK three people under the age of 30 (churched or unchurched) what they think about clergy. Do they trust them? Do they think clergy are important? Could they imagine being clergy themselves? Why? Why not?
READ Steckel "Ordination in the UCC: Biblical Foundations and Traditions" (1987) LTH VII:44 Steckel on Ordination
READ Steckel "Authorizing Ministry in the UCC: Sloughing Towards Order" (1996) Steckel Sloughing
READ Zikmund Empowerment and Embodiment: Understandings of Ministry in the UCC" in Johnson, Daniel and Charles Hambrick-Stowe, eds. Theology and Identity
READ "Ordination," "Ministry," "Pastor" and "Power and Authority" in the UCC Leader's Box. Go to http://www.ucc.org/ministers/leaders-box/ Consult the "Perspectives" drop down menu to find these entries (and others)
SUMMARY OF PRE-INSTITUTE ASSIGNMENTS: 1. WRITE A PAGE about why you think Protestants still have clergy. 2. INTERVIEW an ordained UCC person. 3. ASK three people under 30 years of age what they think of clergy and why. 4. READ various understandings of ministry/ordination in the UCC. 5. READ the procedures and ethics of ministry in the Manual on Ministry 6. VISIT the UCC website dealing with the search and call process/profiles. 7. REVIEW the Orders of Service for Ordination and Installation. 8. READ the debates about UCC ministry that emerge because of Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Ministry Issues Pronouncement passed at GS25.
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