Each New Year includes a service of installation for elders and deacons a celebration which promises new beginnings for those who feel called by God to be leaders in the church. What a moving experience to see so many from the congregation gathered in the chancel, connected to one another, hand in hand - generation to generation! Dozens of ordained men and women - black and white, young and old, short and tall, redheads and brunettes, father and son, sister and aunt.
This wonderful service also brings me some sadness, knowing how many of our brothers and sisters we prevent from publicly professing and affirming their calling from God because of their love for another man or woman. The Presbyterian Church prohibits many of us, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, parents and grandparents, from being ordained to serve communion, to help feed the hungry as Deacons, to contribute to decision making at Session meetings, or to assist in baptizing our nieces and nephews.
I believe that as God celebrates our ordinations and installations each January, God weeps that we Presbyterians prevent so many from accepting their calling to serve their Church. If God weeps long enough, maybe we'll listen. In the meantime, I pray that God will continue to help us to recognize that the only thing we have in common is our uniqueness of being perfectly and wonderfully made, just as we are, by our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.
May we one day be strong enough and faithful enough to be a truly inclusive Church - not just in word - but in deed and in truth, too. Amen.
Tom Trenney
Note: The anthem, "Faithful God," was commissioned for the celebration of Tom Trenney's five years of music ministry with the loving community of First Presbyterian Church.
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