VALUING THE VOCATION OF LAY MINISTERS

This was originally published on Covenant from The Living Church.

I was asked whether I thought I would be a priest in the Episcopal Church when I was fifteen years old. This was the first time I was on the receiving end of an inquiry about priestly call and vocation–but it certainly would not be the last. I now work as a lay minister in a congregation and have been employed by the church my entire professional career. Today I am equipped with language and ideas that I did not have as a teenager – I am called to ministry through my baptism. I am called to work in the Episcopal Church as a lay professional. I do not feel called to priestly orders and have articulated this in every realm of interaction that I have with the church. And yet, at least once a week I am asked: “When will you be ordained?”