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2007-09-04 issue:

A unity that accepts our differences

A Grace and Truth column

by Ron W. Adams

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I have been thinking about ordination. While ordination is something the rest of the church takes for granted, in Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite Conference, it’s still a topic of debate.



Some of us believe ordination ought to be granted equally to women and men. Some believe it ought to be reserved for men. Some wonder why we ordain anybody.

Some use Luther’s language of the “priesthood of all believers” to argue against ordination. Some reply that we’re not Lutherans and that ordination was practiced by most streams of Anabaptism from their beginnings. Some wonder why we don’t all just give up on the quest for ecclesial approval. Some wonder why ordination seemed like a perfectly fine idea until women began seeking it.

Some argue that there is no New Testament basis for ordination. Some respond that there is also no New Testament basis for denominations, seminaries or mission boards. Some believe that if we cannot find it in the Scriptures we ought to forget it. Some believe there are other sources of authority to consider when talking of ordination.

I believe the following:

• God gifts and calls women and men to be ministers to the church.

• The church ought not get between the one gifted and her ability to exercise those gifts.

• The church ought to affirm the gifts of women in the same way as men, by ordination.

• We have a missional obligation to encourage, affirm and celebrate the pastoral gifts of women.

• The future of our congregation, our conference and our denomination depends on fulfilling that obligation.

My beliefs place me at odds with my “conservative” sisters and brothers, who believe that pastoral ministry belongs to men. They place me at odds with my “progressive” sisters and brothers, who view ordination as just another form of the power that corrupts. And they put me at odds with sisters and brothers who think the issue is a distraction from the true work of the church.

What does it mean to be a people when what seems most clearly to define us are our disagreements? It’s easy to say, let’s put them aside and focus on Jesus. But often the source of those disagreements is precisely our understanding of who Jesus is and what he is calling us to become.

Rather than insisting we keep our opinions to ourselves and behave only in prescribed ways in order to get along, what if instead we celebrated our many ways of understanding Jesus?
Admittedly this takes a level of tolerance and trust that seems beyond most of us. But we’re Mennonites. Aren’t we all about the hard work of faithfulness?

Jesus told us to love one another and so reveal him to the world. Too often we take that to mean putting our convictions under a bushel for the sake of a fraudulent unity, one that mistakes silence for humility, fear for wisdom and coercion for love. The world has seen enough of that kind of unity.

What it rarely sees is a unity that insists we all need not be quiet and sit on our opinions, that sees faithfulness to Christ as coming in many forms, that is found not only in our ability to be generous and merciful toward one another but is found also in our vigorous disagreements and our diverse expressions of faithfulness, that celebrates the varied activities among faithful, imperfect people.

If nothing else, working toward such unity will make us a more interesting people, a people that genuinely has something to say about Christian love, the kind of people I hope someday to be part of, differences and all.

Ron W. Adams is pastor at East Chestnut Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pa.

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