A reflection by Eric Massanari, PNMC Executive Conference Minister

In A Shared Understanding of Ministerial Leadership, our Mennonite Church USA polity statement on ministerial credentialing and leadership, ordination is described as "a long-term, leadership-ministry credential granted by the church. Ordination is the appropriate credential for all pastors, area conference ministry staff, chaplains, missionaries, evangelists, those serving as the national-office ministers, and those determined by the church to have a continuing ministerial-leadership role in, and on behalf of, the church." 

Ordination typically follows a two-year period of licensure, during which time an individual's fitness and readiness for longer-term ministerial leadership is assessed within the life of the community of faith. In our Anabaptist lineage of Christian faith, the community is an integral part of the call and the credentialing of ministry leaders. As it is stated in the Shared Understanding document: "A person's call to ministry occurs within the body life of the church. A person does not appoint him- or herself to the ministry--one is chosen by the church. By affirming a person's strengths and gifts, the congregation confirms the person's inner call to ministry."  In other words, while ordination suggests a setting apart of certain persons into ministerial leadership roles, this setting apart is always rooted and grounded in the Body of Christ, the church.

I find it particularly meaningful that ordination shares the same root as the word ordinary. Both come from the Latin, ordinare, which literally means “to set in order.” Ordination is a commitment to the path of becoming, with God’s help, one's most “ordinary” and real self as a ministering person. It means humbly and courageously accepting the gift of being simple, free and “coming down where we ought to be,” as the old Shaker song goes. It means accepting God’s call to a path of seeing, naming and evoking that same holy ordinariness at the heart of each person one serves in ministry, and at the heart of each moment one lives in the messy beauty and brokenness of life. Ordination means allowing one's life to become a proclamation and a magnifier of the great Love of God, so fully embodied and revealed in Christ, that is the source and ground of all. Ordination is always communal in its expression and action.

To become ordained for ministry is not a call to be or become an extraordinary or particularly holy variety of human being. Rather, ordination is a path that seeks to embody and proclaim the truth that to be human is already something quite extraordinary and holy. 

In April 2024, PMC hosted a Seed(ling) Exchange Party & Fundraiser to raise awareness about and support the CDDD's Maya-Mennonite Solidarity Working Group. We had a great time celebrating the growth of seeds and raised $866 to support the group to travel to Mexico to meet with their partners there. You can read more and see some pictures in our blog about the event.

The Maya-Mennonite Working Group send us a thank you and report from their trip in May: "Dear friends, family and supporters, We'd like to share our gratitude with you all for your support of our delegation through the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery (CDDD) to the Colectivo In Laak Le Ixiimo (CILLI) in the Chenes region of southern Mexico for their annual seed festival. Follow the link below for a summary of our delegation with some of our reflections and photos from our time. We thank you for being part of our sending network that made this delegation and further relationship-building possible!  With gratitude ~ Katerina Gea, on behalf of Anika Reynar, Celeste Sharp, Hallie Liu Rogers, Lars Åkerson, Steve Pavey and Tina Kehler."

This is an update on the Stephen Ministry from the Stephen Ministry Discernment Group. With the feedback received from former Stephen Ministers & Leaders, our discernment group discussions, and in connection with PMC staff and the Table, we've come to a decision. 

The basics are that the group recommends closing the Stephen Ministry program.
We affirmed that the program has been wonderful in many ways and a gift to the congregation, but that we are unable to continue it. The main reason for closing is that we do not have the volunteer capacity to meet the high time and administrative demands of this program.

To be clear, PMC will still have many types of congregational & pastoral care available for those who need it. We have worked to build up some of our other care options and will continue to find ways to fill any gaps that we find.

This recommendation has been affirmed by the Table. In the future, we hope to do some more assessment of needs in the congregation and work at finding ways to meet those needs that fit our volunteer capacity –  hopefully this can begin during our pastoral transition process and then with the help of our new Lead Pastor.

​If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact Pastor Kristen or anyone in the SM Discernment Group (Joleen Jensen-Classen, Harold Nussbaum, Karen Hartmann, LaVonne Blowers, and Susan Lanford).

​A SENDING BOX is my title for this art object. I was commissioned to create the interior of a kind of small treasure chest to be a farewell gift for Rod, the dearly beloved retiring pastor of my faith community. Over the past 25 years Rod has finished innumerable services with a "SENDING": a benediction that ends the gathering and sends us forth reflective, grateful, inspired. Today was our chance to return the favor and send him off into the next chapter of his life. Jonathan (Jonathan A. Nussbaum - Furniture Maker) milled the wood and Bruce Kuhns (all around great guy) built the box. Everyone else was invited to bring cards to fill the box. The three of us creators then presented it to Rod, a special occasion for which I'm honored to have played a part.

It's very close to the five-year mark since I retired from TriMet. And it's two years since the commission of the "!00 Year Collage", so I felt echoes of these as I worked on the box. Like the big collage two years ago, I recycled old bulletins and stamps, adding other material and lots of colored pencil. The title for that art update was "Fresh Fruit Imagery". For the Sending Box I imagined the "fruits of the spirit" given a physicality of maybe mango, peach and Oregon strawberry (with a hint of milk and honey). Sometimes it helps me to take the word of God/Rod from "pie in the sky" down to a pie with a flakey crust I can actually taste and savor. Or if it's art, let it be something that whets the appetite, stirs a longing and begins to quench an inner thirst. 

Thanks & Cheers to Rod, 
And may the rest of you also be sent forth with all goodness,
Love - Always,
Tim TK Klassen

On June 13th PMC sponsored an evening at Nightstrike under the Burnside Bridge. Night Strike is a community gathering that mobilizes volunteers/services, meets felt needs, and develops relationships that transform lives. It is an opportunity for members of Portland’s homeless community to hang out, enjoy a hot meal, receive a free haircut or shave, have their feet washed and have their old shoes/clothes/sleeping bags replaced. Contact info for future Nightstrike events can be found HERE.