Ordination Charge
for Revd William Pickett
delivered by Revd Professor Bill Loader at the Armadale Uniting Church
23rd October, 2004
Kaya ngun, kaya morrt, ngan querrt jurrip jurrip
Yes, my brother, my family, my heart is happy now to be here.
William
It is with great joy that we celebrate your ordination as a Minister of the Word in the Uniting Church in Australia and in the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress.
By this act the Church has placed you in a succession of men and women called to a special task and to exercise a special ministry.
All who follow the way of Jesus follow the way of ministry as they express God’s love through their lives to others.
Your special ministry is to help them do so, to equip them, to support them, to lead them.
You walk in the footsteps of the one God
who knew this ancient land from its beginnings,
who swept as the wind across its vast expanses,
who moved like the water in secret places and great lakes and rivers to give life and refreshing,
who opened new possibilities for growth and beauty like the emerging of the wildflowers,
who celebrated resurrection in new green shoots from the burning.
The one God of this land and its ancient peoples is the one God whom we acknowledge in Jesus Christ,
the one love which creates and liberates and sustains,
the one hope for justice and peace among all peoples.
This one God cannot be reduced to the idols of human foolishness or even human wisdom.
To walk with this one God is not to emulate Americans or British or Europeans or any one people or culture.
Beware of the idolatry that would betray your people and the one God who is also the God of your ancient people.
Stand firm as the balga greets the wind.
Let your roots feed deeply in the soil
which finds its strength in Christ and the witness to him in the scriptures,
enriched by the memories and stories of this land.
There will be moments of fear and burning
when your spirit will need to cherish the secret hope of renewal deep within.
Then from the ashes you will surprise the world with new green
and raise a mast of new beginnings, a thousand tiny flowers to declare hope.
Ordination is not the end of the road
nor the sanction to go off and do your own thing.
It is about order.
It is about all of us.
It is about belonging.
It is about discipline.
It is about seeking and finding one’s place within the miracle
that is God’s plan to engage frail humanity in bringing about
change and hope.
You’re going to need the banksias, the eucalypts, the kennedias, the acacias,
the kangaroo paws and the rest.
You’ll need the bugs and the beetles, the bees and native wasps,
and you’ll have to put up with the flies and mosquitoes.
The church is a mixed ecology.
The church has its galahs and its twenty eights,
Its corellas and black cockatoos, its magpies and crows,
its honey eaters and tiny blue wrens.
It is a wonderful world of strength and fragility.
It needs a lot of love and patience.
It will need you to be you, to keep going, to keep growing,
to keep believing in hope and justice.
William
We have not ordained you to be a caring person; you are already called to that;
We have not ordained you to serve the Church in committees, planning activities, and organisation; that is already implied in your membership;
We have not ordained you to become involved in issues of justice and peace, in the struggle, personal, social, political, against all forms of oppression and idolatry; for that is laid upon every Christian.
We have ordained you to something smaller and less spectacular:
to read and interpret those sacred stories of our community so that they speak the Word to people today;
to remember and practice those rituals and rites of meaning which in their poetry address people at the level where change operates;
to foster in community through Word and Sacrament and pastoral care that encounter with truth which will set people free to minister as the body of Christ.
We have ordained you to the Ministry of the Word. Amen.