Ordination Charge
for Revd Joyce Wilkins
delivered by Revd Dr Bill Loader at Cannington Uniting Church, 9 February, 1994
Joyce,
You are a pioneer. You will lead the Uniting Church into new territory. You belong to the new deacons, an ancient order renewed, the new pioneers. The land you open up is already crisscrossed by tracks. You will preach; others have preached before you. You will celebrate the sacraments; others have done so. You will care for the sick and the dying. That is a welt worn path of path of service. You will pray and lead in prayer; you will exhort us to lift our eyes to see human need, to open our ears to hear human cries; you will take us by the hand and join our hands to the hands of others.
The dance of ministry is familiar, the steps well known, the rhythm old, but ever new. Yet you will bring new patterns and movements. The celebration of care in ministry will find new form in what you do. You will teach us new motions. Your steps will take us close to the edge and from the edge you will call to us. Behind us will he the word proclaimed in the Christian community, the Ministry of the Word; before us will he the invitations from the midst of brokenness, the articulations of the Ministry of Deacon. You will call and we will dance, children of the market place.
Cry so that we can hear you! Let your voice be heard above the busy shuffling of our ways! Teach us new ways and how to tread the old steps with new vigour! We all know about caring and know nothing. We all know about justice and know nothing. We all know about wisdom and are foolish. We are not ordaining you to a solo act of personal goodness. Yours is an order, a way of being in community, a way of being for community, a way of leading the company in the dance. Some of us need more than heroes do it for us. You must drag us up onto the stage, direct us, show us the way and tell us why. The scriptures and the stories written on the minds and bodies of human beings are your score. You are our choreographer.
Off stage it will sometimes he lonely. Some will expect you to follow only the tracks that crisscross the land. Those paths are well formed and the grooves deep enough to tip off balance as you ride across them. You will need to form your own map on bthe landscape, write with your finger in the dust. Let prayer etch for you new possibilities. The pioneering spirit is fed by dreaming and by sacrament, by holy dances.
Joyce, take us out, lead us on, show us how;
minister and in ministering,
minister to us all,
open up new territory and let us see our land in a new way.
We rejoice with you, Joyce, deacon, minister, servant, leader of the dance.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen