Ministry Matters

Here at St. Alban’s, we are blessed with a vibrant community of lay ministers who are actively engaged in listening for ways God is calling us to serve. From time to time, a lay minister will experience a sense of being called into a particular form of ordained ministry. Over the years, we have supported and nurtured a number of both parishioners and college students who have entered into the work of this kind of faithful discernment.

Recently, a beloved member of our parish, Allison Kratt, has embarked on a journey of exploring a possible call to serve as a deacon, and the Diocese has asked her to share the following message with all of us at this stage of her discernment process. Please read Allison’s letter and join me in praying for her and giving thanks for what God is up to in her life.

An Update from Allison:

Dear St. Alban’s Family,

I have always thought that neighbors are the friends God meant for you to have. In that same vein, I have also surmised that church is the family God meant for you to have (without the crazy of the biological one!). Over the past seven years, my faith has deepened in many challenging and beautiful ways as I have walked the spiritual journey alongside my St. Alban’s family.

As a result of this blessing and a lifetime of trying to hear God’s call amongst the noise of daily living, I have entered the process of discerning a call to the ministry of deacon. This is a three-year period of diving deep into the ministry of Jesus and the church, and a conscious way of listening to God’s desire for me.

The first part of this process is an internship at a church other than the sponsoring parish. As such, I will be attending St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in downtown Charlotte and volunteering with Galilee Ministries through Epiphany. You will still see me at Summit Coffee, working in my garden, and being dragged down Main Street by my dogs. However, I will not be at St. Alban’s for the remainder of the year.

Discernment takes place in community. You are my community, my family in which I have been loved and lifted up in many beautiful ways. My encounters with Jesus have been through you. Church attendance aside, you remain my family and I will continue to be amongst you just not in the pew. Please pray alongside me during this time – for my ability to listen and not fix, to experience connection above and beyond physical tasks, to experience a new and different way of sharing the gospel, and to hear God’s will for me.

I am richly blessed and so incredibly grateful for this family!

With much love and a big hug,

Allison Kratt

In other news related to ministry, I hope you saw the exciting announcement from this past week that a new Archbishop of Canterbury has been named, following Justin Welby’s resignation last year.

London Bishop Sarah Mullally has been chosen as the next archbishop of Canterbury, becoming the first woman to serve in the historic leadership role for both the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion.

As members of the Anglican Communion, we Episcopalians are connected to a vast global network of churches that also have historic ties to the Church of England. We may speak different languages and live very different lives, but we are connected by our faith, our traditions, and the sacraments. This news, therefore, stirs within me a great deal of joy and hope for the future of Anglicanism and Christianity as a whole.

Below you will find excerpts of the message shared by the archbishop-elect shortly after the announcement was made. I commend her words to you.

Yours in Christ,

Carmen

From The Right Reverend Sarah Mullally:

Today, as I respond to the call of Christ in this new ministry, I remain rooted in my first calling: to follow Christ, to know him – and to make him known to the world.

Washing feet has shaped my Christian vocation as a nurse, then a priest, then a bishop. In the apparent chaos which surrounds us, in the midst of such profound global uncertainty, the possibility of healing lies in acts of kindness and love.

With humility and grace, we uphold and support those in need of our help. We do this to the best of our ability, in small ways and big, according to our own very particular gifts. That too is the service which I offer to the church today.

In an age that craves certainty and tribalism, Anglicanism offers something quieter but stronger: shared history, held in tension, shaped by prayer, and lit from within by the glory of Christ. That is what gives me hope. In our fractured and hurting world, that partnership in the Gospel could not be more vital.

Hope is made of the infinite love of God, who breathed life into creation and said it was good. Hope shimmered in the courage of Abraham and Sarah and the challenging call of the prophets. Hope resounded through Mary’s “yes” to God’s call to bear his Son. Hope is found in Christ’s triumph over sin and death.

Hope doesn’t skip over grief, pain and messiness of life but enters into it, and tenderly tells us that God is with us.

Our ministry, our ministry as Christians is always shared. The proverb tells us if we want to go fast, go alone, but if we want to go far, go together.

I’m told that there will be much talk today of this being an historic moment – and a joyous one for many. I share with you in that joy – not for myself, but for a church that listens to the calling of God and says: yes, we will follow you.

Some will be asking what it means for a woman to lead the Church of England, and to take on the archbishop of Canterbury’s global role in the Anglican Communion. I intend be a shepherd who enables everyone’s ministry and vocation to flourish, whatever our tradition.

Today I give thanks for all the women and men – lay and ordained; deacons, priests and bishops – who have paved the way for this moment. And to all the women who have gone before me, thank you for your support and your inspiration.

I was recently asked, if I was called to this role what would my legacy be. I said that I would want to nurture and cultivate confidence in the Gospel – both within individuals and across churches, in the Church of England and in the wider Anglican Communion.

I humbly offer myself, and the gifts and experience that God has given me, in service to God’s world and God’s church.

I will not always get things right. But I am encouraged by the psalmist who tells us that, “Though you stumble you shall not fall headlong, for the Lord holds you fast by the hand.”

I trust in the truth of those words for me, for you, for the Church of England, for the nation, for the Anglican Communion and for the world. Held fast by the Lord’s hand, please pray for me as I will pray for you.