We are an interdenominational society for the moral and practical support of seminarians and others called to religious vocations but discouraged by their denominational authorities.
Welcome to the
And a young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp." And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, "My lord Moses, stop them!" But Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!"
Numbers 11:27-29.
"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: And Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
Luke 10:41-42.
Being called to serve is not limited to members of any one tradition. Discouraging and frustrating such calls is not limited to the authorities of any one denomination.
So far unincorporated, with just this web page. But we hope to gather information, meet, discuss, hold services, and move forward, as the way opens.
First we will exchange stories, gather statistics, and uncover facts about the exclusiveness of various denominations. This data should be useful in itself, especially to seminarians, and it may be comforting to many excluded persons to learn that they are not alone. Where possible, we will support people in opening up the attitudes and procedures of their denominations. Eventually we may ourselves ordain, to recognize the value of a seminary education, to make people eligible for chaplaincies, to qualify them to perform marriages, and to affirm the particular gifts and graces of each.
Few so far. We find most denominations very secretive about how their ordination processes play out in practice. Our impression is that most Protestant churches have a vocal minority, or more, sufficiently unhappy with trends among seminary graduates that they will discourage and inhibit their ordinations. The roots of this disatisfaction are seldom articulated clearly. It is impossible to tell how much is sincere theological conservatism, how much a reaction to the indisputable fact that bright young males are less likely to go to seminary than formerly, how much a yearning for miracle-workers who can assuage all problems of contemporary churches, and how much is due to other problems. But the results are clear: there is a growing alienation between active churches and the recent graduates from seminary.
A recent study in The United Methodist Church shows a dramatic decrease in the number of candidates starting the process leading toward ordination as an "elder in full connection." Thus a growing number of Methodist churches are served by a "local pastor," who is seldom a seminary graduate. The study, Statistical Trends in Pastoral Ministry 1981-2000, by Robert F. Kohler of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, 1001 Ninetenth Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee 37203, bkohler@gbhem.org, suggests that the length of time it takes to reach full ordination in the Methodist system, "in and of itself, has an effect on the candidate's willingness to persevere." National figures are not available, but G.T. Hunt has observed the Baltimore-Washington Conference for three years and has learned that rejections and postponements are as high as 40% in some years. Wesley Theological Seminary has done a study which lists the reasons given for rejection of 44 candidates in the UMC Central Pennsylvania Conference in the last few years, where the rejection rate may have been close to 50%.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Division for Ministry, 8765 West Higgins Road, Chicago, Illinois 60631, says it has only recently started gathering national statistics and does not yet have any to release. The ELCA report Ministry Needs and Resources in the Twenty-First Century (2000) reviews what is known now about the supply of new ELCA ministers.
The Missouri Synod Lutherans, meanwhile, were the subject of a Clergy Shortage Study (Smithville, Missouri: Missouri Growth Ministries, 1999), by Alan C. and Cheryl D. Klaas, which is unusually frank for a church document:
"There is a harshness that has crept into many of our congregations and a substantial portion of our clergy corps. This attitude is chewing up and spitting out wonderful people of God who have made incredible personal and familial sacrifices to engage in full-time work in God's kingdom here on earth."
The Presbyterian Church (USA) has nationally administered examinations to maintain objective standards of scholarship for its ministers. The examination questions are vetted to remove political issues or issues on which opinions may differ. Candidates' answers are identified only by anonymous numbers. Two graders see each paper and assign a grade from 0 to 5, with 3 through 5 passing. If there is disagreement about whether a paper passes, it goes to a third examiner. The national examining committee submits an annual report of the pass-fail rates each year to the General Assembly, which publishes it in its minutes. The report to the Presbyterian 2001 General Assembly reported failure rates as high as 40%.
But all this objectivity and candor is subordinate to the protection of subjectivity and secrecy. Passing the examinations does not lead automatically to ordination, only to a chance to appear before a presbytery. There are over a hundred presbyteries in the United States, and no nationally available figures are kept as to how many people are turned down by their presbytery. On the other hand, a presbytery may allow an alternative exam for someone who failed the national exam, and some presbyteries have a standing policy of doing so. No national figures are available on this practice either. So we know that a lot of energy goes into Presbyterian candidates taking exams, and being flunked about one-third of the time, but no one knows the real life impact of this on Presbyterian seminarians and on the denomination.
An open letter from about twenty presbyters appeared in the September 25, 2000, Presbyterian Outlook. Entitled "A Crisis in Leadership," the letter argues that Presbyterian committees are inclined to be too "nice" to candidates. At the same time, the letter complains that there is a shortage of Presbyterian ministers. The letter cites the failure rates for the national exams and suggests that they be broken down by seminary. The national committee has declined to do that.
The accrediting body, the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada, requires that seminaries "maintain ongoing evaluation to determine the extent to which the [M. Div.] degree program is meeting the needs of students and religious communities . . ." Standards, 5.2, vol. 32 Theological Education (Spring, 1996). We are trying to find out if any of these ongoing evaluations show anything as useful as actual success rates for seminary graduates seeking ordination or looking for work in ministry. We have sent inquiry letters to 43 seminaries since August 2001. 35 did not reply at all, and 4 have answered that they have no information about their graduates. Rochester Theological Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary answered that they have started following their students and will have results soon. Joan Wooters, Director of Placement at Eastern Baptist Seminary, told us that she kept detailed statistics from 1990 to 1994. She found 11 of 124 men (9%) and 14 of 92 women (15%) unplaced by the summer or fall of their graduating years. Baptist Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, reported that 81% of its 275 graduates are in ministry (155 with local congregations, including 66 serving as pastors) and only 14, or 5%, were still desiring and seeking ministry positions by November 2001. With these exceptions, seminaries seem to be in the dark about their graduates' subsequent careers.
Many denominations involve psychologists and psychometric testing in their selection process. Psychologists themselves are very cautious about such screening, and the practical results can be disastrous. John Fraunces, "Should Psychologists Choose Seminarians?" shows that conservative Catholics share some of our concerns.
Other Catholics, meanwhile, are laboring to bring about the ordination of women, despite the Pope's ban on discussion of the question. Contact The Women's Ordinations Conference and Fr. John Wijngaards.
"Rentapriest" offers ministry by Catholic priests who have been excluded from regular ministry for the offense of getting married.
Numerous groups are working to end the exclusion of gays and lesbians from ordination in various Protestant denominations. Soulforce is the most militant, using confrontational tactics such as picketing and sit-ins. The Lutheran Extraordinary Candidacy Project has gone beyond talk and protest and has ordained over two dozen persons in defiance of the ELCA ban. We assume that some of these groups will soon see that the exclusion of homosexuals is only part of a larger problem: the reluctance of many denominations to ordain anyone who does not fit their preconceived stereotype of the kind of person God ought to be calling. We would like to hear from any group thinking of ordaining not only homosexuals but also others who have been rejected for other political reasons.
World Christianship Ministries will ordain by mail.
The Pastor's Institute in Indianapolis has a ministry to ministers who have been kicked out by an unappreciative congregation, as so often happens.
For Rudyard Kipling's take on the story of Martha and Mary, see The Sons of Martha.
And if the Bard of Imperialism is too much for you, visit The Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua for lighter spiritual refreshment.
The convenor of the Wider Fellowship of Martha and Mary and Eldad and Medad
is Gaillard T. Hunt,
8909 Grant Street
Bethesda, Maryland 20817
301-530-2807; 301-564-6059
gthunt@mdo.net
Please call or email. We want to hear from all who have been excluded by church authorities. In unity there is strength!
(If you came into this site through http://eldadandmedad.org, your browser may continue to show that URL name in its location line even when you go on to other pages. To see accurate URL names, you may come in through http://www.gthunt.com/eldad1.htm.)