Scott AndersonI think it is fair to say that if you are reading this you have in one way or another supported this long Doctor of Ministry process I’ve been engaged in since Fall 2009. You’ve provided financial support; you’ve asked questions and demonstrated your curiosity; you’ve been gracious and even picked up the slack when my time has been divided and stretched; you’ve sent me on a sabbatical to read and reflect; you’ve provided specific support based on specific expertise; you’ve preached and taught and encouraged and connected with others in my place; you’ve encouraged me and challenged me and given me much to think about. Assuming a successful defense of my project, I will still have three more classes, spread out over the next academic year before graduation in 2017. This Wednesday, March 2nd, I’ll present my doctoral project, and I’d love for you to join me! The title is a long one: “Ordination: A Delphi Study Examining Understandings of Pastoral Ministry in the Seattle Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church, USA.” I’ll take about 45 minutes at the beginning to present the project with another 15 minutes or so of questions, followed by a break during which I’ll meet privately with my project committee. If all goes well, we’ll know soon after if I’ve passed that portion. We should be done by 3:00 pm or soon after. The Details: Wednesday, March 2, 2016, 1:30-3:00 pm. Hunthausen 100 on the Seattle University Campus Off street parking is often available in the parking lot off 12th avenue and E Marion Street, although it can sometimes fill up. The cost for parking would be about $10, or a little less for on-street parking nearby (2 hour max). Carpooling is encouraged!
If you can’t make it, don’t worry. If there is enough interest, I suspect I’ll present the project again at St. Andrew. I'd love to share it with you. Grace & Peace, Scott
0 Comments
Scott AndersonIt’s one of my eternal moments. Perhaps you have them too, those memories that live through the years. October 1987. I’m in Old Testament Survey in a second floor classroom of Peterson Hall facing SPU’s Tiffany Loop. The late Steve Hayner, then a VP at SPU and pastor at University Presbyterian Church (later of Intervarsity and Columbia Seminary) is unpacking the narrative of God’s covenant with Abram in Genesis 15:
[God] said to [Abram], “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other…” If you knew Steve, you are familiar with the ever-present, deeply dimpled smile that was a constant feature. And he is wearing this smile as he acts out the grisly narrative in the front of the classroom: “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. Steve, his arm around an imaginary companion, walks through the imaginary pathway created by the imagined severed sacrifices, one half of each unfortunate creature on one side, the other halves on the other. Steve explains this was a customary way in which two parties in the Ancient Near East made a contract—sealing their agreement by walking together through the path of sacrifices, arms draped over the other’s shoulder, eyes locked, close enough they can smell the breath of the other, that dazzling Steve Hayner smile (I imagine) directed at the counterpart to the agreement, the implicit message: “You see these animals? So shall it be with you if you break our agreement.” And then Steve drops the conceptual bomb that lives with me still: Scott Anderson In recent years we’ve gone multi-media. By that I mean that at our annual congregational meeting we’ve turned to pictures to remember much of our story understanding that the gospel is told in life better than on paper. What we see with our eyes (and this year, heard with our ears too—thanks for the live music, Eric Weber!), do much more to evoke who and what we are becoming.
I suppose that has something to do with a needed adjustment after so many centuries of being so word oriented as a people of “the Book.” We are learning once again that the Word is incarnate—alive, dynamic, embodied in a way that so many words (so many words!) don’t do justice. So, if you haven’t seen it, or perhaps just to see again, I hope you’ll take a little time to view the slide shows we’ve put together over the past five years to remember some pretty astonishing “actors” and evocations of even more astonishing acts of kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and many more virtues of a “Spirited” community walking the way of Jesus: http://www.standrewpc.org/media.html. "I didn’t want to write the sad story, although I didn’t want to write the sunny one either. The one about recovery, about happy endings. I wanted to write both. And once I figured that out, well. As I say, here we are. It wasn’t that hard. I wanted to tell a story. A true one, with all sorts of darkness and danger, and a resolution that justifies my doctor’s advice: Seek out joy. Even when the woods are scary, and bears and tigers lurk, and your worst demons track your footsteps, leading you away from the trail that takes you back to where you should have been, always. I wanted to write all of this, the dark forest and the bright light, the fear and the joy. I wanted to write a fairy tale, I think. So I did. It has a happy ending." ...so begins Learning to Walk the newest work from local author Chuck Sigars, a story of working through frightening times to be surprised by grace. "Grace," he explains, is "so mysterious and hard to define sometimes and often so far away...but which in certain situations will suddenly without explanation land at your feet." Come on March 22 and be graced by Chuck's story and storytelling. Admission free. Books will be available for purchase with all proceeds supporting the work of REACH - thanks Chuck! A REACH Special Event: An Evening with Chuck Sigars March 22 6pm - 7pm St. Andrew Presbyterian Church Scott Anderson As I remember it, back in the spring of 2007, Lisa Phillips was the one who first mentioned Maggie as a candidate for the newly created youth director position at St. Andrew. The idea seemed like a fine one to me. The interview team agreed. She had already been engaged in a growing leadership role. She had ben a Deacon. With young kids, she was already attuned to their world, questions, and needs. As they say, one thing led to another. Most of you have walked this story with Maggie and with St. Andrew as she has walked alongside our kids and invited us to do the same, as she had integrated them deeply into our life together, as she has taken on not only a greater leadership role in our midst, but in the larger Renton community in our service to others. You’ve supported her as she discerned a growing call to ministry and headed to seminary. You’ve celebrated with her as she was named a Renton Citizen of the Year. You’ve prayed for her as she traveled to South Korea with the World Council of Churches. By Maggie BreenThis assembly has seen the introduction of a new statement concerning mission and evangelism. There seems to be something of a struggle within the Christian world, at least as it is presented here in Busan, between interpretations of mission and evangelism. There is a powerful interpretation that seems more focused on the idea of taking God to those who do not yet know Christ, while the other talks more overtly about uncovering where God is already at work and joining in. The conversations are more complex than I have presented here and it is exciting, although sometimes difficult, to be part of the struggle to uncover the meaning in what others say, the values they hold and the spaces where there are intersections. Seems to me that as difficult as this can be it is the only way to community and shared witness. By Maggie BreenI have been in Korea for 10 days now, gathered with students and young pastors from 60 different countries. We have spent much of the first half of this gathering listening to the stories of this country. We are in a beautiful and complex land, one that has over the last century been colonized by outside forces and whose people have been under the power of external and internal oppressors. Yet those we have met remain a beautiful and generous people - eager to share their stories and find peace. by Scott AndersonAnd will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” –Luke 18:7-8 You must be the change you wish to see in the world. –Mahatma Gandhi I want to thank all of you who responded in some way to the space for reflection and response in worship on October 20th. For those of you who were not there, we were reflecting on the invitation of the parable of the persistent widow at the beginning of Luke 18.
We encountered the gospel’s invitation to a kind of hope that keeps us engaged in the life of the world, even when our contribution seems to make little difference. We encountered in the text a God of justice, peace, and love, who, like the persistent widow, keeps knocking at the doors of our hearts, so that we might be the change we wish to see in the world. By Maggie BreenIt was opening day today of the 10th assembly of the World Council of Churches in Busan, Korea. Delegates from 345 member churches together with ecumenical partners gather at this, the highest decision-making body of the World Council. Around 5,000 filled the worship space today and worshiped together the One who unites us. We heard the confession of each continent. From North America:
By Maggie BreenIt's a Greek word (pronounced oy-koo-men-ay) and it's part of the vocabulary around here. This theological institute I get to be a part of is made up of 220 students and faculty from every continent and a myriad of denominations who have come together in the name of oikoumene. Oikoumene means the whole household of God and it brings with it a claim that we are one -- that we belong to each other because of who we are as God's own. On our first day of worship together our preacher told us that while oikoumene is a reality -- we belong to each other just because of who God is -- and while it is a given, a gift, it is also, however, a call. He reminded us that so much of what we do does not embody this unity that is a gift of God and that we are called to find ways to live as a people of diverse and rich gifts and also united. What caught me especially was his claim that oikoumene is impossible without friendship and personal relationship. |
Archives
June 2022
Categories
All
|