My 12 Year Anniversary

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Twelve years ago, I was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church, in Cypress, Texas, outside of Houston. I grew up in the Episcopal Church and about the time I got my driver's license I was talking with a friend about becoming a priest. From there, there was a lot of testing, questioning, wondering, and the way kept opening through college, after I graduated and worked as a youth minister in downtown Houston, and through three years of seminary, and many discernment meetings throughout; what I sensed in me as a call to priesthood was continually affirmed by my church community, so on January 6, 2007, I was ordained.  The ordination service in our Book of Common Prayer, reads that I am "to work as a pastor, priest, and teacher, together with [my] bishop and fellow presbyters, and to take my share in the councils of the Church...to proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to fashion [my] life in accordance with its precepts...to love and serve the people among whom [I] work, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor...to preach, to declare God's forgiveness to penitent sinners, to pronounce God's blessing, to share in the administration of Holy Baptism and in the celebration of the mysteries of Christ's Body and Blood, and to perform the other ministrations entrusted to [me.]" I especially love that last line; the "other" category is so important. I guess hurricane recovery fits right in there, along with a lot of other things they dare not disclose to new seminarians. 
It's been a rich 12 years, half of which I've spent in Port Aransas, with many more to come, God willing. Although I was ordained 12 years, ago, becoming a priest (pastor, presbyter, teacher, preacher...) was and is a growth process. I've been becoming a priest through experience, failures, learnings, and just showing up again and again. I've considered jumping ship a few times to do something else (not recently), but what I fantasize doing always ends up looking a lot like what I do now as a priest.

I get the great privilege of gathering community to be intentional about how we live life in relationship to the great mystery we call God. I get to reflect on these sacred stories (many of them challenging to my worldview) of how God keeps showing up through the ages, ultimately for the church in Jesus Christ who continues to transform the world. I get to know people; to be with them in the highs and lows of life. I get to wonder where God is at work in the midst of our lives, and try to draw attention to that work. 
Twelve is a holy number in scripture and beyond. As I mark this particular anniversary, I am full of gratitude to be here in Port Aransas, and at Trinity by the Sea. I am grateful that God called me to this ministry, and that I get to continue to live out my priesthood among you. I couldn't have imagined these first 12 years, and I can't imagine what the next 12 will be like; I look forward to them with great hope!

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