“Baptismal ministry is to embrace the world of the baptized.”
Rev. Dr. Stephen Bouman, 2019 SCSW LEAD Keynote Address
My experience of ministry has had a baptismal shape to it. Not only have I been called to baptize, but the experience is a kind of dying and rising in itself.
For this reason, I’ve been thinking about this line from Stephen Bouman’s address since my last Sunday as pastor of Orfordville Lutheran Church.
Post originally published on HECUA blog
My semester in Northern Ireland was transformational. I lived with a community of students who would stay up late into the night discussing all we were doing, reading, and experiencing. We met people who were engaged in the work of peacemaking and who were willing to reflect on that experience with us. It was hard to know when class time started and ended because we were always learning.
Here’s a picture from our trip to Ireland last summer of Adam Pomeroy’s “The Nativity,” which is on display at Galway Cathedral.
The Cathedral itself is interesting in that it is the youngest of Europe’s great stone cathedrals. It was built a little over 50 years ago on the site of an old city jail.
Kristin remarked that the painting made her think of the women forced by the Church to live and work in the Magdalene Laundries of Ireland. The women were often forced to give up their babies for adoption. With the institutional looking bed and simple clothing – I wonder if this was Pomeroy’s intent. The government inquiry into the Magdalene Laundries would have been very much in the news around the time of its creation. Perhaps this was not intended, but if it were it would add a level of depth and subversion.
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