"Daddy's a real minister!"

I've posted on Facebook about Tom's moving ordination service at the Greater New Jersey Annual Methodist Conference's convention in Wildwood, New Jersey, this past weekend. (Ever since Tom has been attending annual conference, it has been held at the drab Valley Forge Convention Center in Valley Forge, PA, because the NJ Methodists couldn't afford to convene anywhere in NJ except at the casinos in Atlantic City, and that seemed inappropriate. Then this year, just when we moved 7 miles from Valley Forge, (1) the VF Convention Center put in slot machines and (2) Hurricane Sandy prompted an economic recovery push along the NJ coast, and the Methodists packed their bags and headed for the Jersey Shore, expense or no.)

For those of you thinking, "Wait, I thought Tom was already a minister," you're right. The Methodists make this a two-step process. He was commissioned as a minister four years ago; the intervening period has served as something of a trial period. He has been a minister, he did the work of a minister, he got paid as a minister, but he still was under supervision and mentorship, and they reserved the right to kick him out of the order of clergy if things weren't going well. Think about it perhaps like a medical residency period, or academia pre-tenure.

Given that this service marked the affirmation of a call already in process, Tom didn't expect it to be as moving for him as it was, and that made the weekend doubly gratifying. There are some good pictures of the occasion at www.gnjumc.org/. For me, it was moving to see everyone from Tom's family, to some of our closest church friends from Princeton, to our new Bryn Mawr and Haddonfield friends all there to support him. (Others were watching the live streaming online.) There were friends stationed in key places during the service, too: The fellow deacon with whom he originally was going through the process at Princeton UMC, who was ordained last year, was tasked with holding the bishop's i-Pad and was right behind the bishop as he ordained Tom. Tom's new friend at Haddonfield UMC was the camera man doing official video right at the foot of the stage, while an old friend from Princeton was taking the still photographs on stage. Tom's Princeton UMC senior pastor and mentor is the head of the Board of Ordained Ministry and also was on the chancel. Edith and I got to sit in the third row of the vast convention center, right on the center aisle, directly behind our good friend David Mertz, serving as Tom's official sponsor for the occasion, who was sitting behind Tom himself. Suffice it to say that for people who have felt as mobile and rootless as we have, it meant a great deal to have so many faces from different eras of our lives together in one place.

For those of you who supported our trip to Congo several years ago, you should know that another wonderful outcome of this conference was that Wings of the Morning, the emergency airlift operation with which we flew in Congo that has been fundraising for a more efficient plane to increase their ability to save lives in the bush, has finally achieved their goal. Our friend and pilot from Congo, Gaston, was at the conference, and he flew the new plane along the beach in celebration, before he heads with it for Africa.

Speaking of the beach...

As always, this is the girls' blog. And while they were good as gold at the ordination service, ask them about conference and you will get a different account than above.

Oh, they'll agree that conference was fantastic. But why?

Ocean. Sand castles. Water slides. Roller coaster. Fudge. French fries. Boardwalk.

Yes, the Greater New Jersey Methodist Annual Conference 2013 looked to Edith and Alice's eyes something like this:

 

I didn't have my good zoom lens, but Edith and Tom are on there, seconds away from Edith's first upside-down turn on a roller coaster:

A special start to a new chapter for Tom. A satisfying start to summer vacation for E. and A.