Ready for ordination

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This article was published 26/06/2021 (1883 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Whether dozens of people attend her upcoming ordination service or none at all, Laura Funk knows she can wrap herself in the support of her friends, family and colleagues.

The Winnipeg spiritual director wanted to involve people who couldn’t attend in light of public health restrictions gatherings and any people present having to stay two metres apart, so she invited them to send her their handprints traced on fabric to be incorporated into a large covering to be used during the ordination service.

“It’s so delightful to open the mail these days because I don’t know what blessings are coming in the mail,” she says of the 90 or so handprints in a variety of sizes and colours she’s received.

“This is a blessing that people can send (their handprints) and lay (them) on me.”

A member of Hope Mennonite Church, Funk was originally scheduled to be ordained to Christian ministry in late May, but when code red restrictions closed all in-person religious gatherings, the ordination was put off until people could gather again.

Now she is preparing for a hybrid service, on a yet-to-be-announced date, with as many people attending as allowed by public health orders and others joining through a streaming platform.

However the service happens, Funk looks forward to being bestowed with official credentials for ministry from Mennonite Church Manitoba and in the process making history as the first spiritual director to be ordained by the denomination.

In the past, Mennonite Church Manitoba ordained people to congregational ministry, chaplaincy or for work in church organizations, said Rev. Rick Neufeld, director of leadership ministries.

“Ordination in the Mennonite church is an approval for ministry, a credential,” says Neufeld, of the two-year process, undertaken by candidate after completing theological education and already working in a congregation.

Considered among the most progressive of Mennonite groups, the denomination has ordained women for the past four decades, Neufeld says.

Only the second person to be ordained in her West Broadway congregation, Funk was encouraged toward ordination as a way to acknowledge her contribution to the congregation and the larger community, says Rev. Lynell Bergen.

“This is a lifetime ministry helping people understand what God is saying to them and to help them experience the love of God,” she says of Funk’s calling as a spiritual director.

Spiritual direction is an ancient Christian practice of meeting for about an hour every two to six weeks with a trained person to discuss one’s spiritual life. Spiritual directors generally charge an hourly fee for their work.

After nearly a decade as a spiritual director, and many years working and worshipping in ecumenical settings, Funk is pleased that her congregation and the larger Mennonite church will recognize her calling publicly.

“It’s a beautiful gift to have this vocation recognized as a legitimate ministry,” says the Wolseley resident, who runs a spiritual direction practice under the name Butterfly Journeys.

“Ten years ago, most people wouldn’t have known about this.”

Trained in spiritual direction through the two-year Shekinah program out of St. Benedict’s Monastery, Funk has just completed her first book titled People and Places of Sacred Interior Spaces. She also has a master’s degree in Christian ministry from Canadian Mennonite University.

Since May, she’s been a half-time volunteer spiritual director-in-residence for Mennonite Church Manitoba, running short weekly online gratitude sessions and planning a one-day retreat in July at the Assiniboine Forest if public health guidelines allow it.

“I’d like to hang out on the edge of the forest and use the trees and nature to ground ourselves in the goodness of God’s creation,” says Funk, adding she will pivot to an online format if necessary.

Despite limitations on in-person gatherings, Funk looks forward to being surrounded by her community on her ordination day. Instead of the traditional laying on of hands, where the congregation encircles the ordinand and touches them on the head or shoulders, Funk will be covered with fabric hands from friends and family, including a handprint from her grandmother who died in 1994.

“As a spiritual director, you don’t have a congregation the same way a minister does,” says Funk of her profession.

“This is a tangible reminder of accountability and support.”

brenda@suderman.com

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