Sunday, June 9, 2019

In ecclesiastical language (in other words “church-speak”), when an ordained minister is called by a congregation, they are then subsequently installed. In our current tech age, it sounds like something is happening with a software program. I’ve tried to find a witty way to compare Jorge to software but it just didn’t work!

At the congregational meeting in January, the congregation voted to change Jorge’s title to Associate Minister, and when that vote passed overwhelmingly, the congregation also wanted to recognize this “call” in a worship service.

Now, here is a bit more ecclesiastical information: CCSM is part of the United Church of Christ and our regional conference is called the Northern California/Nevada Conference (NCNC/UCC).  The Conference has more localized “associations” and we belong to the Golden Gate Association. According to NCNC/UCC policy, a called minister is installed by the association, and just recently, they have determined that those installations must be done in the afternoon, and not at a regular worship service. (The reasoning behind this is that most people in the associations are in their own church on Sunday mornings). At CCSM, we install our ministers in our regular Sunday morning worship service so that the whole congregation can participate in this joyful ritual.

While our Association has endorsed Jorge’s call, in order to abide by their policy, we will arrange the official installation at a time when representatives from Golden Gate can attend.  However, to honor our congregation’s wishes, we will bless Jorge as our Associate Minister on June 9th in a special worship ritual. We will ask him to commit to leading with love, and to hold as a sacred trust our best hopes and dreams as a congregation. And we, as a congregation, will commit to supporting him. Please plan to be present as a witness to Jorge’s continued ministry at CCSM.