From Pastor Eric’s Study – August 2025

By the time that you read this we will be celebrating the REVEREND Jakob Kröner as a newly ordained pastor. It has been an incredible journey that has led him to being ordained within the United Church of Christ, and here at Peace Church. Early in his conversations about staying in the United States and pursuing ordination within the UCC, we encouraged Jakob to speak to the leadership of the German church- where he was ready to be ordained- to share his sense of call to pursue ordination here. Their response was incredibly faithful and humbling as our German partners affirmed that God was doing a wonderful new thing. They celebrated where God was leading Jakob and offering new possibilities for all of us.

The life of the church is always God’s – it is to be Spirit led. Oh, there are plenty of times when those who lead and serve the Church grow impatient waiting on God and take things into their own hands. Shoot, even Sarah and Abraham grew impatient waiting on God's promise. That is not the church at its strongest. Instead, we are strongest when we open ourselves to what God is doing in our midst. We often find God showing up in unexpected ways, like a German Vikar being ordained among us. Our proclamation that “God is Still Speaking” requires that we are still listening.

Part of the Rite of Ordination includes the laying on of hands and inviting the Holy Spirit to claim the minister and ministry to which we all bear witnesses. The clergy gathered lay their hands upon the ordinand in a tradition of “Apostolic Succession.” Some traditions are much more detailed in the ways that they trace the lineage of hands laid-on all the way back to the disciples (it’s like genealogy for nerdy clergy types). Within the UCC we simply accept that each generation has shared in passing on the blessing received to those who follow. Usually, many generations are present at any ordination coalescing in that moment when we participate in passing on the mantle, the blessing, to those who will join in humbly serving God and the Church. At first glance it may seem like it’s all about the one being ordained, when really it is always about the way that God is still faithfully at work in the world throughout the generation.

For thousands of years God has been calling teachers and prophets, servants of God to care for and inspire the people of God that together we might continually bear witness to God's love in the world.

In Jakob’s ordination (as in the ordinations at Peace of Eric Ogi, Gretchen Martin, and Susan Kolb) we should be humbled that God is still choosing to show up and work through us. The celebration in which we share is a beautiful acclamation that God isn’t anywhere near done with us yet. We are invited, each of us, to be participants in nurturing and celebrating God's gifts as they unfold among us.

Rev. Jakob Kröner is called and ordained to a particular form of ministry, but every single part of the church is called to be a part of the priesthood of all believers – to be ministers wherever they are, in whatever they do, joining hands with the faithful through the ages in order to share the extraordinary love of God that is offered to the world.

I celebrate each of us being woven into the sacred story of God. May God bless us among the timeless threads of God's grace.