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“The church has commissioned people for leadership and service,” said Bishop Matthews.  “Throughout history, the church has ordained people to care for ministries of word, sacrament, order and service.”

The service recognized both those members entering the ordained ministry track, called provisional members, and those ordained as full members.

As is the norm for the Baltimore-Washington conference, the 19 newly commissioned and ordained candidates of the 2014 Class is a diverse group.  The two Deacons, Kathleen Grace Charters (commissioned) and Samuel William Marullo (ordained), have both entered the ministry later in life. The class is evenly divided between men and women with six women among the provisional members and four in the full member group. 

Myung-Ha Baek, an Asian-American, made the decision to follow his ordained wife, the Rev. Eunjoung Joo, and was commissioned during the service. He, like several others, has been serving a church as a local pastor.

Three African-Americans were commissioned and two were ordained. Among them are a clergy couple: Selena Marie Johnson became a provisional member and her husband, Paul Wesley Johnson, was ordained an Elder.

Jason Nathaniel Shank was happy to be ordained. “Growing up in a church family, I received the call at age 5,” he said, “and I’ve wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps for so long.” His father is the Rev. David A. Shank, pastor of Linthicum Heights. His brother, David C. Shank, is a provisional Elder serving Grace-St. Johns in Baltimore.

Bishop Eugene Sutton, of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, DC and the Eastern Shore, brought greetings and assisted in the service. He spoke of beliefs and traditions common to both the Episcopalians and United Methodists. “We look to the day when we will have unity, not to be unified, but we will be one,” he said.

Bishop Kenneth Carter from the Florida Conference preached on “A Future with Hope,” following the Scripture in Revelation 21:1-5. Quoting John in the passage who said, “See I’m making all things new,” Carter told the candidates, “You have to have a vision of something that does not now exist. If you get obsessed with what the church looks like now, you are likely to become demoralized, frustrated, and cynical.”

Carter spoke of his own ministry and said, “The common thread over 31 years of ministry is that God had a vision, a dream of this world to alleviate human suffering (‘wipe away every tear from their lives’); this is the incarnation. 

“You are sent out by Bishop Matthews to be a living reminder of the incarnation. …. When you move into the neighborhood, God moves into the neighborhood. When you cross a boundary to touch someone unclean, Jesus is touching someone unclean.

“I am filled with hope for you, for the church of the future, not where the church finds itself right now. To do this work, you have to have the vision for the church that does not now exist.”

Bishop Sutton led in the examination and commissioning of the provisional candidates, who “now come to declare in public their desire to live out the covenant made at their baptism.”

Family members and friends were invited to stand in place for silent prayer during the laying on of hands.

Bishop Matthews led the examination and ordination of the nine full member candidates, each one accompanied by two clergy sponsors. It is a high point of each clergyperson’s life and they were richly blessed in the laying on of hands by their sponsors and Bishops Matthews,  Joseph Yeakel and Violet Fisher. As each candidate knelt, Bishop Matthews wrapped a red stole around each one’s neck and offered a whispered prayer.

At the end of the service, Bishop Matthews issued a call to anyone in the audience to come forward, if they felt the call to enter the ministry. Many did, walking down the aisles to the front of the podium, where the district superintendents met them, prayed with them and promised to be in touch.

The choir from First UMC in Hyattsville provided special music during the service.

A listing of the ordinands can be found at
www.bwcumc.org/news/ordinands.