Nicole M. Garcia
ELCA Candidate for Ordained Ministry September 28, 2016 Over the years, I have had many people suggest I write about my journey as a transgender Latina of faith. I have thought about writing about my life, but frankly, I don’t think I am that interesting, but I realize my life is not a typical life for I really don’t do anything like anyone else in the world. I do have to say I absolutely love my life, so I am fine with what I am do, but other people often do not understand what I do or they wonder how I do as much as I do or they want me to explain what I do. This blog is intended to help answer the aforementioned three questions for a group of people who are my candidacy committee and anyone else who may be interested in my exploits. I should explain a couple of things right away. I am a Candidate for Ordained Ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Staying true to form, I am not pursuing ordination as a typical candidate. The traditional path is for a young person (around 23 years of age) to enter a seminary after earning an undergraduate degree. Many of these dedicated people also spent a year after earning their BA doing some sort of ministry such as a mission or immersion trip in preparation for three years of living at a seminary, and then completing a year of pastoral internship. After internship, they are awarded a master of divinity (M. Div.)to await a call from a congregation to be their pastor. In the ELCA, pastors are called or hired by a congregation as opposed to being ordained and assigned to a congregation as many other Christian denominations fill the pulpit. Back to me—I am in a M.Div. D.L. (distributed learning) program through Luther Seminary. This program allows me to live in Colorado for 11 months of the year and spend two weeks in January and June in St. Paul MN taking intensive courses at Luther Seminary. You see, I live with my mother, who is 82 years of age, and work as a mental health counselor in my own private practice. Mom is in relatively good health, but she needs a bit of help around the house and she no longer drives. I do my best to keep the house clean, do most of the shopping, and take mom to her numerous doctor appointments. When one is 82, there seem to be quite a few different “ologists” involved in healthcare which translates to at least one doctor appointment each week. I have lived with mom for about 10 years. I moved in after my step-father passed away. At that time, I was living with a cousin and I was spending every weekend at mom’s house, so it was practical to just move in with her. You see, I had a house at one time, but I sold the house to complete my gender transition. That is a story for a different blog. I see the Luther Seminary M.Div. D.L. program as the only way I can attend seminary at this stage of my life. The D.L. program is a relatively new concept in seminary education. There are quite a few people who don’t think a seminary education can be completed with a hybrid online/residential program for there is the faith formation piece that may be lacking. The thought behind seminary is for a group of students to be immersed into a life filled with prayer and worship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book called Life Together, as a guide to living together while being formed as pastors and I agree that being immersed in a traditional seminary environment would be wonderful, but the world has changed. My Facebook page has been filled with stories about shrinking congregations and seminaries. We, as the church, have to begin to think of different ways of doing business. We have to re-think the concept of church and seminary education if we are to survive. The M.Div. D.L. program is one way of changing the way pastors are educated. I hope to demonstrate in my blog the many different ways I am interacting with the ELCA, the Rocky Mountain Synod, my congregation and many different ecumenical partners. I hope my blog helps to explain how I am attempting to obtain a seminary education and I hope my friends and colleagues, especially members of my candidacy committee, find other ways I can deepen and expand my faith formation so I can be a pastor a congregation really wants to call.
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