Chapters 18 & 19

Ask ten people what the ritual practice, “laying on of hands” is and I bet you get ten different answers. Martin B. Copenhaver, in Chapter 18 of This Odd and Wondrous Calling enumerates a few of the ways in which we understand this practice in the Judeo-Christian tradition: Jesus laid hands on people in need of healing; Temple priests laid hands on animals about to be sacrificed; in the early church, hands were laid upon people who were assuming ministries.

The most significant of these understandings of this rite for me is the latter. Particularly as a clergy person in the United Church of Christ, you come into contact with the laying on of hands when you and colleagues are ordained into the Christian ministry. As Copenhaver points out, what actually happens in this moment is up for debate. Is there really some fundamental change that happens to the person on whom hands are being laid? Some would say yes; some no.

The moment is incredibly powerful regardless of what you believe happens. At UCC ordinations, clergy are invited to come forward and lay hands on the ordinand. As someone who has both had hands laid upon her and as someone who has laid hands upon many of my colleagues, the Holy Spirit palpably infects this moment. It’s almost like I can feel connected, through the working of the Spirit, to all those who have gone before me and all who will go after me in the call to Christian ministry.

One of the things that most ordination candidates now do is invite not only clergy, but all members of the congregation to lay on hands in some way –either by physically coming forward and joining the “blob” of people who are touching someone, who is touching someone who is touching the ordinand; or by extending their own hand forward to “spiritually” connect to the people doing the physical laying on of hands.

This act is a tangible reminder that ordinations are not only about a particular person’s call to ministry. It’s about ALL our calls to ministry. In the Protestant tradition in particular, we affirm, in one way or another, Luther’s notion of the “priesthood of all believers;” the understanding that God calls us all to “priestly” service. That doesn’t mean we’re all called to be the Sunday-morning type of minister. We might be called by God to live our faith by teaching, practicing law or medicine; by being a mechanic, an administrator, a cook or a parent.

God can use our many gifts in any variety of ways. It’s up to us to connect our life to the centuries-old Christian tradition that reminds us that God uses all kinds of people, with all their foibles and shortcomings, to serve God is extraordinary ways in this world.

Nicole Havelka