Tag Archives: online ordination

Holiday Season – Good Time to Get Ordained

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Ordained minister performs a holiday weddingWe have entered the end-of-year holidays, the most powerful holiday season of every year. At this time, spiritual energy really surges and many people feel called “home” to religion or faith tradition. Many people also answer the call to the ministry.

Get Ordained to Perform a Wedding

There are a lot of weddings this time of year (second only to June wedding season) and thus many become an ordained minister or rabbi in order to officiate a marriage. We ordain a lot of clergy in order that they may perform a wedding.

Get Ordained to Offer Spiritual Advice or Counseling

But also, there is an uptick every year this time in people becoming ordained in order to offer spiritual guidance, spiritual counseling to the slice of humanity that surrounds them.  A person often realizes they should become ordained when they notice friends and co-workers, even family are coming to them almost daily asking for spiritual advice. They are literally already acting as informal clergy, and the next step is ordination to make it legal (and be able to accept donations). That, of course, is where our Seminary comes in.  We ordain ministers and rabbis of all callings and denominations — even non-denominational!

Have you heard the Call to Ordination?

If you have felt that pull, that tug on your soul-strings, it might be time for you to become an ordained member of the clergy. We do all the legal paperwork and help you begin your destiny of helping humanity fulfill its vital spiritual needs.  You may go on to found your own non-profit religious organization or church, or you may continue to serve your community as a spiritual guide.

So much attention is paid to physical and mental needs, but ordained clergy serve a vital purpose helping their people connect to SPIRITUAL needs.

Free Online Minister Manual

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Bishop James, our Dean of Students at the Seminary, found this link to the New Minister’s Manual.  He writes: It is an excellent resource. As with many internet resources, shelf life is unpredictable, and you should save it if you are interested. +James   http://www.vfwofwa.org/Announcements/state_chaplain/ministers_manual.pdf

He means the manual above is currently a free PDF, but we don’t know how long the authors will continue to so generously make it available.

Several of the ministers and clergy in our network of graduates, including me, immediately downloaded and started to use this new manual. One ordained minister pointed out the manual is not as inclusive as it could be, is Christian-only, not Interfaith.  She made a good point.

minmanualFor the past twenty plus years as we ordain ministers, rabbis and other clergy of all callings and faiths, we offer them the Interfaith Minister Manual pictured right.  I think both these minister manuals are a good addition to one’s library. Now that I think about it, I should photograph my shelf of clergy manuals here at the Seminary. This “collection” compiled over the past quarter century now takes up two shelves on their own, and that does not include all the other liturgy and ceremony / ritual books. Does anyone else “collect” minister manuals? We have long considered putting a minister manual online somehow, or at least a compilation of religious ceremonies, rites of passage, etc.  We used to have some nice funeral ceremony “templates” and of course a bunch of wedding ceremonies online back in 1999 and 2000 when the Seminary first went online. Wonder what happened to those.

So many of our clergy create their own ceremonies these days that not too many want to follow along a set “script”.  However, doing so is much easier when you can cut and paste, pick and choose elements from a  minister manual or wedding ceremonies you find online.  With the help of the bride and groom, a wedding officiant usually customizes the ceremony by using all these minister tools.  That reminds me of one of the little known ancient meanings of the word ordination.  It means “to have the tools placed in hand” by the Divine.  In the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) we find the first use of the word ordination. God would ordain priests, clergy, etc. by placing “tools” of the ministry in their hands.   They were empowered, ordained, set to work.  Our formal Certificate of Ordination uses an old turn of phrase, “Ordained to the work of ______________ Minister”. The minister or clergy title such as Interfaith Minister, Chaplain, Spiritual Minister, Rabbi, Priest goes in there.

Being clergy is a special kind of work (with tools handed down from on High!). Some would say it is the Great Work.

+Katia

How to Become an Ordained Minister just in time for wedding season!

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We were just discussing ordination online at the Seminary’s Facebook page this week.  Many of our ordained ministers, pastors, rabbis and priests are gearing up for the busy spring wedding season. Yes, June is still the busiest wedding month but March is hopping this year, also. We have ministers officiating weddings in California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida and Michigan this month. Another minister ordained by the church / seminary performed a wedding in North Carolina and has several more schedule. That was his 16th wedding so far since ordination with us.

If you have been asked by relatives or friends to perform their wedding, we can ordain you within 24 hours if you complete these three easy steps.