Source: YorkRegion.com, Canadian Press via Globe and Mail, TheRecord.com, CityNews
Pastor Lionel Ketola
photo: CityNewsNewmarket, Ontario -- For Lionel Ketola, Friday evening marked the end of an arduous two-decade-long journey to fulfilling a life-long dream.
Despite letters of warning and threats of discipline, Newmarket's Holy Cross Lutheran Church went ahead with its ordination ceremony for Ketola, an openly gay married man. The 45-year-old is now the church's associate pastor and will also serve as an ambassador of reconciliation.
As the ceremony came to its close, the packed house at Trinity United Church on Park Avenue exploded into applause as Ketola tried to stifle a widening grin of satisfaction and relief, YorkRegion.com reports.
"It's a privilege, but it's about so much more than one individual," Ketola said just before the ceremony. "It's about claiming justice within the church."
Ketola had no shortage of supporters on Friday night. Clergy and others traveled great distances to be a part of the ordination ceremony, reports YorkRegion.com, a local news site.
Some came as representatives for the, Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM), an American advocacy group that has sponsored Ketola and other gay ministers.
Phil Soucy, came as part of Lutherans Concerned North America. Soucy came all the way from Arlington, Va. to be a part of the event.
"I'm a friend of Lionel's" he said. "He asked if I would come to support him and that's what I'm doing."
Such messages of support were quite common on Friday from clergy, lay people, and even the guest book. A large message reading "We (heart) you Lionel" was scrawled prominently on one of its pages.
Holy Cross Pastor Dawn Hutchings, who has been serving a congregation of more than 200 for nine years, thinks the move is a positive one.
"We feel strongly that this is the right thing to do. It's about fairness. It's about justice," she told CityNews last week.
Hutchings told YorkRegion.com that she was touched and pleased with all of the support and media attention the cause had garnered in the days leading up to the event, adding it showed Mr. Ketola's ordination is a long overdue necessity.
"I'm so glad for all of the support we've received," she said. "We're just delighted with all of the support shown across Newmarket, across the country and across the continent."
Whatever happens, Hutchings said she's hopeful Holy Cross' example will inspire other congregations to take the steps they have.
Dozens celebrate ordination of gay Lutheran pastor as 'matter of justice' [contd.]
"That's our hope," she said. "The church has always moved forward by people taking a step forward like this. I'm so proud of Holy Cross for taking this step and making this decision."
"I've worked with Lionel for a number of years," she told CityNews last week, "and as Pastor of this congregation, I think that this is a marvelous development.
"For generations, people who are gay or lesbian and want a place in the church have had to remain silent about their orientation."
Ketola agreed Friday with Hutchings, adding the commencement of his ministry and work as an ambassador of reconciliation couldn't happen soon enough and said it's something their order, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ECLIC), truly requires.
"There's a serious need for this ministry in our church," he told YorkRegion.com. "It's for the queer youth out there who are at risk of suicide or for queer couples who need a place to worship. That's my focus."
And Ketola has had a long time to think about his role in the church. He was denied the right to be ordained within the church more than 20 years earlier after coming out as a sexually active gay man to a bishop.
"I feel thrilled and very privileged," Ketola told Canadian Press last week. "I feel excited about the opportunity to offer a public witness that really has the potential to open up safe spaces in the church for queer people."
It was hard, Ketola said Friday, to believe his ordination day had finally arrived.
"It feels a little more real today," he told YorkRegion.com yesterday. "There's certainly a sense of relief at this after so many years of waiting; it's surreal."
Ketola was stripped of the ability to become a pastor shortly after graduating from the Lutheran seminary in 1988.
Ketola re-engaged with organized religion in the mid-1990s and undertook chaplaincy work before he was given minister credentials by ELM.
In the weeks before last night's ceremony, Holy Cross had received two stern letters of warning from its bishop saying that it should not proceed with the ordination.
Bishop Michael Pryse of ECLIC's Eastern Synod said the church could face anything from a reprimand to expulsion from the national organization.
While Bishop Pryse has worked to establish full church status for homosexuals, he told Canadian Press that many Lutheran congregants simply aren't ready for such a sweeping social shift.
"Most members of our church aren't going to be happy about this," Pryse told YorkRegion.com on Wednesday.
"I think people have come a whole long way, and I think people who are really out front on it ... sometimes they lose sight of that," he said.
My great concern is about people in the moderate middle who are moving to positive effect towards progressive views on this matter and might not be happy about a small group deciding to do this on their own," Pryse told YorkRegion.com.
"At the end of the day, I want to see homosexuals have the same rights in the church as heterosexuals, but I don't think one single act will get us to that day any sooner; it might even put that day off."
Pryse issued one final letter to the congregation of Holy Cross and Pastor Hutchings Friday, offering prayers and pledging the continuation of his love and friendship towards them.
"I am writing to assure you of my continued love and collegial friendship as you prepare to take a very significant step in guiding your shared ministry," he wrote. "When last I met you, I expressed the hope and desire that we would continue to be in relationship with one another, regardless of the important decisions you or I might make in the coming days."
Retired Rev. Paul Bosch planned last week to be among pastors from the region who would defy their leadership by celebrating the ordination last night.
Bosch told theRecord.com, a Waterloo news site, that his participation would not be welcomed by all members of the ECLIC -- which has some of its biggest congregations in Waterloo Region. The move could break apart the church, he told The Record last week. "I don't want them to leave the church over this, but I'm afraid some of them might."
The church forbids "self-declared and practicing homosexuals" from becoming pastors.
Bosch knows taking part means he and more than 50 other clergy could face discipline.
"Those of us who are participating are doing so with a heavy heart," said Bosch, who served as chaplain for the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. "But there are some of us who regard this as a matter of justice."
If disciplinary measures are on the horizon, Hutchings said she wasn't concerned about them on Friday. She said her primary focus for the moment was on Ketola and his ordination.
"What we're more worried about this evening is sharing tonight with our congregations, having a good evening and setting Lionel loose (as a pastor)," she said in the afternoon before the ceremony.
Truly, those in attendance said they were worried about little aside from ensuring that Mr. Ketola's ordination went smoothly.
Full article: Ordaining gay man 'about justice': pastor | YorkRegion.com
Church planning to defy Lutheran bishop and ordain gay married man | Globe and Mail (Canadian Press)
Clergy to ignore bishop, attend gay ordination | TheRecord.com
Married Gay Minister's Ordination Causes Unrest In Lutheran Church | CityNews