Ministry as Translation
By: Susan Erickson
Deacons are called to proclaim the Gospel in the liturgy, to serve others, especially the marginalized, and to “interpret the needs and hopes of the world to the Church.” (Book of Common Prayer) Many people who feel called to the diaconate come from serving professions like nursing and social work, but that wasn’t my case. So, for a long time I had no clear answer to the question aspiring deacons often get: “What’s your ministry?” I just knew that my deepening faith was calling me to serve others for as long as I’m still able.
But recently, I’ve begun to discern how the gifts God has given me might mesh with a ministry that I believe falls under the broad heading of evangelism. I started my professional life as a professor of German language and literature. I’ve also spent a lot of time in France over the years. I’m comfortable dealing with other languages and cultures (admittedly, still Western ones). However, most of my career life was spent as a lawyer. Here, too, I had to interpret and “translate” legal texts for laymen. Now, as a Christian and postulant for the diaconate, it’s not so uncommon for me to try to explain my faith to my many non-religious friends, some of whom are downright hostile to religion. It’s the most recent context for the work of translation.
This ministry begins, I think, within the church itself. I’d like to facilitate gospel studies like those Brian and Christie lead. I believe that all of us need to deepen our knowledge of the gospel and live into it: it has to become real and present in order for us to go out and make what Jimmy calls a “love-spreading difference.”
I would also like to reach those outside the church — people like my friends but also younger people. The chaplain at Arizona State University told me he thought I should consider campus ministry as part of my call. I’m excited about exploring this opportunity. Tucson is the home of the University of Arizona, and St. Philip’s is the parish sponsor of the new Arizona branch of the Episcopal Service Corps, called “Beloved in the Desert,” and has an ongoing relationship with the Episcopal Campus Ministry.
Among other “languages” I want to use in all these aspects of spreading the Gospel is the language of art: visual, written, spoken. I’m a student and a teacher at heart. Those are my gifts. I want to use them to reach out to a world that is increasingly hungry for meaning and for grace — for the very good news of God’s love as shown through Jesus, the Word made flesh.
Susan Erickson is a part-time parishioner. She and her husband, Jim, live in Jackson May to October, and for a week or two in winter. You may recognize her as a lector, chalice bearer and a campus volunteer. Last summer, she led Morning Prayer several times at the Chapel of St. Hubert in Bondurant. Additionally, she is a docent at the National Museum of Wildlife Art. In the fall of 2017, she began discernment for ordination as a deacon at St. John's. Her goal is ordination in June 2020, and she hopes to carry out her ministry at St. John’s and St. Philip’s in the Hills in Tucson.
