Katheryn and I are both exploring ordination through the United Methodist Church.  It has been quite a journey as we ponder the gravity of this ancient rite and it’s meaning us.  Ordination is the process of being set apart as clergy of the church.  It is the church’s response and vigorous testing of God’s calling on an individual into ministry.  To be ordained is to submit both to God’s calling and to the authority of the church institution or denomination.  In world in which the authority of the church is rapidly diminishing and the language that we Christians use to talk about our faith and the church often seems like a foreign dialect, I have to ask myself, “What does “ordination” mean to those outside the walls of the church?” What does it mean for the church?  What does it mean for us?