Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 18, 1993 TAG: 9302180390
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MINISTER SAYS IN CHRIST THERE IS NO RACE, GENDER
Dear Neighbors:Concerning the article in Neighbors on Feb. 4, 1993, there are a few points of clarification that are necessary for a better understanding of the reality of my association with Deliverance Church.
The black congregation did not ordain me. After being a member for quite a few years I received a calling to minister. I then entered an extensive discipleship program developed and conducted by the pastor and leadership council of the church. Upon completion of this program and after an extended trial period, I was considered a possible candidate for licensing and later ordination.
This ordination was administered by pastor Lorraine Alston and several other pastors and ministers who are closely associated with Deliverance.
The question of the pastor needing help was never an issue. My becoming associate pastor was a process that developed out of the calling of God, and confirmation of the pastor and leadership structure of the church.
The essence of Christianity is to shed an old life and begin a new one. So, it was fitting that in this context I also had the opportunity to shed the cultural bias in which I was raised - middle class and not privileged - and begin to experience with new eyes how a culture within a culture thought and lived.
I found that many ideas that were true for me were not true for someone raised within the black experience.
The most important lesson I learned is that when a community of believers dedicate their lives to Christ, then their immersion into his nature transforms each one and provides an environment that is conducive to bridging gaps and reconciling people from every background. This immersion also teaches us how to let go of those attitudes and judgments that separate and discover, as Paul discovered, that in Christ there is neither race nor gender.
\ The Rev. Kathy O'Keeffe\ Roanoke