45 years ago today, on September 10, 1978, Susan and I were ordained in a worship service held at Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Billings, Montana. We had completed our seminary degrees four years after we graduated from college. Two weeks prior to the ordination service, we had presented our ordination papers to a meeting of the Yellowstone Association, been examined, and the Association had voted to proceed with the ordination. Our ordination certificates were signed by Avery Post, who was president of the United Church of Christ. John Bross was the Association registrar and George Barber was the Conference Minister. We had declared our faith in God and accepted the scriptures as source of truth. We promised diligence in private prayer and study as well as public duties of our office. We promised zeal in maintaining the truth of the gospel and the peace of the church. We promised faith in preaching and teaching the gospel, administering the sacraments and rites of the church and exercising pastoral care. We promised to keep confidences in silence, and to regard all people with equal love and concern. We accepted the faith and order of the United Church of Christ and promised to reach out ecumenically to those of other faiths as well as those of no faith. We knelt before the association in prayer and hands were laid upon us.

It was, for us, the second time we had made solemn vows in the sanctuary of that church. A little over five years earlier we were married in that same room. Both sets of vows were, for us, lifelong commitments. Those promises shaped not only what we did, but also who we are. We are married. We are ordained ministers.

For 42 years we served together as ministers. Then we were retired for a little over a year before accepting a call to serve for two more years before retiring once again a little over a month ago. In all of our years of being employed as ministers we served the same congregations. I believe that is a record for clergy couples in the United Church of Christ. I know of no other clergy couples who served all of their careers with both serving the same congregations at the same time. We have clergy couple colleagues - two ministers married to each other. And we know a couple from our seminary days who were ordained about a year before us. But all of the clergy couples we have known have served different congregations. Many have had one member of the family take a break from the active ministry for several years. Several of the clergy couples we known have become divorced. Some have left the ministry as their career. Whether or not our careers constitute some kind of record is not important to us. What is important is how our vows of ordination have shaped our lives. Keeping promises over the long haul has been deeply meaningful to us.

We don’t have any plans to recognize this anniversary other than observing it with each other. Our plan is to join our local congregation, First Congregational Church of Bellingham, United Church of Christ, in worship through our online portal today. We prefer attending worship in person to attending online, but we have been taking a short break from worshiping with the congregation after having been employed as staff members. During that break we have worshipped with other congregations and enjoyed being with other people of faith, but we made it clear before we joined the church staff that we planned to remain connected to the congregation as members after our time of service had ended. In a couple of weeks we’ll return to in person worship with our congregation, after the church has had its official kick off Sunday for fall programs.

45 years as ordained ministers is partly a product of simple endurance. We have been blessed to live this long. We have had colleagues who did not achieve this milestone because they did not live as many years as we. Longevity is partly a matter of luck. It is also the result of having had excellent health care provided by the congregations we have served. 45 years as ordained ministers is also a tribute to the congregations we have been privileged to serve. I think of the steep learning curve of being ministers to the first congregations we served. Ministers do not emerge from graduate school as seasoned preachers. It takes years of practice and dedication to learn the art and craft of preaching. I’m sure that there were plenty of pretty terrible sermons on the way. Our congregations were loving and tolerant of our mistakes. They supported us when we struggled.

Among clergy there are plenty of stories of congregations that have abused ministers, not being fair with financial compensation, subjecting them to bullying from church leaders, imposing unrealistic expectations upon them, and more. None of those things were part of our path in ministry. The congregations we served were faithful and supportive of our ministry. We encountered problems and challenges over the years and we had the support and love of congregations in each problem and challenge. We count ourselves as fortunate to have not moved from one congregation to another very often. We served our first call for seven years, followed by a decade in our second call and 25 years in our third. The length of each of those calls was above average. When we began our ministry, the average for a first call was under four years. Mid career calls usually were shorter than a decade. The length of our times of service are the product of having been called by extraordinary congregations of faithful people. Each was a good match for us.

There are far too many good memories in 45 years to recount in a single journal entry and the focus of my journal is not always looking back. However, today is a day to pause, remember, and reflect. And the memories are very good and precious. For these years I give thanks. For the years to come, I look forward with joy.