An Ordination Celebration For Former Resident—

‘Ladies And Gentlemen, The Reverend Joy Ellen Mounts’

By Shannon Hicks

Newtown Congregational Church hosted a service of ordination for one of its own on October 14.

Joy Ellen Mounts, a member of the church and a daughter of longtime Newtown residents and members Betty and Gordon Mounts, officially became the Reverend Joy Mounts during a 90-minute celebration at the West Street church last weekend. Ordination within the United Church of Christ is the event that assigns full authority to provide ministry, baptism, communion, and marriage. The vows of the ordained also include the promise to preach and teach, as well as to be faithful to God’s word.

The service for Joy Mounts was held in Newtown Congregational Church’s (NCC) sanctuary, which was filled with NCC members, family members and friends, including many members of First Congregational Church in Westfield, N.J., where Ms Mounts has been the director of youth and family ministry since joining FCC in September 2005. So many people from the Westfield church wanted to be part of Ms Mounts’s celebration, in fact, that a charter bus was hired to accommodate all of those who were traveling to Newtown for the celebration.

The Reverend Matthew Crebbin, senior pastor at Newtown Congregational Church, began the ceremony with a welcome to those in attendance.

“This is a joy that our God has made, one that we will celebrate in joy… for someone named Joy,” he said. “This church, this church association, we gather today to celebrate and rejoice in the calling that each of us has responded to and to recognize one who will serve on behalf of this church and the United Church of Christ.”

In addition to Rev Crebbin, the clergy involved in the service included the Reverend Alice Walsh, chaplain from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Brunswick, N.J., who gave the Invocation and led the Lord’s Prayer; the Reverend Dr Angela Son, assistant professor of psychology and religion from Drew University, who led the Responsive Reading; and the Reverend Lee Moore, a retired UCC minister (and most recently the interim senior pastor for Newtown Congregational Church), who led the Passing of the Peace and later, the Closing Prayer.

Scripture readings were offered by the Reverend Bill Linhart, pastor from Keyser Faith Charge United Methodist Church, Keyser, W.V., who read Isaiah 40:25–31; the Reverend Nancy Stanley, pastor of Sanitaria Springs United Methodist Church in Sanitaria, N.Y., and also of Port Crane United Methodist Church, Port Crane, N.Y. (Psalm 139:1–18); and the Reverend Andrew Weidner, pastor of Emory United Methodist Church in Hancock, N.Y. (Philippians 3:4–13).

During the Rite of Ordination, the Reverend Susan Townsley, regional minister for Fairfield County/Connecticut Conference-UCC, offered the Greeting and Acclamation; the Reverend Patricia Nicholas, pastor of The Congregational Church of New Fairfield and a member of the Fairfield East Committee on Church and Ministry, offered the Exhortation and Examination, and also Presented the Certificate; the Reverend Janice Touloukian, associate minister at NCC, led the Laying on of Hands, Prayer of Ordination and Declaration; the Reverend John Mills, a UCC hospice chaplain and member of FCC, offered the Pastoral Prayer; and Reverend Crebbin led the Offertory and Offertory Prayer.

The Reverend Dr Mark Boyea, the senior minister from FCC, delivered the afternoon’s sermon.

“It’s hard to give a serious sermon when what I really want to do is stand up here grinning like a fool,” Dr Boyea said to begin his sermon, which was at times light-hearted and hopeful, and at other moments serious and formal.

“I already know that Joy can lead worships, perform sacraments, and that she is a deeply and genuinely spiritual person. I know that she can preach and teach the bible. I know that she can handle administrative duties, and that she can help people find ways to serve,” he continued. “But still, none of those things are what I need to know when it comes to whether or not she is ready to be ordained today.”

He reminded his fellow clergy as well as the afternoon’s guests that the life of a minister is as full of conflict as anyone else’s. He spoke of inner doubts that are bound to stop Ms Mount at times, and that she must be willing to go “to Hell and back to face those doubts.”

“I need to know whether Joy can and will live the Psalms read just a few minutes ago,” he said. “I also need to know whether she realizes that her visualization of God is not all there is to know of Him.

“I also need to know that Joy grasps the artistry of God. Creativity is the perfect metaphor for God, who is both personal and beyond our grasp, immeasurable and timeless. And that finally, when it comes right down to is, when she comes to the end of verse 18 [from Psalm 139, when I awake, I am still with thee], Joy Mounts makes her home with God.”

Dr Boyea said he would not tell Ms Mounts in advance what the title of his sermon would be. It was not even printed in the afternoon’s bulletin, in fact.

“I know how much she likes to be prepared in advance, but I also know that she would have been embarrassed if I had told her that today’s sermon is called ‘All I Need To Know About Joy Mounts And Why It’s Such An Unbelievable Blessing That She’s Being Ordained Today,’” he said. “She’s ready, and I know that.”

Music for the afternoon was as carefully selected as the words spoken, and NCC Choir Director Dan Coffman surprised Ms Mounts when he included one of her hymns in the service. Ms Mounts had written four verses for a hymn set to the tune for “O Waly Waly”; her hymn, called “Oh God of All, To You We Sing” was sung for her. The afternoon’s choir was a combined effort, with members of NCC joined by members of FCC in filling the sanctuary with hymns that also included “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” “Breathe on Me, Breath of God” and Here I Am, Lord.” The afternoon’s anthem was “One Faith, One Hope, One Lord.” Guest organist was Dr Barbara Thomson, the director of music and organist for FCC.

Ms Mounts received two special gifts during the service. The first was presented by NCC members Carol Benson and Jane Landgrebe on behalf of the Reverend Suzanne Wagner, who had been Ms Mounts’s mentor during the past two years of her in-care process (but who is currently living outside Jerusalem and was therefore unable to attend). It was a purple stole with red crosses and was accompanied by a letter from Reverend Wagner that explained the stole had been purchased a few years earlier in Bethlehem specifically with the intent of being presented to Ms Mounts on the occasion of her ordination.

NCC member Peg Forbell then presented another stole, this one on behalf of Newtown Congregational Church. Mrs Forbell made the white stole herself, and had embroidered a number of symbols onto it that were meaningful to Ms Mounts: a rose, her favorite flower; a cross entwined with roses; her monogram; a cardinal, her favorite bird; the outline of a palm with a heart inside the outline, which was the symbol for Ms Mounts’s covenant group; and even the logo from Drew University, where she studied.

“We’re so pleased to be part of your ordination service,” Mrs Forbell said. “This is a homegrown gift from your friends at Newtown Congregational Church.”

Also participating in the celebration were members of NCC. Sherrie Roberts, one of the church’s liturgists, led the Call to Worship, and NCC Senior Deacon Christopher Farrington offered a presentation during the Rite of Ordination.

In offering her first Benediction as an ordained minister, the Reverend Joy Mounts thanked everyone in the church that afternoon.

“Thank you all for being here,” she said. “Thank you all for years of enthusiasm and support.”

Ms Mounts was a student minister intern at Christ Church, Summit, while attending Drew Theological School. She received her master’s in divinity degree from Drew University in May 2005, and spent the next two years “in care” of Fairfield East Association of the United Congregational Church and Newtown Congregational Church while preparing to serve the ministry.

She is the oldest of her parents’ three daughters and a cancer survivor. The offering during her ordination celebration was to be divided evenly between The American Cancer Society and Camp Sunshine, the latter of which is located in Casco, Maine, and provides respite, support, joy and hope to children with life-threatening illnesses and their immediate families through the various stages of a child’s illness. The collections were also meant to honor the memory of people who have been in Ms Mounts’s life.