Ordination service is long-distance family affair
Sep. 14, 2007
NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.
By Marta W. Aldrich*
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Nancy Neelley recalls vividly the moment she told her daughter - then age 6 - that she believed she was being called into ordained ministry.
"We were talking in our car on our way home from church, and Marissa got so excited that she started jumping up and down on the back seat," Neelley remembers with a laugh.
What mom knew - and daughter eventually would learn, however - is that answering the call to ministry would mean much sacrifice for the entire family: like Neelley leaving her job as a vice president of an advertising agency in Jackson, Miss., completing her undergraduate degree, picking up and moving the family to Nashville to go to seminary, and long days and evenings of classes and homework.
Throughout the next decade, the family persevered. Neelley says Marissa never complained - until learning that her much-anticipated international studies trip to Europe would conflict with the long-anticipated moment of seeing her mom ordained as a deacon in The United Methodist Church. The service was scheduled to take place during the June gathering of the Tennessee Annual Conference when Marissa, now 17 and about to enter her senior year in high school, was to be in Germany.
"Marissa had been looking forward to this trip since the eighth grade and was really devastated at first, thinking she wouldn't get to be part of this special moment for me," said Neelley. "Ordination was the culmination of these last 10 years. It was the coming together of everything I had worked for and also the starting line for my future ministry."
Family ties
Neelley is a single mom, and Marissa Emrich is her only child. The two always have been close, and their sense of family partnership only grew in 2000 when Marissa, then a fifth-grader, moved to Nashville so her mom could attend Vanderbilt Divinity School. Many evenings, both mom and daughter hit the books together - Marissa studying math or social studies and Neelley prepping for classes in New Testament or pastoral care.
By the time Neelley's ordination service was imminent, they'd been through too much together for mom to give up on finding a solution to the miles that would separate them. "I had worked with interactive media through the ad agency and later with United Methodist Communications," said Neelley, who in April became a project coordinator for the United Methodist global health initiative. "I knew possibilities existed for live video streaming."
She approached the Rev. Tom Nankervis, communications director for the Tennessee Conference, who conferred with information technology gurus Bill Freeman with the conference and Sean McAtee with United Methodist Communications.
When the Sunday evening of Neelley's ordination service arrived, it was 2 a.m. in Germany, where Marissa and three school friends gathered around a personal computer in her host family's home. Via the Internet, Marissa saw clear images of her mother placing her hands on a Bible as Bishop Dick Wills said the words: "Nancy, take authority as a deacon in the church to proclaim the word of God and to lead God's people to serve in the world in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."
For his part, Freeman is still shaking his head. "The camera was hooked up to my wireless Mac, which transmitted the signal to the router at Brentwood United Methodist Church. The router then used an Internet connection provided by United Methodist Communications for streaming video," he said.
When she got home, Neelley found an e-mail waiting from Marissa. "I saw it! And I saw you and it was amazing!!!" Marissa wrote. "... You amaze me, momma, and I'm proud, proud, proud, proud, proud, proud (times infinity)."
Neelley said the experience made the world a little smaller for her. "I thank God that Marissa could participate," she said. "We were still connected even though Marissa wasn't standing there beside me and wasn't able to hug me. She was able to take part in something that was rightfully her celebration, too, because I couldn't have done it without her."
*Aldrich is news editor of United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Marta Aldrich, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org
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