Pastor Profile: Interconnectedness

Submitted by Kathleen Owens (she/her),
Manager of Clergy Programming and Communications Center for Clergy Renewal
at Holy Wisdom Monastery

Jennie Ott, a pastor at Lake Oswego United Church of Christ in Oregon, can still remember the moment in 2018 when she read the invitation to join a cohort of pastors for contemplative renewal at a Benedictine Monastery in Wisconsin. “So much of my life then, and frankly still now, is attending to other people’s needs and particularly, my children, my spouse and my congregation. And so, I think I was just hopeful. What could I do that would just be for my own needs? I was also really excited to have peers in the process.” Jennie was accepted into the first cohort of Contemplative Renewal Immersions, which began in June 2019.

The Contemplative Renewal Immersions met Jennie’s desire to attend to her own spiritual needs while connecting with peers. A particular moment of connection with another member of the cohort stands out. It came while still sensing the mystical aspects of a full day of silence. “I remember sharing with her and feeling like I am in this place where I’m fully present to the Spirit. I am with this person who is fully present to the Spirit. And in this moment, we are being fully present to each other. This is what life is supposed to be about – being in this beautiful place with these beautiful human beings talking about experiences of the Spirit. I can still go back there in a minute, sitting in that moment with her.” Jennie also remembers being in the Oratory for prayer and sensing the power and the presence of the Spirit in the sisters. “I felt so alive in the spirit with these people who live prayer day in and day out. This is the model that they give. What a gift it is to come in these few weeks and be able to fill up the tanks and go back with these practices.”

The power of the experience and the deep connection Jennie felt while here continues to impact her life and ministry. “This deep sense of my own contemplative orientation and deep, contemplative need for practices, for silence, for solitude, for just listening deeply to my own spirit is something that I have carried with me. Even though I have come back into the fray of life and the fray of parenting and pastoring and partnering and all of it, there’s a mental and spiritual reorientation, and a much deeper sense of the interconnectedness of all. The people. The prayer. The prairie. My own spirit. My own connection with the people in my cohort.”

This interconnection extends to Jennie’s congregation where Sunday services now open with statio and hold more space for silence. She uses lectio divina for a spirit-led reflection on the Word during Bible study, and there is a Contemplative Practices group that meets regularly to explore new ways of engaging with the Spirit. Jennie names her Center for Clergy Renewal (CCR) experience as the “catalyst” that opened her up and helped her to model contemplative practice for her congregation as the sisters modeled it for her here. “I would spend time in the Oblate library and then I spent time in the sisters’ library and every book I read, led to the next book, which led to the next book, which influences my preaching. It influences my way of moving in the world. It all comes back together. It’s that interconnectedness. I feel like CCR and the Monastery really has its finger on the pulse of the Spirit.”

From prairie to parish, we are all interconnected in the holy work of God in this world. We are grateful for the ways your support of Holy Wisdom Monastery and the work of the Center for Clergy Renewal has empowered Jennie and those served by her ministry in Oregon to enter the life of the Spirit more deeply. Thank you for your faithfulness in sharing the gifts cultivated in this place.

This is the first in a series of stories from pastors who are part of the Center for Clergy Renewal community. To hear stories of those who are just joining our community, please plan to join us for the annual Center for Clergy Renewal Gratitude Brunch on Sunday, June 29th following Sunday Assembly. There is no cost, but registration is appreciated.