by Rev. Keith Patterson
God is used to showing up in unusual places—like a
stable at Christmas.
I remember reading a story in the Huffington Post about
an ordination to the diaconate occurring in a laundromat! Surely God could be present in a laundromat
just as well as in a church building.
Scott Classen, the ordinand, stated that ordinations
that he attended in the past usually took take place in a cathedral. Scott
runs a street ministry called Thad’s for the oft forgotten apostle, Thaddeus. Thad’s offers a monthly outreach ministry
called “Laundry Love.” Each month
machines, quarters and soap are offered to the homeless so that they might have
the dignity of clean clothes. So a
laundromat to Scott’s thinking was a fitting place as any church for an
ordination.
I am sure when the Holy Spirit was called down at
the laying on of the hands, it did not matter that it was in a crowded
laundromat with people going about the business of doing their laundry and not
a cathedral with stained glass windows and flickering candles.
So it was in the midst of wash cycles and the whir
of large dryers that the first ordained order in the church, the diaconate,
which emphasizes service, would be held in an unexpected place—a laundromat—and
God was surely present.[1]
[1]
Los Angeles deacon Ordained in Laundromat as Part of Street-based Ministry, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/02/deacon-ordained-in-laundromat_n_5248371.html
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