Lael is Switching Gears

by Amanda Nourse

It's finally September and Lael Murphy is switching gears, leaving her position as Pastoral Associate and taking on the new role as Assistant Minister here at Old South. Lael, whose call to the Assistant Minister position was overwhelmingly supported by the congregation, is very excited about it, considering it not merely as an extension of her previous position, but as something new and different, full of new opportunities to become uniquely involved in the life and lives at Old South. She's looking to visiting parishioners, especially the elderly, in their homes, and is also glad to have a chance to spend more time with the Sunday School children. Another exciting change for Lael is that her husband Matthew will be joining the congregation (and choir!)

But one thing that will not change at all will be Lael's commitment to Saturday/Sunday's bread, a program which serves hot meals each weekend to hungry people in Boston. Lael will still be coordinating volunteer teams from Old South to serve there once a month (please see her if you'd like to volunteer!). This is Lael's fourteenth year working with this outreach ministry, a ministry which in many ways has been a cornerstone in her own path toward ordained ministry, her own journey, as she calls it, of discipleship.

It's a journey Lael embarked on early in life, when as a fourth-grade Sunday School student in Seattle, she heard the story of Jesus' calling of the first disciples, and wondered, "How should I be a disciple?" With that question she was off on a path that she says is full of adventure, mystery, and ultimately surprises. It certainly would have surprised — even shocked — Lael had someone suggested fourteen years ago that she consider parish ministry as a career. Upon graduating from Vassar College with a BA in English, Lael, like most bright college graduates, had headed straight for the corporate world and was working in Boston. Climbing into the pulpit each week to deliver a sermon was not exactly on her "To Do" list. Still actively committed however to the question she'd first asked in fourth grade, Lael found volunteering for Saturday/Sunday's Bread a natural way for her to embody the good news of Christ.

The experience affected her profoundly. Reaching out to others with social action, combined with her continued prayer and meditation, acted like yeast, she says, in her relationship with God. She began to be so filled with the experience of God's love that the next step for her was a natural out-flowing of this feeling. She decided in 1987 to leave the corporate world for social services, working for the City of Boston Commission on Affairs of the Elderly. After two years as an advocate for the elderly, becoming ever more aware of the isolation and unmet needs many of them experienced, Lael's journey as a disciple led her to take on a huge challenge: she founded and published a newspaper for the city's elderly population, at a time when advertisers were not all that interested in the elderly market. Talk about a leap of faith! But by this time Lael was used to leaping. As always, she was still navigating her journey by the questions she constantly challenged herself with: "How does God want me to live in this world?"; and "How can I apply my beliefs to my daily living?"

She was still active in Saturday/Sunday's Bread and had been working in hospital administration when she began to feel herself called to ordained ministry. As she writes in her Ministerial Profile, "At the time this beckoning both stunned and humbled me; I now gratefully and joyfully embrace it". She started Andover Newton Theological School believing she would become a hospital chaplain, but, as school has a way of uncovering unexpected talents and interests, Lael soon found herself accepting the position of Pastoral Associate with us at Old South. She writes: "This position enabled me to appreciate the joys and challenges of the ministry. Opportunities to preach, teach, lead and counsel opened my eyes and my heart more fully to God's call to serve in the United Church of Christ. I now feel called to this unique path." Lucky for us too, because she's darn good at it. Her main responsibilities in her position as Assistant Minister include Worship, Christian Education, and Pastoral Care. She compares these three roles to concentric spheres. The smallest and most intimate sphere is Pastoral Care, where in a one-on-one setting she can explore with individuals their own questions of vocation, discernment, faith development, and relationships with God. In the larger sphere of Adult Education, Lael works with small groups, doing Bible study and discussing the challenges of living in faith. The largest and widest reaching sphere (akin to her ongoing commitment to outreach) is that of the public worship service, where she joyously celebrates the Word and Spirit.

Lael seems supremely gifted in all of these spheres, perhaps because at their center, radiating life and fullness to all of them, is her own ever-growing relationship with God. Lael is a woman of profound faith and lived-experience of God's love, born of years of an active prayer life as well as the courage to say yes to God's call wherever it's led at any given moment. But although with her grace, warmth, and confident presence in the pulpit, Lael seems to have been born for parish ministry, she maintains that she arrived there only by taking her journey one step at a time. With each successive step, her faith and confidence grew, and the next step became clear. Where will she be in ten years? "I have no idea!" she says, laughing. "I just hope it's closer to God." Lael still very much sees herself as on a journey, one which she is traveling now with all of us at Old South. I like this concept. Because on a journey of discipleship, Lael is definitely the person to have as a companion. Her presence among us as Assistant Minister is serendipitous indeed, and a serious blessing! +