Installation

While attending college and seminary, I worked in tech support. Since then I've fallen far behind on the technology curve, but the word “installation” is still more associated in my mind with software and hardware than with church. And so, as I prepared for my installation as pastor here in Novosibirsk, I began to reflect on what the church is doing when it publicly acknowledges a new call in this way.

And I've come to the conclusion that I certainly wouldn't call it “installing.”* In our current usage, installation usually relates to a thing (OpenOffice, a headlight, new carpeting) not a person. And if you look at the roots of the word, it is clear that the reference is to putting something into a specific place. I do not suppose that many pastors would much like to be “in-stalled;” even in rural places no one wants to feel like they've been put into cramped quarters for cattle. The “stall” root also brings to mind other negative connotations, for example a car that has broken down and is going nowhere...

While “installation” is a word with many mechanical associations, what the church is trying to do, I hope, is something more organic. To a degree this is reflected in the way “installation” is said in the church in Russian: введение в должность (vvedenie v dolzhnost'). The first two words are translated as “introduction to,” implying a beginning, a making of new acquaintances, and movement from the outside in. The next word means “appointment” or “official capacity,” but here, too, the root indicates something more than simply a job, it is an “obligation” or “duty.”

For me this new call to Siberia has nothing to do with getting “plugged in” like some new memory module for increased performance. Instead “installation” is a movement towards carrying out a set of holy duties in relationship to the community of faith. In my particular case, in being called to the pastor in Novosibirsk I've been given a fragile gift – a small and rather isolated congregation that is becoming aware of the transitions it is going through now and are yet to come. We do not have a computer for new software or a car for new parts or a building where new carpet would be appropriate. Instead, we have only the seed of faith, our relationships with one another, and our hope that the Spirit will stir new life within us for the good of our neighbors.

Here are a few pictures from the celebration of our new relationship, our faith and our hope.

In the center is a friend of the congregation, Brother Corrado from the Franciscan monastery. To his right is Andrey Filiptsov, my former student and pastor in Tomsk. In the first row is Svetlana, a Bible study leader in the congregation and soon to be a seminarian.  

With the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Urals, Siberia and Far East, Otto Schaude.

* A side note. One of my friends who speaks English as a second language wished me a good “inauguration.” While this felt flattering at first (“I'm much like a president!”), I then started thinking about the roots of this word – in / augur. Somehow I don't like the idea much that my service is based on agreement with augurs / omens.