Rev. Vanessa Titang

Tag: seminary

  • Big News: Preliminary Fellowship

    It is with sweet relief and fulfillment that word has reached me from the Unitarian Universalist Association that I have now achieved Preliminary Fellowship.


    In March, I was both content and disappointed in receiving a 2 (passing, but with contingencies) from my Ministerial Fellowship Committee (MFC) interview. Yet, I am appreciative that within me the MFC had seen my growing edges as well as my potential. I am grateful for this additional growth experience. Upon reading pieces on trauma (the book My Grandmother’s Hands, by Resmaa Menakem; and information from the UU Trauma Response Ministry (https://www.uutrm.org/), and taking 2 Renaissance Modules this summer (UU Theology and Teacher Development) my contingencies were fulfilled.


    In this time, the reprieve from direct ministerial practice and/or seminary study allowed me time and space for discernment of what ministry I am called to, and essentially, in answering “What comes next?” In these last months away from ministry (in an area unfortunately geographically isolated from UU settings) I have missed the community that UU faith creates. I am eager to dive back into this hard, beautiful, meaningful work of ministry. As such, at this time, with the wonderful news of entering Preliminary Fellowship, I am looking into contract ministry, with the intent to return to New England.


    Alas, through all of this, I am deeply appreciative of all who have supported and helped grow me to this point. Your love and wisdom are felt and recognized.
    In gratitude, I pray:

    May you, too, be held in gentle, wise hands
    that love, grow, and nurture you.
    May you too be continuously loved
    Into being.

    Amen.

  • Porous

    April 27, 2022

    Ministerial formation is a unique and significant process of understanding self, and through this growing wiser and closer to others. As a racial minority in this faith,  this region,  this country how this manifests for me is in many ways different that the experience of many of my peers. In formation both unnecessary and the needed protective layers of self are removed in the process, to grow anew. This poem is a reflection of the experience of vulnerability and growth in the formation process, particularly for members of minority and/or marginalized groups.

    Vulnerable;

    Stripped down to the root,

    The wick of my personhood,

    Bark removed,

    The damp core of wood exposed,

    Formation is just this

    –Formation;

    Here from a ready made structure

    It requires this stripping,

    For the careful identification of scars

    And gnarled roots;

    Grow anew

    New bark, new buds,

    And blooms will form,

    This regrowth is slow,

    Unperceivable without a microscope,

    Without awareness,

    But it occurs nonetheless,

    New growth forms skin,

    A new skin,

    A different skin,

    Not only providing protection,

    But also allowing breath;

    Porous,

    Not just a barrier,

    But filtering in

    The good.

  • But what does covenant mean; What does it mean to me?

    But what does covenant mean; What does it mean to me?

    Dear Ones,

    The last 5 months I have learned so much from my experience amongst the 3 church collaborative of Maine, as your ministerial intern. Currently, I am learning how to integrate pastoral care skills alongside worship to see the care of the individual and the congregation as a whole.

     In my time here and now in my final semester of divinity school I have come to appreciate the place and purpose of covenant in our faith spaces. When I first joined a Unitarian Universalist church in 2018 I found the emphasis on covenant new and a bit of a mystery.  I came to recognize the repetition of these covenants as part of a spiritual practice of joining and engaging in community.  It is in my final semester that I am really exploring and coming to understand what covenant means for and to us each.

    Oxford English dictionary defines covenant as follows,  

    1. an agreement.

    “there was a covenant between them that her name was never to be mentioned”

    • LAW

    a clause in a contract.

    • THEOLOGY

    an agreement which brings about a relationship of commitment between God and his people. The Jewish faith is based on the biblical covenants made with Abraham, Moses, and David.

     

    But the definition provided here  did not inform what I know is at the heart of covenant in UU churches.  Synonyms of “promise”, “pledge”, “vow” included later with this definition expressed the emotional, spiritual component in this kind of agreement.

    From my experience, yes, covenant is an agreement between people, but in their rarest form–with feelings exposed; markers of testament to the purpose and need for such powerful and yet delicate negotiation between human beings.  Covenant is us being authentically human and through agreements upholding expectations and granting grace.  This is a divine human spiritual contract. From this I now  appreciate why covenant remains such an integral piece of this faith, in upholding each of its 7 UU principles.

     

    My hope is that this exploration of covenant has filled you with curiosity and reaffirmed the value of covenant in our shared faith, as it has for me.

    With greatest blessings,

    Vanessa

     

  • Plates

    Plates

    Have you ever tried balancing?
    Balancing on one foot?
    On one foot with eyes closed?
    Putting faith in the process?
    And those around you?
    That as the plates are stacked on the poles you hold
     you will not be knocked over?
    The wind pushed from your lungs?
    The trust in everything diminished?

    You have faith in the gravitational force,
    Of something much bigger
    Than all those present,
    And use your sacred resources
    To strengthen
    Your stance
    Your intuition,
    Your trust,
    First and foremost,
    In yourself,
    For you are
    Held.

  • Formation

    Formation

    Formation is being the adult you always admired, but never thought you could be .

    It is developing figurative muscles you didn’t know lay under your skin.

    It is grasping a colleagues hand in solidarity,  knowing you are both invested in this same,  shared process.

    It is singing Woyaya and understanding the meaning,  despite not knowing the language. 

    Formation is bringing the you,  that was always meant to be into fruition.

    Baby steps that climb you up the mountain.

    One foot at a time.

    This is Formation,  left, right left.

  • Back in the Pulpit

    Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Castine

    Or I was, for a moment.

    After a year of it being zoom church only I finally had the honor of participating in and/or conducting service 3 times in person! (At Ferry Beach, in Belfast and Castine).

    Unfortunately though, the Covid-19 uptick with the Delta variant has us all concerned, And thus has us opting for virtual service again.

    C’est la vie.

    But before this there were some great in person moments…