On Sept. 15, Rebecca (Reba) Yeo and Mona Smart were ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacon (transitional) at Christ Church Cathedral.
Mona Smart lives on Gabriola Island and her home parish is Christ Church Gabriola, an Anglican-United collaborative church. She has a masters of theological studies from St. Stephen’s College, University of Alberta campus, and a graduate diploma in theological studies from Vancouver School of Theology. Mona intends to pursue further advanced education in theology.
Rebecca Yeo (they/them) is a recent graduate of the MDiv programme at Vancouver School of Theology. They are also working on a master’s in interreligious and indigenous studies, with plans for a second graduation in 2025. Rebecca’s home parish is The AbbeyChurch, where they are poet-in-residence, and they are a spiritual care provider at the University of Victoria Multifaith Centre. Rebecca lives on the Saanich Peninsula.
During the ordination service, Juli Mallett, associate priest at St Andrew’s, Sidney, delivered the homily. Juli opened her homily by proclaiming that “to offer yourself for ordination in the church is unquestionably foolishness in the world’s sight.” She went on to say, “It isn’t very practical. It’s certainly not pragmatic. It’s not the best use of your skills according to what the market will bear, and we don’t ordain people simply because it seems like a good idea. Nor is it a prize to be earned.”
Rather, Juli explained, ordination is about vocation. Not a vocation in the sense of a job, but in the sense of — in the words of theologian Frederick Buechner — “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Juli spoke about the process of discernment broadly as “any process by which we try to figure out what God is up to in the world.” She described this as an open-ended process, as “not a process of deciding, but one of holding space for becoming… Discernment is about listening for your deep gladness, is about trying to feel the world’s deep hunger.”
But, Juli pointed out, discernment is not just a journey of individual transformation undertaken by the ordinand. Rather, it is a question of whether the church is also willing to be transformed by what God is up to, in this case, in the persons of Rebecca and Mona.
Addressing Rebecca and Mona, Juli said, “As a church, we proclaim that we wish to be changed by you, to be challenged by you, to be enriched by you. We will be changed by how you live and who you are.” Juli stated that the church would also support them in the grand vocation of being fully alive, of being fully themselves.
Bishop Anna echoed Juli’s homily as she closed the service. “Whoever you are and whatever brought you here today, know that you are deeply, deeply loved just as you are. And know that you have a vocation, that there is a place where your deep joy and the world’s deep hunger meet. May God meet you there and bless you with the courage, strength, grace and wisdom to live out that vocation.”
Below is a gallery of images from the ordination. To watch the full service and view the order of service, visit the cathedral website.
