Finding God in Unexpected Encounters

[Editors’ note: Josefina Gabuya is a 2018 awardee of the Lucile Murray Durkin Scholarship for Women Discerning Priestly Ordination. This is the last in a series of reflections from our 2018 awardees on how the scholarship impacted their journey over the academic year. Read the first reflection, from Allison Connelly, here, and the second from MaryClare O’Brien-Wilson here.

As a Member in Discernment (MID) of the Northern California Nevada Conference-United Church of Christ (NCNC-UCC), I have been inspired to be unceasingly open to the movement of the Spirit of God in me, like in the song:

 Blowing to greatness the trees on the hill.

Spirit of God in the finger of morning:

Fill the earth, bring it to birth,

And blow where you will.

 Blow, blow, blow till I be

But the breath of the Spirit blowing in me.

In my evolving self-understanding of call, I have continued to be open to a variety of outcomes, including the unexpected ones. And, I am deeply grateful to the Lucile Murray Durkin Scholarship of the Women’s Ordination Conference. Not only did it cover some of my living expenses as a Master of Divinity (MDiv) student at Pacific School of Religion, but also it enable me to actively participate in the NCNC-UCC’s Annual Gathering and other activities within my network of interfaith denominations and nonprofit organizations.

Also, the Lucile Murray Durkin Scholarship had helped me to continue with my journey toward pastoral ministry, through/with the United Church of Christ, and not in the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), where I had dreamed of entering the priesthood since I was four years old. Although I am saddened by the RCC hierarchy’s vehement refusal to ordain women, I am still hoping that the Divine/God/Holy Spirit/Jesus the Christ will enlighten the minds of the RCC’s leadership and remind them about the egalitarian leadership in the early Church, where women, such as Prisca, Junia, and Phoebe were leaders and ministers of house churches. They were the co-workers of Jesus Christ and of Paul, the apostle.    

I have been in covenant with myself, my local faith community, and my denomination, who are helping me discern and prepare for authorized ministry in and on behalf of the United Church of Christ. I feel blessed with the support of my local congregation and my denomination. They are my active partners in listening for a call while I am completing my pastoral formation as an Asian non-binary and transgender person.

I am currently finishing my Clinical Pastoral Education at Gundersen Health in La Crosse, Wisconsin where I have imbibed several pastoral/spiritual images – Wounded Healer, Circus Clown, Diagnostician, Gardener, Wise Fool reframed, and the Feminist Pedagogues as Voice Coach. In doing so, I have been able to “ground” my “soil” in my assigned units in the hospital, in the Spiritual Care Unit, and in other places where I have encountered and met God through people and patients of diverse cultures, ages, ethnicity/race, gender identities, religious affiliations, and other demographics. I have been particularly drawn to individuals/persons who are/were victims and/or survivors of different forms of abuses, discrimination, microaggression, and violence whose stories and life experiences remind me of Christ’s own suffering. So, I have been making connections with these persons/individuals, to help them remove anything that hinders them from attaining full human development. I hear God’s call through my encounters with them. And, I find God’s joy in all of them!