Investiture. Officially joining the community.

This post was prepared in advance because I’m in the desert outside of Phoenix. Theoretically, if all went well and everyone made it where they were supposed to be on time, I am now invested into the Deaconess Community of the ELCA. That means my internship starts Monday (same church. different ‘credit’) and some people will start calling me ’sister’ under certain circumstances. Like when they want to be a smart-ass, for instance. But also, if they would call the pastor “Pastor So-and-so” they would address me as “Sister Not-Faint-hearted.” Not everyone all the time. It will still be weird, but that’s what internship time is for. To get used to weird stuff like people calling you ’sister’ in an official way.

The following is the text of an article written by someone on the synod board of Education and Vocation (the people who gate-keep who can be official leaders in the church…pastors, deaconesses, diaconal ministers, etc.) in an attempt to explain to the other big-wigs in the synod what the heck investiture means. Because even though the world has this intuitive knowledge that the church is supposed to be about serving each other, the institution of the church sometimes forgets that and gets all confused and thinks that the purpose of the church is perpetuate itself. Anyway, even that statement makes it sound like somebody is “better than” somebody else and the whole point is that we are not. We’re here to serve (help) each other.

Investiture marks a major step in the experience and development of candidates in the Deaconess Community. Frederick S. Weiser wrote simply in Love’s Response (1962), “Toward the conclusion of their years of resident study on the motherhouse campus the deaconess students are invested in the garb of the sisterhood and addressed as Sister. Investiture is an act of the sisterhood, admitting the student as a member.” (page 115)

As “an act of the sisterhood” investiture is to be distinguished from consecration, which is an act of the wider church upon receipt of the first call. It is a unique experience for a candidate and enriches the community with new gifts and commitment. There are a number of uses of this term and it is worth broadening our understanding of its meaning.

Investiture, from the Latin (preposition in and verb vestire, ‘to dress’ from vestis ‘robe’), is a general term for the formal installation of an incumbent in public office, especially by taking possession of its insignia. The term is normally reserved for formal offices of state, aristocracy and church.

In the feudal system investiture was the ceremonial transfer of a fief by an overlord to a vassal. The lord invested the vassal with a fiefdom, by giving a symbol of the land or office conveyed in return for an oath of fealty. From feudal times up to the present, the term has been used in ecclesiastical law to refer to a cleric receiving the symbols of spiritual office, such as the pastoral ring, mitre and staff, signifying transfer of the office.

In secular terms, investiture is used to describe the installation of individuals in institutions that usually have been in existence from feudal times. For example, the installation of heads of state and various other state functions with ceremonial roles are invested with office. Usually the investiture involves ceremonial transfer of the symbols of the particular office.

Judges in many countries, including justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, are invested with their office. American justices typically take two oaths: one to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and the other to apply the principle of Equal Protection to the rich and the poor. Likewise, university presidents, rectors and chancellors are invested with office.

Lay investiture was the appointment of bishops, abbots, and other church officials by feudal lords and vassals. The secular ruler usually invested the elect/appointee with the insignia of his ecclesiastic office, while the Pope crowned the Holy Roman Emperor (elected by the German Electoral Princes).

Investiture most closely parallels the act of profession in the intentional religious communities of other traditions. It can be useful to make a short examination of its meaning.

Profession, in a general religious sense, is a public avowal of faith according to a traditional formula. In this sense, a “professing Christian” is one who publicly claims to be following and supporting the Christian faith, usually according to one of the ecumenical creeds, such as the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, or specific denominational confessions such as the Lutheran Augsburg Confession or the Reformed Westminster Confession of Faith.

Profession may be considered either as a declaration openly made, or as a state of life publicly embraced. The origins of religious profession date from the time when Christians were recognized in the church as followers after “perfection” in the practice of religious life. We meet them in the third century, under the name of ascetics, called in Greek asketai, and in Latin confessores. The third-century church historian Eusebius (Hist. eccl., III, xxxvii) numbers among the ascetics illustrious leaders of the early centuries, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, and others.

For a long time profession was made by clothing with the religious habit: the aspirant could personally put on the habit or receive it, with or without ceremony, from the abbot or from the bishop. This clothing laid upon him or her the obligation of poverty and chastity more as a natural consequence of a donation of earthly possessions to the community or personal consecration to God than as arising from formal vows, which did not exist at that time. In the fourth century, come the hermits and monastics (i.e. “desert fathers and mothers” and early Benedictines), followed later by others like the mendicant orders (i.e. Franciscans and Dominicans) and the members of religious congregations (i.e. Jesuits, Sisters of Providence, Sisters of Charity).

Profession, in Christian monasticism, is the act of embracing the religious state by the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the “evangelical counsels”, as provided in the rule of a religious order. It involves then a triple vow made to God, and binding oneself to the rule of a certain order. There are often special vows inspired by the purpose of a particular order; for example, the Franciscans make a vow of special obedience to the pope and the Roman Catholic Church.

The word profession is used in a variety of ways. A profession can be a declaration or an occupation. We speak of professional preparation and ways of acting professionally or unprofessionally. Investiture is also related to words like invest and investment which remind us of aspects like the investment of self in the life of the community and the investment of the community in the life of the candidate.

We see that investiture in both church and secular settings involves clothing, symbols, vows or promises, responsibility and loyalty. Customarily, all these aspects have a place in the simple “act of the sisterhood” which is called investiture. The garb and pin and the ability to make promises of mutual faithfulness between candidate and community play a central role.

Some thoughts on the setting of investiture may be helpful. As all vocation in Christ springs from baptism it would be appropriate to connect investiture with an act of remembrance of and thanksgiving for baptism. Evangelical Lutheran Worship includes such a thanksgiving as a possibility at the beginning of the eucharist with a number of alternative prayers of thanksgiving. At times like the gathering, a special opening service might be prepared for the remembrance of baptism and investiture. It is not necessary to have an ordained leader for a remembrance of or thanksgiving for baptism, even at the beginning of an opening eucharist. The Directing Deaconess or her appointee would preside with the assistance of members of the community, clearly providing a beautiful and joyful act of the sisterhood, even when other members of the church and community are present to witness it.