Ordination of Sister Monica Clare, csjb

But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Romans 10:14-15




This is a day of good news! It’s a day that many of us have waited and longed for; not least of all by the ordinand herself. It’s the day that the Church will be blessed with the start of the ordained ministry of the Rev. Sister Monica Clare, Deacon.

It’s not just that we are happy for Sister Monica and the Community of St John Baptist (though of course we are); instead, this ordination and every ordination is a gift to the Church and to all God’s People – which means, as Bishop Hughes so often says, all people.

All people are God’s People. And all people need to hear, and see, and know the love and grace of Jesus Christ in their lives. They need to see and hear and know in their very bones that God has not forgotten them; that God is for them and not against them; that God loves us just as much when we are at our very worst as when we are at our best.

God’s love never fails or forsakes us. This is the Good News. This is the truth that the world is literally dying to hear.

There is so much surrounding us that seeks to divide and conquer, so many forces that laugh at human frailty and scoff at compassion, mercy, and faithfulness. This darkness wounds our spirits and souls, and sometimes our bodies and our families – and if not ours, then the bodies and families of our neighbors, co-workers, friends, parishioners, and fellow human beings.

The darkness is not new; it has been with us since shortly after the dawn of time. And it has ebbed and flowed throughout history, even when we have not been personally aware of it. But we are aware now – and awake, as Jesus bids us in this Advent season. We see the dangers of the darkness, and we know that the One who was and is and is to come, “the One more powerful than I” as John the Baptist said, is the One who overcomes and undoes the darkness.

In CS Lewis’ words: (and this is Aslan speaking in ‘The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe’)"… there is a magic deeper still which [the Witch] did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and the darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation… and Death itself would start working backward."

Jesus’ life and ministry and death and resurrection are that deeper magic that we Christ-followers know; it is the Good News we have to share with the world around us. It’s the Good News that a deacon embodies and exemplifies - prayer and service, contemplation and action, worship and hands-on ministry.
A deacon stands on the threshold of the Church door, leading the faithful out in humility and care to serve the least, the lost, and the lonely, and then interpreting to the Church “the needs, concerns, and hopes of the world”.

This kind of ministry is not new to Sister Monica, and it is not new to the Community of St. John Baptist. One hundred and seventy-three years ago Mother Harriet was professed and became the first Superior of the Community on the Feast of St Andrew, November 30, 1852. St Andrew, you remember in John’s telling, was the one who saw and heard Jesus, and then went and brought his brother Simon Peter to meet the Messiah – Good News Incarnate.

Throughout the Community’s life works of mercy have flowed organically from devotion, worship, and prayer – often in ways that have been bold and have run counter to society’s expectation of what “nice Christian ladies” should be engaged in: providing a home, education, and skills to women trapped in prostitution on the streets of Victorian Windsor; settlement work among German immigrants on the Lower East Side of Manhattan; giving mothers and children from poor urban areas the refreshment of a summer vacation in the countryside; being instrumental in the founding of a men’s religious order; running schools, hospitals, and convalescent homes; crossing racial lines in work with inner-city children in their faith formation; providing countless hours of spiritual hospitality in retreats, quiet days, and spiritual direction; supporting and guiding children in Camaroon orphaned by AIDS.

And in recent years, Sister Monica (in particular, with the support of Sister Laura Katherine) began a ministry of offering basic needs and prayer with homeless people in Times Square.

She’s also been reaching out through TikTok videos to people online who wonder if God has abandoned them because they cannot see themselves in the Church, or because the Church has actively excluded them, told them they were not wanted. Her message of God’s love and welcome for all people, no matter their circumstances or skepticism is powerful Good News.

All of this ministry is undergirded by faithful daily prayer and worship, rooted in the Scriptures, and honed and burnished by life in community. It is what the Church’s mission has always been, even when we chose to ignore it, find it inconvenient, or watered it down.

This is what Jesus has called us to from the very beginning, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to love and serve our neighbor as our selves. It’s that simple and straight-forward, and also profoundly difficult and sometimes risky and dangerous. But it is only Good News of this depth and scope that can save the world and us. We cannot do so on our own power, wisdom, and strength. And we certainly cannot keep it to ourselves.

Like the manna in the wilderness, which God gave as sustenance to God’s People every day; but if they tried to hoard it from one day to the next, the food would spoil and become inedible. So when we hoard the Good News of God in Christ, when we keep Jesus’ message and ministry of care to ourselves and only for ourselves, that message becomes twisted and ingrown and begins to look and sound less and less like the salvation that come from Love Incarnate.

Sister Monica Clare, a number of years ago, when you were being recalled to Mendham from the Community’s work in New York, you told me about your sense of call to ordained ministry. Do you remember that phone call?

You asked me what I thought, and I asked you a question in return: if you had to choose being a Sister and being ordained, which would you choose? Your answer came, swift and sure – “Being a Sister”. And I said, “Then I will support you”.

The world needs Christians who are grounded in prayer and centered in community life if we are to ever be useful agents of God’s healing love. The Good News we proclaim is that, in God’s house, “there is plenty good room” – a house, a home where we all belong.

It is often traditional in an ordination sermon to give a charge to the ordinand. But today I would like to give a charge to the entire congregation. Please stand, if possible, and remain standing until Bishop Hughes begins the Creed.

Here is your charge: Dear People of God, we are each and together loved, redeemed, welcomed, forgiven, washed, renewed, fed with the Life of Christ, and sent out to serve the world in Jesus’ name with the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

As Sister Monica takes her diaconal vows, take this as an opportunity to refresh or begin a-new your own service to God’s world, this of all things which would rejoice God’s heart: to serve in prayer and action “the poor and the helpless; the hungry and the oppressed; the sick and those who mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and the little children; and all those who know not the Lord Jesus, or who love him not, or who by sin have grieved his heart of love” (from the Advent Bidding Prayer).

Let this be your duty and delight, your living of the Good News of God in Christ. Amen.

Victoria Geer McGrath
All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Millington, NJ
Ordination of Sister Monica Clare, csjb
Eve of St Andrew, November 30, 2025

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