That still, small voice

Pastor Elizabeth Diver’s journey to the ministry and beyond

By VICKI KOHLER

PORT JERVIS, NY — The pastor leading the children’s religion class paused and looked at the faces so full of potential and asked them, “And what do you want to be when you grow up?” One nine-year old girl’s answer was immediate. “I want to be a pastor!” she said exuberantly—silently—to herself. It was 1962, and being a female Lutheran pastor was not yet an option. She continued her inner dialogue. “Well, I could be a deaconess.” She paused. “But, is that like a... a Lutheran nun?” At nine years old, she didn’t have too many details. “Well, maybe I could marry a pastor.” But none of these possibilities answered that still, small voice that prompted her to affirm, “I want to be a pastor!” The class ended and she went back to school.

The Reverend Dr. Elizabeth Diver has been the pastor of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Port Jervis for 10 years. It took her some time to get to where she is, but the still, small voice never left her.

Diver, the youngest of three children, grew up in Hudson, where she attended a Lutheran church with her family. Her mother and father also grew up attending churches. Because of this lifelong relationship to the church, she has, at times, had to step back and examine her identity within the church. “There have been spots along the way where I’ve been challenged to consider if it’s really who I am or is it because of how I was raised. I’ve made some adult decisions that no institution is perfect... but the theology of the Lutheran Church is one that, even if I had not been raised in it, would still speak to me.”

In 1970, the Lutheran Church ordained its first women. Upon hearing this news as a senior in high school, said Pastor Diver, she felt something within her leap for joy. The following year, upon graduation, she left to attend Hartwick College in Oneonta to pursue music education. While in college, the ordination of women was again brought to her attention by another episode. The religion professor’s wife had gone to Yale University in the 1940s, earning a Master of Divinity degree and, 30 years later, was ordained. “It was very exciting to know of her. This was another awakening. But I had these ‘blinders’ on: I was going to be a music teacher. That’s why I went to school. That’s why we spent all that money.”

It took one year of teaching for Diver to realize it was not the career for her. Upon completion of that year, she went back to Oneonta and stayed with friends and worked two part-time jobs, one of which was in a bookstore. “Thus was born my bookstore career,” she said. That career lasted 14 years and consisted of managing several large Walden Bookstores in Syracuse, New York City and the state of Florida. While in Florida, she realized the time had come to talk to her pastor about her desire to become a pastor. “I needed to have my desire confirmed and affirmed by another person. By that time, I felt strong enough to be able to articulate this desire and this call to my pastor.”

Pastor Diver attended the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in South Carolina and was ordained in 1992. Upon graduation, she spent three and one-half years in a shared pastorate at St. Paul’s in Liberty and Christ Church in Ellenville. During that time, she also filled in as vacancy pastor at St. Peter’s in Port Jervis, where she became full-time pastor. She has been with them for 10 years. The congregation of St. Peter’s has been very supportive of her pursuit of education. In May, she graduated from Drew University with a Doctor of Ministry, and this fall she will be opening a practice for pastoral counseling with an office on North Broome Street in Port Jervis.

Music plays an important part in the life of St. Peter’s. During the vacancy pastorate at St. Peter’s, Pastor Diver and two parishioners put their musical talents together and formed “Voices of Peace.” The group now consists of Pastor Diver and the church’s minister of music, Kathy Brink. “Our mission is to bring global sacred music to the community, whether it’s a church event or a civic event,” said Pastor Diver.

A visit to Tanzania, Africa in 1998 deepened Pastor Diver’s understanding of the global church. The relationship between the local and the global is of the utmost importance to her. “I am a very strong proponent of ecumenism—the philosophy, the theology of ecumenism [defined as the movement promoting unity among Christian churches or denominations]. This is a dialogue of finding out where we are one together, and this is the call of Jesus. I certainly appreciate that people like to worship differently and worship with the traditions they’ve grown up with or are used to, but we need to find the places where we have things in common rather than look for our differences. We can certainly celebrate our differences, but when they become divisive, it is counter to the Gospel. Ecumenism needs to be informed by global dialogue and global understanding of who we are in Christ, but it also needs to be expressed locally.”

For more information about St. Peter’s or to reach Pastor Diver, call 845/856-1033.

(This is the third installment of a continuing series about women in the ministry.)