On a chilly day in December 2007, friends and family of the Rev. Janice Ford waited in the ornate Christ Church Cathedral, Springfield, adorned with red and white poinsettias left from the Christmas services. The church glowed with an almost ethereal light.

Janice views her role as the newest deacon in the Diocese with extreme importance. “The role of the deacon is to bring the Word of God to the community outside the Church and to bring the needs of the community to the attention of the Church,” she explains. “As a deacon, I can assist the priest at worship, proclaim the Gospel and assist the Bishop as needed.

“For me,” Janice adds, “becoming a deacon is an incredible blessing, not only because it brings me one step closer to priesthood, but also because it offers me another way to serve.”

As a deacon, Janice, of Mendon, will serve at St. John’s, Sutton, while she prepares for the next step in her spiritual journey: being ordained as a priest this summer. Her home parish, Trinity, Milford, has sponsored her during her ordination.

Janice explains that while she felt the call of God since her youth in the Roman Catholic Church, it took her a few years to decide to attend seminary. During that time, she worked as the Diocesan health missioner. A trained nurse, she also did pastoral care at Trinity, Milford. “I absolutely believe that the work I did as a nurse, nurse educator and health minister were part of God’s call to me.  It was a ministry all its own.”

In addition to her new role as a deacon, Janice is looking forward to graduating from Andover Newton Theological School in May and becoming an ordained priest in the Diocese.

“I can’t explain why God called me to priesthood,” she says.  “I have no idea. I just know that I had to be obedient to that call. I’ve depended on God to show me the way.” 

Janice has a master’s degree in nursing and has taught nursing at local colleges, including Anna Maria College, Worcester State College and Becker College.

She says her family – especially her husband of 26 years, Rod, and her son, Eric – have been supportive in her pursuit of spiritual work.

Though the days before ordination were busy – Janice finished the semester at seminary, prepared for Christmas and her ordination and prepared for her General Ordination Exams, which began in January – she says she was able to spend time with God, praying and reflecting on her upcoming ordination.  “I prayed for the readiness to begin this new chapter of my life,” she says.

With the formal processional, introduction and pronouncement of her ordination into the order of deacons, Janice says she wasn’t nervous at all.  “I had some jitters the morning of the ordination, but I had a deep sense of calm overall. I don’t think I can adequately describe how I felt during the service itself. I was incredibly happy. I felt God’s presence,” she says.

With a strong and steady voice, she affirmed before the bishop, the congregation and God that she truly believed that God was calling her to the life and work of a deacon. 

As she knelt before the bishop for the Consecration, she says she “knew the Holy Spirit was there. I had a hard time believing I could be worthy to serve God in this way. It was absolutely amazing.”

Standing beside the bishop during Communion, Janice says she felt as if “everything was glowing.”  She calls it all “an incredible gift we have been given in the grace and love of God.”

By Rebecca Schneider, a frequent contributor to the Pastoral Staff.

During the ordination of the newest Diocesan deacon, the Rev. Janice Ford, Bishop Gordon Scruton urged those present to keep in mind what the day was really focused on.

“While we are here to ordain Janice,” said the bishop, pictured at right with Janice, “we must not forget the main point of this service, which is that God is calling all of us to join Him in creating his new world on this planet.”

The bishop said even though there is death, disease and a certain evil within the world, God has not forgotten us.  “He invites each of us, daily, to allow the Holy Spirit to talk with us and to fill our lives” in our combined quest to make the world a better place.

Of Janice, Bishop Scruton said she felt God’s call as a young girl. “Having grown up in the Catholic Church, she sought other ways to minister God’s word” by working as a nurse and a nurse educator, in both parish and secular health care. Now, she has been called to study at seminary to become a priest; to pastor and to teach in the community.”

Just as God helped to form Janice’s path, the bishop said so, too, God forms everyone. “God is with us – providing mentors, education and a calling.  God uses all of the people and experiences of our lives to fulfill his mission for each of us on Earth,” he said.  “Today, we should thank God for all the people in our lives who are helping us to live His ministry on Earth.”

The bishop said Janice, “will serve to connect the Church to the needs of the world and to bring those needs to the community of the Church,” but it is the Church’s responsibility, as a whole, to minister to the world. 

“God sends all of us out to work and serve the needs of the world,” he added. “Jesus created this Church not for the people of the ministry, but to serve the needs of the world. We are but slaves to Jesus and God’s ministry, and we are called to this life of servant ministry.”