My Dear Fifth Avenue Family,

God is calling me to a new chapter in my ministry, away from congregational care, away from this church, and into hospital chaplaincy. Before I tell you about my new call, I want to tell you how you, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, made me a pastor.

Thirty-five years ago, when I arrived in New York City to start my Master of Divinity degree, I had no intention of working in parish ministry. Careers in social work, counseling, teaching, or chaplaincy all appealed to me more than church work. I didn’t even plan to enroll in the ordination process until my hometown pastor convinced me it would save time if I changed my mind. “Just do it,” he said, as if it were no big deal.

I gained bits of parish ministry experience through my field education and some post-seminary internships. After a summer unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) at Bellevue Hospital in 1993, I became “certified and ready to receive a call.” My attitude at the time was that perhaps I had a call to parish ministry, but I definitely needed a job.

I sent my resume around to NYC churches and took a temporary gig as a caseworker in supportive housing with formerly homeless, mentally ill seniors. When a church offered me a call that I thought would be perfect for me, I knew in my heart God wanted me to stay on as a caseworker in supportive housing.

I turned the job down, withdrew all my other church applications, and tried to drop out of the ordination process. My Committee on Preparation for Ministry urged patience, and eventually I was ordained. Fast-forward to September 2003: I felt God pushing me out of my work in supportive housing, but to what I didn’t know.

That April, my friend, the Rev. Nancy Ledger, told me about her job working ten hours a week at Fifth Avenue visiting homebound members. I said, “That would be the perfect job for me while I’m writing my MFA thesis.” She said, “I’m about to retire.” I became Parish Associate in June 2004.

Before long, I was working twenty, then thirty hours a week. In the spring of 2006, the Rev. Randy Weber asked me to join the staff full-time as Temporary Supply Pastor for Pastoral Care, a job that required coming into the church, participating in worship, attending board meetings, etc. Of course, I said no. But Randy asked again, and eventually, I recognized this was a call. My only full-time ministry experience at this point had been a nine-month internship, thirteen years earlier. This church had never had a pastor as unprepared to lead as I was.

My Fifth Avenue family, you saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. I became a pastor because of you. You trusted me, a true novice, to oversee Pastoral Care and work with your amazing deacons. A few months later, you trusted me to oversee Outreach Ministries, too, and work with the shelter, the befriending ministry, Meals on Heels, benevolences, and the Women’s Association.

Five years later, you called me to be your Associate Pastor for Congregational Care and Outreach. I spent ten more amazing years engaged in loving, caring, creative, inspiring, meaningful ministry with incredible colleagues and congregants.

When I stepped down from the Associate Pastor role, I felt a small tug to hospital chaplaincy, but soon realized God was calling me to a different role at Fifth Avenue. It has been a joy to spend these last three years serving as your Parish Visitor again, visiting members at home and in the hospital, supporting friends and family caregivers, comforting the grieving, and officiating at funerals and memorial services, sacred work that I will miss.

That small tug toward chaplaincy didn’t go away but grew stronger. To become a hospital chaplain, I need more Clinical Pastoral Education. I begin this summer with 12 weeks of CPE at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, followed by a 12-month residency at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, starting this fall. I don’t know what is in store after that, but I trust God will shine a light on my path in God’s good time.

My heart overflows with gratitude for this church. I’ve never had one dull day of work in the entire twenty years I’ve been here. I’ve been present for many changes: only one staff person remains from the team I started with (here’s looking at you, Derek Maddalena). I can’t say enough about the wise, faithful, inspiring, creative, and fun colleagues I’ve been blessed to work with over the years. I wish I could name and thank them all, but I have to limit myself to two.

Scott, I’m so glad I got a seat on the bus the first time you put a Senior Leadership Team together. It’s been an honor to do ministry with you these past sixteen years.

Werner, what a joy it has been to work with you these past three years, to experience firsthand your pastoral care and to bear witness to your wise, intuitive leadership. It’s so hard to leave, but you make it easier. I couldn’t have passed my baton to a better person.

And to you, the members of this church: you make this work the blessing that it is. I have borne witness to so much kindness, courage, and commitment, so much quiet, behind-the-scenes caregiving, so much seeing the face of Christ in others, so much rejoicing in the day the Lord has made, so much welcoming of the stranger, feeding the hungry and creating community, so much praying and trust in the power of prayer. So much love. So much love. So much love.

Thank you for our time together. I carry you in my heart. I welcome your prayers for my next chapter, and my prayers will be always with you.

With gratitude and love,

A message from the Rev. Werner Ramirez, Associate Pastor.

One of the things that I have learned from the Rev. Kate Dunn is that everyone has a calling. In my time at Fifth Avenue, I have seen her live out her calling in different ways while she affirms my calling and that of our other colleagues.

Grace and peace,
Werner Ramirez
Associate Pastor