From Lutheran priest to pastor of St. Stephen Orthodox Church, the Rev. Benjamin Kjendal’s journey has been one of faith, family

Cori Urban – 16/9/13

SPRINGFIELD –The spiritual journey of the Rev. Benjamin A. Kjendal, pastor of St. Stephen Orthodox Church, a Western rite mission of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, , began in the Lutheran Church.

But, after regularly attending Saturday evening vespers and Sunday morning liturgies in the Orthodox Church, the former Lutheran pastor was ordained, in June, to the priesthood in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. He began his assignment as pastor of St. Stephen’s.on July 3.

“The beauty of the (Orthodox) liturgy, of the teachings of the Church and of the people themselves was overwhelming,” he said of his experience with the church he attended in Fort Wayne, Ind., where he graduated from Concordia Theological Seminary with master of divinity degree in 2006.
At the time, he was preparing to be a Lutheran pastor. After his last year of seminary he accepted a call to serve as pastor at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brooklyn.

“My congregation was wonderful, they were liturgical, and I loved the dynamic of working in a city church,” he said.

But something was still lacking.

“Two years into my service there, preaching through the Easter season on the Acts of the Apostles, I realized I could no longer in good conscience remain a Lutheran pastor,” he said.

The website of the archdiocese, http://www.antiochian.org/ notes that as the Orthodox Church (she) “has avoided both the excesses of papal rule and of congregational independence. She understands the clergy as servants of Christ and His people and not as a special privileged class. She preserved the Apostles’ doctrine of the return of Christ at the end of the age, of the last judgement and eternal life, and continues to encourage her people to grow in Christ through union with Him.”

Infant communion, the liturgy, the unity of doctrine and practice, the role of the human will in salvation and the Holy Spirit in the Church and the authority of bishops are among the issues that for Kjendal had no satisfactory answers in the Lutheran Church.

“And the beauty and love that we had found in the Orthodox Church several years before in Fort Wayne was there at the Orthodox Church in Bay Ridge (Brooklyn), as well,” he said of the liturgies he attended with his family.

A Southbury, Conn., native, Kjendal left his pastorate and took a secular job as an engineer in Massachusetts and converted to Orthodoxy.

“And that is a journey that doesn’t end,” Kjendal said. “We are always striving to learn more, to grow in our faith, and to become closer to God, to become more like Him.”

His ministry has included service as an assistant pastor at Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church in Brookings, S.D., mainly focusing on campus ministry at South Dakota State University. He assisted at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne during his final year of seminary.

“I work well with young adults and the elderly — and hopefully those in between!” Kjendal said when asked about what he brings to the ministry.

He and his wife, Alyssa, were married in 2004. They have five children: Erika, 8; Anders, 7; Mary, 5; Nicholas, 3; and Peter, 1. They are expecting a baby in late fall.

Kjendal likes to hike and camp; he runs and swims regularly.

“Just about anything I can do outside interests me,” he said. “At the same time, I am a bit of a technophile.”

In discussing challenges for organizaed religion today, Kjendal said there are persons who try to sow discord, trying to cast doubt on the faith as it has been handed down from the beginning.

“There are those whose pride causes obstacles to unity and concord. Pride in general is such a difficult sin to overcome.”

Apathy is also a challenge because “so many people have convinced themselves they just don’t care about beauty,” about the fullness of life, about God, he said.

“And then of course there is the secularization of our society. This in some ways encompasses pride, in ourselves, and apathy toward God and others. We have so much to distract us from what is truly needful, so many telling us to look inward for what is good and right that we have set aside the truly Good One, the One for Whom our need is greatest.”

He added, it is “hard for us humans to let go of ourselves, to decrease. But only in doing so can we shine forth in our communities as the very light of Christ, the love of God in flesh and blood that we are called to be.”

“I will try to love the people here as God loves,” the pastor said.” I will bring Jesus to them that they might go forth and bring Jesus to the world around them.”

His words echo the mission statement of the Church, which reads in part, that church exists to “Worship God the way He desires to be worshipped – This means that God Himself defines worship, not us. Secondly, it means that our clergy have the proper apostolic authority to lead the parish in worship. Authority comes from the Church, and must be given not taken. Thirdly, it means that we adopt, in full, the liturgy of the Mass and the life of the Church as it has been handed down to us”

St. Stephen Orthodox Church holds its services in the sanctuary of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 400 Wilbraham Road, Springfield. It has about 50 members. It began in 2004 as a Bible study group.

The congregation celebrates Holy Mass at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings, followed by fellowship from 10:45 to noon.

For more information, visit http://www.stsoc.org/

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