Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper to Celebrate 50 Years of Ordination

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Later this year, Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper, Faculty Associate in Religious Leadership, will celebrate 50 years of ordination, and a big celebration is planned.

It all started many years ago when Donna was a child and her father was abusive toward her mother. She called the pastor of their church, and he came to help. Then and there, Donna decided she wanted to be just like him. She started baptizing her dolls and giving them communion. “Everybody said women can’t do that,” Donna said, adding with a smile. “And I said, well, watch me.”

In fact, in her Lutheran tradition, women could not be ordained. Donna tried to make it possible, but they kept sending her back for more school. She went to six years of seminary instead of four. “They didn’t want to admit aloud that it wasn’t my education or preparation,” she said. “They weren’t ordaining me.”

Not content with that, with difficulty, Donna switched to the United Church of Christ. A couple of years later, she was ordained. 

Donna practices what she calls public ministry and lives under the motto “spiritual nurture for public capacity.” That means she not only serves her parish but also others in need. She also works to change the social conditions that create such needs. She has been an activist in political, economic development, and interfaith issues. At some point, she served as a Jane, a woman who gave abortions prior to the Roe vs. Wade ruling in 1973.

“I think in the first 30 years, I was always finding shelters or soup kitchens, just getting active taking care of people’s basic needs,” Donna said. “Then I became a little more strategic; I wanted to do more than just charity.” 

When she moved to New York 18 years ago, she created a community ministry program that trained more than 100 community ministers to do public ministry, as she did. “I felt so much ministry is privatized. If you belong to the church, you get the services; if you don't, you don't,” Donna said. 

“In 2005, I researched what was the cause of the most trouble in New York City, and it was immigration,” she said. “It was all these people not being welcomed.”

She began working in conjunction with the New York City New Sanctuary Movement and the Judson Memorial Church, where she served as a pastor. This movement focused on immigrants facing detention and deportation unjustly, "which wasn't just housing people in churches and hiding them, it was also helping them have legal redress," she said. They trained thousands of volunteers to learn the law and manage the language. "We were very effective in keeping people from being detained or deported."

“I spent a lot of time at ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] federal plaza accompanying people and trying to say out loud, 'Look, you are welcome here, we welcome you, maybe the government doesn't, but we do,' ” she said. 

She has also pioneered multifaith liturgy at New York University with the campus ministries, and so much more, including publishing 38 books. 

After serving for 15 years at the Judson Memorial Church and retiring, she is still nurturing her community. She helps the organization Bricks and Mortals, which empowers faith-based organizations in New York to maximize their buildings and property to serve their communities.

“This is what I’m doing now,” Donna said. “I call it rewirement, because I’m not really retired. I’m just plugging into a different resource, not working as a parish pastor anymore.”

In her decades of service, approximately, she had also done 474 weddings; 244 funerals; 114 baptisms, 205 students in classes; 114 baptisms; 9 youth groups; 112 interns; 335 ordinations; 1,594 sermons that deserve a celebration. 

On Saturday, Oct. 21, at 30 Main Street, Salisbury, CT, a celebration will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. to honor the 50th anniversary of her ordination on Oct. 31, 1973, in the United Church of Christ.

All are welcome. If you can be there in person, RSVP to Donna’s longtime friend, Angela Lomanto, at angela.lomanto@gmail.com. If you can’t come, you can send an email, mail, or video for a scrapbook of memories and hopes. Angela has agreed to compile letters into a book called Grace Notes. Her mailing address is 326 N. Plain Road, Great Barrington, MA 01236 or email angela.lomanto@gmail.com.