Ordination not a 'lark' for all ULC ministers

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - Celebrities such as Mary Hart, Tony Danza, Courtney Love and all four of The Beatles were ordained by Universal Life Church. Andre Hensley, church pastor and president, said most people apply for the ordinations "for a lark." He estimated that about 25 percent of ULC ministers are actively using their credentials.

On one recent morning, he ordained people from London, Ohio, Tennessee, Santiago, Chile, and Christchurch, New Zealand. Ordaining means he forwards a request from his computer to another employee, who fills out the ordination form and puts it in the mail.

As opposed to the separate Universal Life Church in Seattle, called ULC Monastery Storehouse, the Modesto church "doesn't do instant ordinations online. We process it all to see if it's a legal address and person," Andre said.

For example, he said, "somebody called Nobody Inparticular Acres applied. We checked it out and he's a real person. He has a driver's license" in Alaska.

A ULC-authorized Web site, www.ulc.net, has a database of ULC ministers. They hail from everywhere across the United States and around the world.

The Modesto Bee contacted three local ministers _ Jimmy Vickery, 52, of Ceres, Calif.; Richard Ibarra, a 16-year-old Ceres student; and Terry Pellegrini, 47, of Modesto, Calif.

Vickery received his ordination 18 years ago and said he is "fairly active," using it for marriages, christenings and funerals.

"I always wanted to get ordained," said the retired county social worker. "I think it serves a purpose for those people who don't fit into the traditional scope of religion. I've known Wiccans to be ordained to perform their weddings. Other people, too."

He said most of his clients have been relatives or close friends. And he doesn't charge for his services, he added. "We don't ask for any money and we don't accept it."

Ibarra said he applied for his ordination certificate "about a month ago. When I get a little bit older, I want to help people find God in their own way."

The Central Valley High School student said he attends St. Jude's Catholic Church with his family and heard about the ordinations through a friend. "If things go right," he said, he would like to become an architect and minister.

Pellegrini, a fiscal services clerk with the court system, said she received her certificate in about 2000.

"I got my ordination because I was working with an alternative spirituality group and was asked to perform a wedding," she said. "I was also a member of Fellowship of the Earth at the time, (which met at) Universal Life Church. ... This was a perfect fit. Their basic tenets fit well with my own (do what is right), and I felt that I could be of some service once ordained."

Pellegrini said she has performed three weddings and one funeral and hopes to do more in the future.

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© 2009, The Modesto Bee (Modesto, Calif.).