Ally Drummond’s favorite Bible verse is Micah 6:8: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? The verse captures the sense of calling which ultimately brought her to Perkins, where she’s now a second year M.Div. student.
“Micah 6:8 brought to light my desire to combine my passion for faith with my passion for social justice,” she said. “The more I focused on this verse, the more I realized that was my calling.”
And it’s no coincidence, she adds, that one of her summer internships while an undergraduate at the University of Missouri-Kansas City was a program called Micah Corps, centered on social justice issues and on bridging the gap between the church and the world. The internship program is part of the Great Plains Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Drummond says she sensed the first stirrings toward ministry as a high school sophomore.
“It started at the bedside of my grandpa in his hospice room,” she said. “That was my first experience of being in a hospice setting and being physically present while someone was dying. It was my first real intimate experience with the dying process. It opened a part of myself and led me to ask more questions.”
Another summer internship during college, serving in a church in congregational care, brought back those memories of her grandfather and solidified her sense of calling.
“I realized I couldn’t think of doing anything else,” she said. “I’m called to ministry for God with God’s people. God has been preparing me for this all along, before I could put the pieces together. Knowing this, I felt a deep indescribable sense of peace – the peace that passes all understanding.”
Once she decided to attend seminary, Drummond began checking out all the major United Methodist graduate schools of theology. Perkins stood out.
“Perkins not only offered an outstanding education, but among all the M.Div. programs, Perkins seemed to have a truly rich community, with people from all different life experiences and all walks of life,” she said. “I knew Perkins would challenge me to grow deeper in my faith and to be in community with students and professors who brought so many diverse backgrounds to the table.”
Today, Drummond is a certified candidate for ordination in the Great Plains Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Her studies are focused on practical ministry and practical theology. She completed an internship at Highland Park United Methodist Church, and now plans to return to the Kansas City area for her third-year internship, in congregational care at her home church, Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas.
Outside of her academic work, Drummond stays spiritually grounded by working with a spiritual director. She has also enjoyed serving on the Committee on Equity & Access at Perkins.
“It’s a group of staff, professors and students developing procedures to ensure that Perkins truly lives into its mission statement,” she said. “Lately we’ve been focused on how our curriculum can be both equitable and accessible to people of any race, gender, sexuality or with differing abilities – whatever that might look like. We’re looking at the whole experience of what it means to be a Perkins student.”