Farewell to Minneapolis

We are walking through airport concourses this afternoon, as we travel from Minneapolis. It is a nice day to fly.

The past couple of days I have posted "just the facts" of the decisions the assembly made. That was deliberate for a few reasons, some of which include the amount of time available to write with careful thought. When we were not in session we were usually talking with other voting members, or just plain wiped out and it was time to sleep.

Now as I sit in an airport terminal, I am by myself for the first time in quite a while. This morning we closed the assembly with the way we opened it, by receiving the Holy Eucharist. As it turned out, today I received the body of Christ from the Presiding Bishop. It was significant for me that this week I received the Holy Communion from him and, earlier in the week, from Bishop Hoover. I was thinking, how can I help them in the future? How can I help my colleagues in the future? How can I help our congregations? A reoccurring prayer petition for the past few days has been, "God, help me help."

After all, prior to this assembly we already had several issues before the congregations of our synod. Issues such as defining our evangelical mission, providing faithful word and sacrament worship every week, helping congregations to talk with each other about working more closely together in order to be the Lutheran witness in their communities.

All of these issues are potentially controversial to our future evangelical mission. Every one of them comes with their own traumas and pitfalls. The decisions of the assembly this week bring to us more issues, and more questions. What to do?

I think what the assembly did on Saturday afternoon is an example for us to follow. We went into small groups to study the story of the man lowered through the roof of the house by his friends, who Jesus healed, and who was instructed to pick up his mat, walk, and rejoin his friends. We talked in our small groups about what will come next and everyone did so in a thoughtful, caring, grace filled manner. Let's try that example. Remain together. Talk in our groups. Worship and pray and sing together. Take time. God has been working on humanity for a long time. Let God come to us in God's time.

That story tells of several things, most notably the power of Jesus to heal and the power of faith in our lives. We would do well to remember that. Pray to the one who powers faith and who heals. Let's let the body of Christ, be the body of Christ. To paraphrase St. Paul, the hands and the eyes and the arms of the Body of Christ need each other. They are all very different. But they all contribute greatly to the witness we wish to make as one of the disciples of Jesus.

It is soon time to get on the airplane. Thank you for permitting me to be with our great delegation . I am encourgaed by their faithful withness. All of them with their varied opinions, carried out their call as a voting member faithfully. The people of Minneapolis were wonderful hosts. I hope I can return here some day to see more of the city than just the convention center and a hotel room.

And thanks to God who calls and propells us into the field of evangelical mission.

"For the peace of the whole world, for the well being of the church of God and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord. Help, save, comfort and defend us, gracious Lord."

"Lord have mercy."

So long from Minneapolis.

Saturday Photos

Central Lutheran Church was the site of the noontime worship service.

Final Day of Work

Today turned out to be the final day of business for the churchwide assembly. Several votes were taken, and in no particular order here are the highlights:

Mr. Carlos Pena was reelected vice president of the ELCA on the 4th ballot. He received just over the needed 60% of the vote in order to be elected.

Over 81% of voting members voted to authorize work to be done on a social statement on justice for women, to be presented to the 2015 churchwide assembly.

Approved constitutional provisions to require that churchwide and synod assemblies include at least 10% youth and young adult membership.

It was also announced that the next churchwide assembly, in 2011, will be held in Orlando, Florida.

We also spent one hour in Bible study discussing the future mission of the church. The text chosen to study was St. Mark 2:1-12.

The assembly ends as it began, by celebrating the Holy Eucharist tomorrow morning.

Friday Photos

1) Peter Mayer, one of Jimmy Buffett's band members, sings during the afternoon Bible study.

2) One of the prayer stations in the worship space.

3) The local televisions stations were very noticable today.

4 Ministry Proposals Adopted

By the end of this very long day, the churchwide assembly approved all four proposals for ministry policies.

Two were decided in the morning session. After changing the order for consideration, what had been the third proposal was considered first. I'm sorry I do not have my notebook with me to tell you the specifics of each proposal. This first proposal was approved with 77 per cent of the vote.

The next three votes were closer. The second proposal was approved by 61 per cent. But it was the third proposal which had the closest vote: 55% to 45%. The final proposal was adopted by 68% of the vote.

It was a very emotional day. And during it I observed a great number of people offering care and prayer to each other. Much praying was going on, even when we were not prompted to do so. People who have opposite opinions on the issues were talking and embracing and praying with each other. If I may offer one opinion, seeing that prayerful activity with my own eyes is an example for us to follow in these next weeks and months.

There was other business today. Most notably is that the election for vice president is going to proceed to a fourth ballot. The three finalists will speak to us tomorrow. There are still several items remaining on the agenda. Saturday looks like it will equally long.

Companion Synod Dinner

Tonight after the session ended, we broke bread with our companion synod, the Northern Illinois Synod. It was a very enjoyable time for us. We learned about the geography of Northern Illinois and they learned about shoo fly pie! Here are some photos of the dinner. As you can see today was also "Wear Your Konde Diocese Shirt Day." We had several opportunities to talk to people about our international companion synod.

No Close Votes Today

The afternoon session was long. Real long. We were in place for four and a half hours.
In no particular order the following items were approved by the assembly:

1) The implementing resolutions to the social statement on human sexuality were approved with a vote of 71%. More people voted for the implementing resolutions than voted for the statement yesterday.

2) The full communion agreement with the United Methodist Church was approved with more than 94% of the vote.

3)A resolution calling for action on health care reform passed with more than 86 percent of the vote.

One item that several people thought would be concluded by now is the election for vice president. After two ballots, the incumbant vice president, Carlos Pena received 67% of the vote. You needed 75% of the vote to be elected on the second ballot. So the top eight vote getters (8 because there was a tie for 7th place) will be presented to us tomorrow.

Worship Space

Here are three images of the worship space at the assembly. The very large book of the gospels is located in the middle of the assembly. The assembly choir offered music at the Holy Eucharist today.



There was no action taken in the Thursday morning session. The session consisted of people offering opinions on the ministry practices proposals. These are the proposals which will require a majority vote for adoption. An attempt to change the margin for adoption from a majority to two thirds failed on Monday night. We are soon to return for the afternoon session.

Two Thirds

After getting dinner and talking with some of our voting members last night, it got too late to write something. In other words I couldn't stay awake. The schedule for Thursday has us beginning just after 7am.

I'm sure you have heard the phrase "every vote counts." The social statement needed 66.66% to be adopted. It received 66.67%. So two thirds of the assembly did approve the statement.

Bishop Hanson was clearly taken by surprise. And keeping to his pattern, he consulted with his staff to make sure he was making the correct ruling. After his consultation did he rule on the vote.

This vote and the tornado warning probably were the stories coming out of Minneapolis Wednesday. The tornado warning came while we were in the midst of a Bible study on the parable of the "Prodigal Son." A woman singing a hymn occurred at the same time warning sirens were going off. Then a little later you could hear the rain hitting the roof of the building.

There were other things happening in this heavily scheduled day. More than 91% approved a memorial calling for immigration reform. More than 97% approved the memorial from Project Connect calling for greater emphasis for racial justice in the call process.

Secretary David Swartling reported that in the last five years the ELCA has had more than 239-thousand confirmations and more than 329-thousand infant baptisms. We enjoyed a presentation by the youth convocation and honored the ELCA military chaplains.

And now it is time to get going on our new day.

We Are Safe

The final meeting of the day ended only a few minutes ago. There are several things to digest and then report to you, which I'll do later tonight.

I think the first thing to tell you is that everyone here at the assembly is well and safe. You may have heard about a tornado which touched down close to the convention center. It was close, but we were never in any immediate danger. However part of the roof of the convention center, at the opposite end of the building from where we are meeting, was slightly damaged.

More seriously, the steeple of Central Lutheran Church was severely damaged. Their church is located near the convention center. The congregation of Central Lutheran has been open to us for many activities.

Fortunately no one was injured because of this storm. Thank God for that.

I'll write more later as well as post some new photographs. Thank you for reading.
I'll be back...

Good Night from Minneapolis

The day is done and we commit it to the Lord. A blessed rest. Rise renewed tomorrow to serve.

Odds & Ends and Such

This post will bounce around from topic to topic as I think about it.

The photo on the right is of downtown Minneapolis taken from the front door of the convention center. The people of the city have been wonderfully gracious and friendly. A good lesson on hospitality for all of us.

We have heard how hot it is at home. We pray you are taking care of yourselves. Here, this morning, it was 62 degrees.

From my hotel room I can see the new ballpark that has been built for the Minnesota Twins. It opens next season. Maybe the Phillies can defend their 2009 World Series title here.

I picked up breakfast at a little store near the hotel. Coffee was great. But it made me realize how I miss TastyKakes. Them, Lebanon bologna and real, real sharp cheese. Yes, I am a Pennsylvanian through and through.

I also want to thank the conferences of the synod and the synod assembly for selecting such a great group of people to attend this churchwide assembly. It is enjoyable to be working with them.

The worship has been wonderful. Receiving the body and blood of Christ every day helps more than I can say. An offering is taken at each service of Holy Communion. And so far, assembly offerings for the World Hunger Appeal have totaled more than $24,600!

Great Unity...and Not So Great Unity

Two other major items discussed today were the social statement on human sexuality and the new Lutheran Malaria Initiative.

The assembly met as a committee of the whole to offer statements for and against the social statement. An equal number of people were speaking from the microphones labeled "favor" and "oppose." The division of the church on this social statement could not be clearer. However, once again I was impressed with the preparation, quality and respect everyone displayed. I find it necessary and important to listen to every speaker, even the ones who repeat themselves many times. It is really hard to say how the vote on the social statement will go later this week.

On the other hand, the unity of the church to serve people in need was greatly expressed in our vote to approve the new Lutheran Malaria Initiative. This will be a new, concerted effort to raise awareness and funds to support countries where malaria is a devastating killer. In our synod, we know about the horrors of malaria from the reports of our brothers and sisters in the Konde Diocese. Following the presentation of the Lutheran Malaria Initiative, the vote in favor to support the initiative was greater than 98%!

It was rather easy to sense the irony of the unity, and the lack of it, as we moved between these two topics.

Much to Report

Here it is late in the afternoon, nearly dinner time, and this is the first chance I've had to write anything. And now I'm not sure where to start. So what I'll do is a series of short posts taking you through the day.

Before doing that, I want to respond to one person who asked where to find the web cast of the assembly. At the bottom right of my page is a link to the ELCA web site. If you click on that, it will take you to the homepage of the ELCA and from there you should see instructions on where to find the web cast. The next one is tomorrow morning.

The great majority of the morning session was Bishop's Hanson's report. It covered MANY topics for the church to be involved in today. But one sentence caught my ear. "Your congregation is a center for evangelical mission," he said. Got that? "Your congregation is a center for evangelical mission."

This is a statement which speaks to the conversations many congregational leaders have been having throughout our synod. As we consider how we offer Christian witness in the future, we begin our conversation by talking about being evangelists of the Lutheran Christian message to our communities. It was a major point of Bishop Hanson's address. It was good to hear our mission as an evangelical church raised up first thing in the morning.

Into Overtime

It was, as expected, a long night. The time was spent debating one section of the Rules of Procedure which deal with the proposal on ministry standards. A proposal to require a 2/3 vote to approve any changes in ministry standards was defeated by a vote of 57% to 42%. Another vote which would have locked in the assembly to vote on the four tiered recommendations on changes to ministry policy one recommendation at a time, was defeated by a vote of 58% to 41%. Two votes with very similar vote totals. It will be interesting to see if these vote percentages change at the time the assembly votes on the social statement and the proposal for ministry polices.

The debate on the rules took time. Bishop Hanson took great care to fairly moderate the debate. I found each speaker to be respectful and for the most part prepared. Sure some speakers repeated previous speakers. While you could sense a certain amount of tension, I felt that the speakers chose their words carefully, kept to the issue before us and did so in a good sense of order.

If you are watching the assembly via the Internet, we are sitting in the center section, six rows back from the stage, near microphones 3 and 4. Our companion synod from Northern Illinois is right behind us.

There are lots of tired voting members tonight. We begin at 8am Tuesday. Good night.

Moved In

Welcome to Minneapolis!

There are a lot of people from the Lower Susquehanna Synod who could use some coffee right about now. It was a VERY early morning of catching flights, but now we're here, and ready to get started.

So far, I've seen several of our folks. One pleasant surprise was seeing Pastor Bob Hoover, who is serving as a volunteer at the assembly. He is one of the many people who wear the "red vest" and gives us help when we're not sure which direction to walk!

We begin shortly. The very first thing we do together is, quite appropriately, receive the Holy Eucharist. Following dinner is the first work session. My plan is to offer a posting at the end of the night, which I think I can do, after I find that coffee!

Final Thoughts Before Traveling

The evening is getting late for someone who will be waking up in just a few hours (the Phillies game did get a late start). But all the preparations are over. Tomorrow at this time our group from the Lower Susquehanna Synod will be together in the opening session of the Churchwide Assembly.

I've been wondering what to expect. After all, last week we saw on our television screens how some people are very anxious about the future. Whatever you think of those so-called town hall meetings, and whatever you think motivated people to act out with the behavior they used, it points out a tension that exists today in the country.

I pray that the church can set a much better example for debate this week. I think that will be the case. For whatever position one holds on whatever issue before the assembly, those called by God to the task of attending this assembly do so with the angels words in our ears, "Do not be afraid." The same sentence addressed to the shepherds while they were tending their flock, the same sentenced addressed to the women who looked into the empty tomb is the same sentence addressed to us tonight. "Do not be afraid."

We're not afraid because, as the prayer says, we "embrace and forever hold fast to the hope of eternal life, which God has given us in Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord." I will probalby recite that prayer several times during the assembly. I will also pray that God's will and our church's call to mission will be addressed, so that whatever the outcome of all the votes that will be taken, we can keep ourselves centered on our call to proclaim the crucified and risen Christ to those who need to hear this word of Good News.

Next post from Minneapolis.

1 and 7/8"

That's how much paper voting members are reading through right now. 1 and 7/8 inches is the thickness of the bulletin of reports for the Churchwide Assembly. And most of it is double sided printing! By comparison, the ELW (minus the cover) is 1 and 1/2 inches thick. Luther's Works, Vol. 54, is 1 and 3/8 inches.

It's not that I didn't have anything else to do today. It is just a simple way to illustrate the work our voting members are doing right now, before they even leave for the assembly. When our delegation got together last week, one of the several things that impressed me is the sense of preparation and commitment they are bringing to the task of being a voting member. Everyone is reading through the 1 and 7/8" of material. Many have been making notes and asking questions to be better prepared to serve next week.

Thank you for your prayers on their behalf as they complete their preparations. Next Monday afternoon we'll all be there.

God's work. Our hands.

This is the theme of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.

Starting August 17 over 1,000 voting members, including 28 from the Lower Susquehanna Synod, will be in Minneapolis to work together on the issues before the assembly.

Check the blog during the assembly. I'll be writing about what is going on, but I also want to describe some of the flavor of the assembly, especially as it relates to the activities of our synod's voting members.

Stay tuned!