Who the ELCA Council is listening to.

I thought you might like to know who was influencing the synod council last week. Here is an article from the goodsoil.org page:

goodsoil in Chicago

goodsoil sent a delegation to the ELCA Church Council meeting in Chicago, April 9-11. Here are personal reflections on the events of the weekend.

Our Time in Chicago

~ by Jeannine Janson, goodsoil co-chair

Greetings all . . . . Jeannine here, just back home in S. F. after our weekend in Chicago for the Church Council meeting.

Greg Egertson, Jeff Johnson, Mari Irvin and I arrived Thursday evening.

We met with Ellen Maxon (the only out Lesbian on the Church Council) and her partner, Jane Ralph, Friday morning. This was Ellen's last Church Council meeting. She was a strong and articulate voice in all the weekend's proceedings. .

Jeff and I went to the Lutheran Center and met briefly with long-time ally Joanne Chadwick.

By dinner Friday, George Watson, Mark Engel, Karen Weldin, Bill Carpenter, and Bennett Falk had arrived. After dinner we met informally with interested council members. About 18 people showed up, other than ourselves, not all of them voting council members.

We talked about presenting the "Faith, Family, and Fairness" petition and having an opportunity speak during the council meeting. We also told those present that we would prefer an up or down vote and were not afraid of the outcome of such a vote. This surprised many and they advised this was the first time they had heard this.

When we got back to the hotel Friday evening, we went ahead with an abbreviated Soulforce nonviolence training, which, in its own way, provided a great opportunity for community and centering ourselves in the nonviolent principles. Todd Roos from Wingspan had arrived earlier in the evening so he joined the group at that time.

We concluded the evening with a prayer from Jeff.

Saturday we shuttled to the Lutheran Center, were greeted by Eric Shafer, ELCA Communications Director, given our visitors packets and shown to our tables.

About mid-morning, Dr. Childs and Bishop Payne gave the Sexuality Task Force Report after which there was initial conversation among the council regarding the recommendations.

It was at this point that Council member Janet Thompson, on a point of personal privilege, requested that Jeff and I, as Co-Chairs of goodsoil, be allowed to address the council for three minutes. The Chair was so taken aback that he treated it like a motion and asked for a vote (which, Jane Ralph advised, is not necessary to act on personal privilege). The council proceeded to vote (unanimously) on the request, and we were allowed to speak.

In less that three minutes, Jeff and I presented the petition, advising how many had signed it in 8 days and each of us alternately reading the petitions. Jeff then called upon the council to end a resolution to the assembly directing a change in the policy, and I (on advice from Ellen) told them that we are not afraid of an up or down vote on this matter and the should not be afraid for us.

Shortly thereafter, the council broke for small group discussions on the recommendations as further tweaked by the Program and Services Committee of the Council.We assumed that these groups were also open to us and each of us joined/attempted to join a group. Greg and Jane were told they could not join the small group. I was initially asked the by facilitator of the small group to leave, but all of the other members of the group indicated they had no problem with me being there so I stayed.

The same thing happened during the Bible Study after lunch. Some of us could join the groups and some were asked to leave.

First thing during the Sunday morning session, one of the council members said he'd heard about the exclusion from the Bible Study and small group and asked that an apology be extended. Lowell Almen read a prepared apology saying there was a mix-up on the understanding of whether the small groups were open or not so they would be sure to offer more clarity in the future ahead of time.

Sunday morning we joined the council for worship in the chapel. Long time council member, Kirk Havel, preached. He titled his sermon "them" and spoke of the "thems" we create. At one point, he asked,"Where is the grace in limited participation?" Hearing this, some of us were hopeful.

Sunday, the council got through recommendations one and two, which included various unsuccessful attempts to make them better for us:

The council rejected an amendment by Ellen to make sure the task force for the social statement includes bisexual and transgender persons as well as gay and lesbian.

The council began work on recommendation number three on Sunday: Mary Froehlig introduced a substitution that would direct the assembly to rescind the policy. That was defeated.

There were other attempts to make recommendation 3 better for us, all of them failed. Final action on number three was tabled until Monday.

The final vote on recommendation #3 was 30 something for and 2 opposed - a conservative voice and Ellen.

We were disappointed that during discussion of the recommendations, the council members stayed very focused on processes. They are very invested in "honoring" the three years of work of the task force, and therefore its recommendations, as well as the 19 hours of work of the Program and Services Committee of the Council which reviewed and fine tuned the recommendations.

Sitting in on the meetings, being able to listen to the things they are concerned with, was quite sobering, a peek at the institutional aspect of all of this, a solid dose of reality.

We took time to reflect on the weekend's events in one last meeting before going our separate ways, and after working through feelings of anger, disappointment, and frustration, the conversation turned positive as we reminded ourselves that the Orlando assembly can be about more than legislation, and that we have the opportunity to make the assembly a transformational experience.

Here is a quote from an e-mail from a Lutheran Freeper:

You should know that the "Soulforce"/"goodsoil" group is training hard in direct confrontation (i.e., stormtroop) tactics for the CWA. WordAlone and Solid Rock need to train in counter-confrontation tactics, or else it will be a very bad scene in Orlando this summer, and the revisionists would be likely to get their way as well. Do you know anything about counter-confrontation training (if that is even a word) for the orthodox groups? If none is taking place, it needs to be set up ASAP. I will contact those I know in these groups who are going to Orlando if nothing is taking place right now. We DO need to pray as well as to train, however.

So, I wonder, do the groups Word Alone or Solid Rock have such a willing ear in the ELCA council? Is our church doing anything to prevent the pro-gay community from having such a huge influence on the assembly in August? I have been told over and over again that there is no predetermined outcome, but it is hard to believe that when you look at what is happening.

---Katie