My Report on Churchwide Assembly

I was told that a report was expected following my service as a voting member at Churchwide Assembly. Here is what I submitted to my church council.

Report from ELCA Churchwide Assembly 2007

The ELCA Churchwide Assembly was held in Chicago from Monday, August 6, through Thursday, August 11. The theme was “Living in God’s Amazing Grace: Thanks Be to God!” Plenary sessions and worship were held at the Navy Pier. Voting members and other participants stayed at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, which hosted some of our meals, special topic hearings and the ELCA 20th Anniversary Banquet. I served as a voting member from the Florida-Bahamas Synod.

Opening worship on Monday afternoon was quite a celebration, featuring wonderful music, banners, streamers and Holy Communion. Bishop Mark Hanson preached, outlining the differences between a settled church and a sent church. We had Holy Communion everyday, with each service featuring different liturgies and hymns from Evangelical Lutheran Worship.

The assembly opened Monday evening in the first plenary session with the lighting of a candle and the ringing of bells. We all stood and sang “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” which was quite stirring with the large number of participants in that large room. I have to say one of my favorite parts of the assembly was the singing. It was part of every plenary session. The first plenary session consisted mainly of agreeing upon the rules of the assembly and figuring out what we were supposed to do.

The rest of the plenary sessions consisted of special guest speakers, reports from churchwide units, considering memorials from synods, elections, and Bible study focusing on Galatians. Speakers included keynote speaker Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro, a Kenyan native now at work with the international YWCA, Bishop Hanson in his report to the Assembly, Rev. Lowell Almen in his secretary’s report to the Assembly, Christina Jackson-Skelton, ELCA treasurer and Mission Investment Fund president, Rev. Kathryn I. Love from Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission Unit, and Vice President Carlos E. Pena in his report on behalf of the Church Council.

The Assembly received greetings from Metropolitan Chicago Synod Bishop Paul Landahl, Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, Ralston H. Deffenbaugh, Jr., president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, LCMS President Gerald B. Kieschnick, Dr. Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Rev. Deborah DeWinter, program executive for the United States for the World Council of Churches, Clare Chapmann, deputy general secretary for administration and finance for the national Council of Churches U.S.A., and Chaplain Peter K. Mushcinske on behalf of federal chaplaincy ministries.

The Assembly voted to develop a churchwide strategy for addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, to affirm Evangelical Lutheran Worship as the church’s primary worship resource, to encourage congregations and other Lutheran agencies to provide a welcoming and supporting environment for returning military veterans, to call for the development of a social statement on criminal justice for presentation for adoption in 2013, to recommit to this church’s strategy (Peace not Walls) for engagement in Israel and Palestine, to declare opposition to escalation of the war in Iraq, to call for moral deliberation about the situation in Iraq, to study the situation in Darfur and lobby U.S. officials to seek an end to the killing that many call a genocide in the African region, to increase giving to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal beyond the stated goal of $25 million annually, to extend the ELCA’s full communion partnership with the Moravian Church in America to the East Western Indies and the Alaska Provinces of the Moravian Church in America, to approve budget proposals for 2008 and 2009, to adopt the Social Statement on Education, and to endorse “Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible,” a five year initiative to promote study of the Bible.

One bittersweet aspect of this Assembly was the retirement of Rev. Lowell Almen, secretary of the ELCA. Secretary Almen’s report consisted of a very well-done video overview of his twenty years of experiences as the church body’s first secretary. The Assembly elected David D. Swartling, a layperson and the Assembly’s parliamentarian, as the ELCA’s new secretary. On Friday, Lowell Almen received the Servus Dei medal in recognition of his twenty years of service as ELCA secretary.

Bishop Mark Hansen was re-elected for another six years with 86 % of the vote on the second ballot. He missed re-election on the first ballot by just two votes. He received a standing ovation from the Assembly.

I was very pleased to participate in the discussion and the voting for the Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible initiative. For more information and to “join the conversation,” visit the web site, http://www.elca.org/bookoffaith/. The Assembly passed two resolutions supporting this initiative. One recommendation stressed the importance of Scripture for believers “throughout the ages” and thanked the North Carolina Synod for proposing the initiative. The second recommendation gave specific suggestions for ways to “invite and encourage all members, expressions, institutions and partners of this church to commit themselves regularly and increasingly to hearing, reading, studying, sharing and being formed by God’s Word.” Lutheran Coalition for Reform proposed an amendment that read “to develop a more profound appreciation of the distinctive Lutheran focus on God’s use of scripture to bring sinners to repentance and salvation in Christ.” This amendment was soundly defeated, even after substituting the word “all” for “sinners,” and substituting “faith” for “repentance.” Speakers objected to the negativity of the words sinners and repentance and had trouble with the idea of claiming that there is a distinctive Lutheran focus on the study of scripture. I found the whole discussion rather disturbing. Yet, I am excited and hopeful about the possibility of getting more Lutherans seriously studying scripture!

Once again sexuality issues created a great deal of discussion during the Assembly. Twenty-one of our sixty-five synods presented memorials asking the Assembly to direct the Church Council to modify ELCA standards regarding rostered/ordained people in partnered homosexual relationships. There were also memorials regarding same sex blessings, refraining from disciplining those in violation of standards, directing bishops to uphold/enforce the standards as they are, and one condemning reparative therapy for people with homosexual orientation. The Memorials Committee recommended that the Assembly refer all sexuality memorials to the Sexuality Task Force for inclusion in their deliberations as they develop a Social Statement on Sexuality to present for adoption at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly. The Assembly voted to do just that on all but one of the memorials. They voted to recommend that bishops demonstrate restraint in disciplining people and congregations that call ministers in mutual, chaste and faithful, committed, same-gender relationships, and called for restraint in disciplining professional leaders. So we still have the same standards, we just are not obligated to enforce them. So those synods who have not been enforcing the standards will continue as they have been and those who have been more inclined to enforce the standards will be discouraged from doing so, at least until the Social Statement on Sexuality is adopted. Anyone who would like to have input on this study should go to http://www.elca.org/faithfuljourney/ to download Journey Together Faithfully, Part Three, Free in Christ to Serve the Neighbor: Lutherans Talk about Sexuality. The response forms are due November 1, 2007. The first draft of the social statement will be released for discussion throughout the ELCA and response to the task force in March, 2008.

As stated earlier, our Bible Study times focused on Galatians and the freedom of the Christian. Repeatedly we were reminded of Paul’s condemnation of the Galatians for turning back to the keeping of the law as a requirement of being a Christian. On Friday, the Rev. Timothy J. Wengert from LTSP began his study by quoting Paul, “In Christ you are free! Free from sin, free from law, free from death, free from the devil and evil, free from guilt and shame, free from doubt and despair.” Then he asked, “So, now that you are free from doing anything, what are you going to do?” I think that is a very good question for all of us, individuals, churches and the church at large. It also raises a very Lutheran question for me, “What does this mean?” If I were to take all the Bible studies, sermons and speeches I heard at Churchwide Assembly at face value, I would have to say that we have no obligation to follow any law in the Bible, as long as we are loving, accepting and tolerant, and as long as we pursue justice in the world.

Friday evening we celebrated the Twentieth Anniversary of the ELCA at a banquet held at the Hyatt Regency. The food was wonderful and the entertainment hysterically funny! The Bottle Band from St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Park Ridge, Illinois, used bottles to play everything from Bach to the blues and kept the attendees in stitches for the entire performance. Think of our clowns playing music….quite well….with bottles.

The closing worship on Saturday was another celebratory experience with dancers from the Thai Community Church of Chicago and singers and musicians from the Assembly voting members and congregations of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod. An installation ceremony for newly elected officers was part of the closing worship.

I would be happy to discuss the assembly or answer any questions that I can. Minutes, photos, videos and summaries are available at http://www.elca.org/assembly/, for those who are interested in more details.

Respectfully submitted,

---Katie