Well, it was apparent that everyone was ready to end tonight: people were moving to call all questions currently before the house/call all previous questions every chance they got (even when there was only one motion on the floor), until we got to Reference and Counsel (the last set of motions to consider) and someone moved to accept the recommendation of R&C on every remaining resolution and to approve any that didn’t have recommendations. (The 6 that didn’t have recommendations were from R&C as resolutions of appreciation of the 4 officers of the church, the churchwide staff, and the synods that hosted the assembly.) It moved quite quickly.
For me, the most important resolution of the afternoon was the final amendment to the constitution, which called for 10% of the voting members at synod and Churchwide assemblies to be youth and young adults, where youth are voting members under 18 and young adults are voting members ages 18-30. In addition, Church & synod councils and committees need to have youth and young adult members. In fact, I felt so strongly about this that I got up to speak in favor of it; I messed up the order of my notes and botched my speech terribly, but apparently was good enough to convince someone in my delegation to vote in favor of this instead of against, so yay! (If you really want, I’m sure you can watch the video of the plenary session and find me speaking somewhere in there, but I’m not linking to it.)
Note: The next couple paragraphs were written late at night and I have found that my thoughts simultaneously become more clear and more confused as this happens. Also recognize that the point of this blog is not merely to tell you what happened – you can just read the ELCA page for that – but to try and share what runs through my mind as I observe and what the experience is like. My thoughts are by no means representative of anyone else besides myself.
I am in such a state of mind right now after the events of this week. I came to Churchwide Assembly (CWA) thinking that I knew what I wanted, but aware that I needed to listen. And oh, the things I learned! The church is so much bigger and does so many more things that I knew before, and the people are a diverse and unexpected group. I have come away with a firm conviction that we must pray and strive for the unity of the church and with an unexpected appreciation and understanding of those with opinions that differ from mine and what it means to bear one another’s burdens and to respect the bound conscience of my neighbor. In a way, this has subdued the joy I expected to feel if the changes in ministry policies passed, and yet, I can’t be upset that I have learned who the people of this church are and the need to remember that we are bound together by Christ’s love and that we are Lutheran because we recognize that we are saved by grace, through faith, and not by any works we could do. I think, in a sense, that I am still too close to this assembly to feel the overflowing joy I expected, because I am tied to those who mourn and cannot be joyous without immediately remembering the difficulties of those who interpret Scripture differently than I do and those who wonder how they can return to their congregations and synods and explain the action of this assembly.
I only wish there were a way to take everything I learned and observed and felt and fully share it with people who ask me how Churchwide went. Yes, there are news reports and press reports and voting results. You can view videos online, which can help you experience a lot of the plenary. But I don’t know how to share the joy in worship, or the conversations over lunch and dinner where complete strangers became friends to smile at in the hallway and in the aisles, regardless of what opinions they held, and how those things changed the way I watched people speak. I am left to consider the questions Bishop Hanson asked us in this afternoon’s committee of the whole: What will be your witness of this week? To what will you testify?
We are a church sent out in mission to share the good news of Jesus Christ. What will be your witness? To what will you testify?
