August 8, 2007
ELCA Churchwide Assembly Day Four
Wednesday
Grace, Peace, and Blessings to you this Wednesday night in Chicago…
There was much activity at the assembly today. Among the important events about which more will be written was the first ballot, the nominating ballot, for Secretary of the ELCA. This, the election, for the second of the two most influential individual positions within the ELCA, will be decided in coming days. This first ballot is to determine the nominees put forward in the process. The results were reported to the assembly by being posted in the hotel in the evening.
The top five are: the Rev Michael Cooper-White 162; Bishop Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl 110; Ken Rupper 95; David Swartling 88; Paul Schreck 69. The second ballot will occur on Thursday.
The work of the assembly continues in prayerful attention and respectful consideration. There is little of the sparking tension that was present as an undertow at the Orlando 2005 assembly. Lions and lambs seem to both be on their best behavior, and that seems to be the result of conscious decisions by all parties. That does not mean there are not sharp differences. There are.
This morning as they boarded the buses to the first plenary session of the day, the voting members were offered a booklet, Ministry Rooted in Gospel. This booklet, the companion piece to the devotional booklet, A Place Within My Walls, distributed on Tuesday, focuses on the ministries in ELCA congregations and specialized ministry, all served by LGBT ministers rostered by the ELCA and the ECP (Extraordinary Candidacy Project). The only exception to that is Pastor Bradley Schmeling who was removed from the ELCA roster on July 2, 2007.
You can find copies of this booklet on both www.lcna.org and www.goodsoil.org websites.
Again, by my simple test, checking to see if copies are left on the bus, the booklet was well-received. There were no copies left on the bus I travelled to Navy Pier on.
There was important work and information presented to the assembly on the status of women and the campaign to end the objectification of women in society from the earliest years. That work continues and we must pay attention to both the research and curative efforts. That work is, however, beyond the scope of this reporting.
Singularly important today, the assembly convened itself as a Quasi-Committee of the Whole in the afternoon from approximately 4:25–5:10 pm, 45 minutes. A Committee of the Whole is a parliamentary procedure to come out from under the restrictive rules and rubrics of Roberts Rules in order to have a more informal discussion of a topic. There are no motions, no amendments, no votes. It is as if the assembly decided it wanted a topic discussed and appointed a committee to go out and discuss it. Except it declared itself to be the committee. Because the Presiding Bishop remains the chair of the discussion, moderates the time and calls on speakers in turn, as he does in the formal sessions of the assembly, it is called Quasi-.
Clear? Cuz there will be a quiz.
The procedures were fairly simple. The motion to come to the floor when the formal debate occurs on the memorials on sexuality will be the recommendation of the Memorials Committee to refer these memorials to the task force working on the social statement on sexuality, due to be presented to the 2009 Churchwide Assembly. Folks were asked to line up at color-coded microphones based on whether they favored the Referral recommendation or wished to see the Memorial itself placed before the assembly. Each speaker was allowed 2 minutes. What follows is a flavor of the exchanges. The statement of an individual is a précis, rather than a transcript.
For Referral: This process of discussion is a 6-year process, with 2 years yet to run. We are better served letting it run its course.
For the Memorial: I favor full inclusion of all persons. I know many lesbian and gay people, Lutherans. I am invested in this issue. During seminary I came to realize that I was bisexual. It is time for this policy to change.
Referral: We need to respect the leadership provided by the study group and its work. We honor the memorials and the process by not interrupting it and allowing it to run full term.
Memorial: (a bishop) I want to see the original memorial sent to the floor. My synod sent one in. It was voted in by a 2/3rds margin. That split exists in the voting members who are here with me at the assembly. Nonetheless, we should keep windows open – don't get set in our ways or our opinions. But I believe we are better served by having fewer exclusionary rules.
Referral: Let the decision be made in the quiet of the process.
Memorial: We are not expected to think the same. And we won't. When we voted to accept women for ordination it was by 86 votes, not a consensus. It was said at the time that woman's ordination would ruin the church. It hasn't.
Referral: In 2005 we said we would live together without divisiveness. If we change the course laid out by the process in the middle, we will tear the church apart.
Memorial: We fear schism for the impact it will have on mission and outreach, but we must ask: will keeping the policies help evangelism? What will people my age think of the church when they see it act this way – will they stay? [The speaker was young.]
Referral: I have parishioners who are GLBT and members of my family and I wish them no harm, but I am conscious of God's aw.
Memorial: We owe it to the 21 synods to hear what they said, debate it, and vote.
Referral: 2005 assembly was the action of the Holy Spirit. We cannot, must not, disrespect it.
Memorial: I have deep commitment to the church – a child of pastor parents. Though I am 17, I understand that this action and the change it brings is uncomfortable, but what is right and Lutheran need not be comfortable.
Referral: Let the stories we are being told go to the task force to be heard.
Memorial: We should ordain all qualified gifted candidates. There will always be something more to study, some reason to delay, some small corner we haven't looked it – there always is. Doesn't change the truth that this is a policy we must change.
Referral: I want to do a good job here at assembly. I want that work appreciated. What if 2 years from now the next assembly negates what I did here. It makes my work a waste. We should validate the work of the 2005 assembly.
Memorial: I hear it said that if the church follows the radical notion of inclusiveness it will alienate people of color. People of color are not of one monolithic opinion any more than white people are. And what really alienates people of color is any exclusionary rule.
End
You can see the flavor of the discussion. Everyone who spoke did so from a written out speech. The speakers seemed to all be from within the camps of the opposing sides, so no conclusions should be reached that the assembly as a whole is evenly divided on the subject.
We worshiped. A glorious worship service. See the Order of Service on lcna.org or goodsoil.org. My words are not adequate to describe it. First, we were in a very large dining room in the hotel. The color of the day was red, Vigil of Pentecost texts. Banners of red, paraments too. Soloists with crystalline voices. Flute, piano, organ (a wonderfully full throated organ – did not know that something that powerful could be portable, … well, moveable). A choir put together from amongst us – clearly knew what it was doing.
There were 650 people for the service. There were 650 people for the service. (I know, I repeated the sentence.) Seated in three large sections on each side of the center channel of the room, facing each other. And surrounding us the Shower of Stoles – all of it: 1100+ stoles of ministers removed from the rosters because they were LGBT. 1100+ stoles, and one prayer shawl from a rabbi. The power of the display is impossible to describe – this policy is more than just wrong, it reaches to abomination and obscenity.
To the songs of baptism in came water from the four corners to fill an emblematic vessel and then the procession of ministers. There must have been 50 clergy, and Bishop Payne vested in red. Jeff Zeigler and Scott Thayer's sons, Quan and Mark, candlebearers with that serious-concentrated-casual look only possible for young boys.
The singing was as you would imagine it – Lutherans and enough choir members to outfit several respectable full-throated Sunday chancel choirs guaranteed that the sound was in full harmony by the third measure.
There were bishops present. Though I can't vouchsafe the number (they sat throughout the hall), I was reliably told there were 15 of them present.
Bradley preached. The text was Exodus 19, from liberation to covenant, from salvation to the structuring of life as God's chosen people, as Bradley reminded us. Borne out of Egypt under Moses's leadership, through the gauntlet walls of sea water held back for their passage: let my people go. To the other side, Miriam dancing, twirling till her robes ballooned away from her, slaves now free. An image cast by Bradley into the air of the middle of the room.
And coming back round in his preaching to tell us of Walter Wangerin preaching at one of the early morning services during the Constitution Convention that formed the ELCA. Walter told of Emily Dichter, a woman of the 19th century, who finally had a book accepted for publication in a time when the wife of a school principal was expected to engage in ladylike pursuits, a writer not being among them. When she got the acceptance letter, she danced around in her house, her skirts ballooned away from the twirling – after she had shut the curtains so as not to scandalize the neighbors with the vanity of her dancing. "Emily Dichter, writer, splendor, God's bright eye – danced alone in the dark. Alone." She told Walter, Walter told the ELCA, and Bradley told us: "Never! You should never, never sentence anyone to dance in the dark. No one should. Not ever."
Bradley spoke of his wish that God would descend on the assembly as a great cloud, erasing the mountains of pain and the fear of the future, His Divine presence erasing the contours between "us" and "them," making us a little fuzzy about who won and who lost, causing us to lose track of our need for power and our fear of lack.
I will get the electronic text from Bradley and post it, in the morning – aha, make that later in the morning.
One final note having nothing to do with the worship service: remember I mentioned Jerry's wonderful trail mix. It sits in a great bowl at the entrance to Goodsoil Central, easy to get to as you walk by. He bought 100 pounds of it. I am beginning to fear the weight conveys…
It was a good day… Tomorrow, the debate and vote… Peace and calm…
Phil Soucy
Director Communications LC/NA
communications@lcna.org
