WEDNESDAY at Convocation

We began Wednesday (well, at least some of us) with Morning Prayer down by the lake. With a chill in the air and the sun beginning to peek above the trees, we sang and prayed and listened to Nancy Christensen preach on brokenness and healing and the Pool of Siloam.

After breakfast we heard Dr. Susan McArver, Professor of Church History at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, on Being Lutheran in the South. Her presentation was a real eye-opener to many who had never heard the stories of the Danes in the West Indies and the Germans and Salzburgers in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee.

Of particular interest, both in this morning lecture and in another in the evening, was Dr. McArver's ability to show connections between the controversies of the past and the tensions we face now in the ELCA.

There were a variety of workshops on Worship, the Book of Faith and from the Board of Pensions, and after lunch we took the afternoon off to play or sleep or sit on the porch and talk.

Pray for us as we finish our time together tomorrow morning and travel back from this holy mountain to our various places of mission and ministry. Pray that we, restored in body and soul, will arrive safely and will lead boldly throughout the coming year.