Wednesday at Churchwide Assembly

Gary Pederson

Christ Our Shepherd, Peachtree City, Ga

Another busy day in Orlando.

We had lots of activities and actions today...never a dull moment...or any moment! I started out at the Mission Sponsorship breakfast at 6:30am. That is early for me! We learned a lot about EPES, a public health program in Chile that was started by our missionary program decades ago.

Karen Anderson (I think I have her name right) gave a wonderful presentation on the missionary program in Chile and especially about the response to the earthquake and tsunami in Chile. Did you remember that Chile was hit by an earthquake and tsunami, too? Not only Japan...though there was more press coverage from Japan. The most interesting point of her presentation was about a lady named Elizabeth from Chile. She said that the boxes of food are nice, but we will be hungrey again tomorrow. We need equipment. The women of coastal Chile collected seaweed to sell. That was how they could make a living. So through Karen and other's efforts, they provided them with wellbarrows, shovels, and boots so they could collect and haul the seaweed from the beach. It was great seeing all these ladies in a photo beaming with their new wheelbarrows.

Next we went to our sessions. Lots and lots of business happened at both the morning and afternoon sessions. We passed most of the LIFT recommendations. Probably the biggest and most discussed change is that we will be holding triennial Churchwide Assemblies rather than biennial assemblies. The next Churchwide will still be in 2013, but after that they will be 2016, 2019, and so on. I actually got up to move to refer this item back to Church Council, but we closed debate before I could make my motion (lots of people ahead of me in line). The proposal did not have any provision for handling terms of office for those on Church Council whose terms will expire in 2015 and 2017 (when there will not be an assembly) as well as other constitutional changes to make this work. Oh well, it was approved. So the 2013 assembly will have to deal with straightening this all out. A sidenote: I think I was the first SSVM (SE Synod Voting Member) who got in line at a microphone!! We're not a real vocal bunch, I guess!

Lots of good reports today. Very interesting. Our secretary, David Swartling, is very well respected by the assembly and Church Council. He is very sharp! His report had some of the information that we didn't want to hear....832 congregations took a first vote to leave the ELCA and 517 have taken a second vote and left with 318 joining LCMC and 160 NALC. However there are 10,397 congregations in the ELCA in 2010 and 95% of all congregations remained in the ELCA. He pointed out that we can do things better together than we can do separately....good point! Our treasurer, Christina Jackson-Skelton, noted that total revenue has gone from $76.5 million in 2009 to $66.8 million in 2010 with mission support dropping from $59.7 million to $52.6 million. However expenses during this period were maintained below revenue with expenses at $72.6 million in 2009 and $64.2 million in 2010. Obviously all of us have heard about the changes in Chicago that were needed due to this situation. But we remain solvent during this period and revenue has appeared to stabilize in 2011.

ELCA Lutherans continue to be so, so generous. We gave $18.6 million to ELCA Disaster Response. Even at this assembly, the offerings have been $9,762 for missions on Monday, $23,913 for malaria (with $103,785 more in leadership pledges at this assembly) on Tuesday, and $9,893 for missionary sponsorship on Wednesday. Wow!!

Other activities continued with our first ballet, bible study continued, wonderful worship service again this morning (sound warnings at Universal Studios due to loud Lutheran singing!), and so on. We have 1,023 of a possible 1,025 Churchwide Assembly members here today. Bishop Hansen said two had been spotted at Disney World....just kidding.

I had a nice conversation with my old high school friend, Larry Wohlrabe, now Bishop NW Minnesota for the past 4 years. We talked about the usual stuff...but I had to ask him how he was doing. He lost several congregations this past year. He noted that most were small rural congregations that had never been that happy with the ELCA. But even so, it is tough. The bishop in this situation is the closest voice of the national church. Pray for our synod bishops! They have gone through a very tough year and need all the prayers they can get. We need their strength, their energy, and their leadership. And Bishop Gordy didn't even tell me to say this!

Take care!

Gary

SSVM