Day Four

by Phil Soucy

Ok, I am not a great lover of windstorms, even when they are described as weak tornados by the weather service. "Weak tornado" is a bit like "jumbo shrimp," burdened by its own contradiction. And the lady who reported that she was holding on to a Stop sign to keep from being lifted off the ground by this "weak" tornado would probably have something to say to the weather service about the words it uses. Much like the lady when I was a kid who wrote to the weather service protesting that she had just shoveled three inches of "Fair and Partially Cloudy" off her front porch.

I was on a local radio show by phone this, the morning after the tornado, and the host of the talk show said that a minister had said that the tornado "was a gentle warning from God" to the ELCA. I said that the minister who would say that obviously had never been in a tornado: there was nothing "gentle" about a tornado. As for a message embedded in it, did he mention that the sun came out when the Social Statement passed? But, the reality was the two events were both just weather, dangerous in one case, welcome relief in the other, but just weather, though I understood the use of metaphor to make a point.

Today was decidedly and gratefully less exciting, though nonetheless important than yesterday. First off this morning the assembly discussed the proposed change to the ministry policies that would allow service by ministers in committed, same gender relationships. They first did that sharing their thoughts in small groups before rejoining into the full assembly for the second half to one-by-one at microphones give their reflections on the proposed changes. All as a Committee of the Whole - no parliamentary procedure.

We seemed no less divided on the ministry policies changes than we were by the Social Statement. But the vote on the Social Statement puts in sharp focus that alternating speakers, one for, one against, gives the impression that the house is evenly divided on the subject. Until the vote reveals where the house really is. The parliamentary consideration and vote on the changes to ministry policies will occur beginning tomorrow morning.

Later in the day, the Implementing Resolutions to the Social Statement were debated and ultimately passed, though not until after several motions were made and failed to substantially change the wording. You can find the Implementing Resolutions at the back of the Social Statement. According to the ELCA, the Implementing Resolutions "begin placing the policies and concerns of the statement, titled "Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust," into all areas of the church's work."

These little reports might give the impression that it was sex, sex, sex, all day long. The truth is the church was conducting major business all day in all aspects of the life of the church. We should be grateful and uplift by that work.

We adopted the Full Communion Agreement with the United Methodist Church. We completed the Second Ballot in the election of the Vice President of the ELCA. By the end of the assembly a prodigious amount of work will have been accomplished. No one should imagine that being a voting member is a boondoggle, easy, or unrewarding.

Tomorrow comes out of the starting blocks all teeth and claws, as the Brits say. So I am going to get some refreshing rest so as to be ready for it.

Again, if you are able, you can view the proceedings of the assembly online at www.elca.org. Till tomorrow...

Altogether Different Oceans?

by David Weiss

Listening to the words spoken at the microphones about the Sexuality Statement and the Ministry Recommendations is a strange experience. The voices go back and forth from red mic to green mic, and it’s hard not to feel like we are already two churches, our deeply divided witness passing like two ships in the night.

But, no, even that analogy falls short. It seems more like we are boats in altogether different oceans.

Listening to our respective appeals to Scripture, tradition, and the Lutheran Confessions, it is hardly evident that those standing at the red and green mics are referring to the same documents. At one mic these foundational pieces of our heritage are deployed like a set of wagons circled against a hostile world. At the other they are lifted like a sextant, that trustworthy tool used by mariners to navigate with confidence in the absence of fixed points.

There seems to me to be two uncomfortable truths at the heart of this.

We in this church understand the place of our own experience in the life of faith in decidedly different ways. For some, experience is dismissed outright as utterly untrustworthy—especially in instances where it challenges the “reason” of the majority or the texts we hold sacred or confessional. From this perspective any appeal to experience is compelling evidence of a morally and rationally bankrupt position. To tender insight grounded in experience is to play right into the devil’s hands.

For others of us, experience—while by no means immune to critique—is regarded as potentially bearing profound and even sacred insight. It is acknowledged as one arena in which the Wind of the Spirit moves. It is an opening into which voices silenced by majorities can speak a word of truth, helping to interpret Scripture, to complete tradition, and to refine our reading of the Confessions.

The difficulty here is that these positions appear intrinsically polarizing. They are not different takes on the same picture. They are arguments about the nature of the eyes that see the picture.

The second truth is even less comfortable to name.

We have markedly different experiences of the God who has marked us in baptism. Although both camps seem hesitant to raise the stakes this high—at least not at the microphone—behind the differing positions we stake out explicitly, lie arguments unspoken that reach to the very character of God. What we read in Scripture, what we hear in (and silenced beneath) tradition, and what we carry with us of the Confessions is shaped by our experience of the God with whom we keep faith.

Now I need to be very clear, I am not suggesting at all that we are keeping faith with different Gods. I am saying that we are a people with profoundly different experiences of the God with whom we keep faith. And we have yet to be honest or compassionate about what that means for us as a church.

As Lutherans we speak of faith as relational trust. If we intend to be one church at the end of this week, perhaps the biggest task to which we will be called is this: to acknowledge that in this moment the way to keep faith with God is to live in relational trust with one another. To confess that this Ocean is both deeper and more mysterious than any group of us can fathom, and that every every voice on the boat has a witness to bear.

May it be so.

ELCA Churchwide Assembly Day Three

by Phil Soucy

666 may be the name of the Beast in Revelation, but in Minneapolis right now 66.67 is a glorious number... Just in case you hadn't heard from someone else, the Social Statement on Human Sexuality was adopted today with an exactly 2/3rds super-majority vote. Of 1014 votes cast.

It came as a surprise, no kidding, a surprise. I mean by that, I was sitting there staring at the numbers on the screen and realized that I had thought that we were not going to get enough votes. Not that I had decided that we were going to lose - I just thought that we wouldn't win. Make sense? Well, never mind,it made sense to me at the time.

It was an immaculate moment. Staring at the numbers. Immaculate.

We now have a document treating on sexuality that forms a far more appropriate basis for policy than that provided by the predecessor churches' documents. The great hope is that the church will be a better church for all of this. You will have seen the press release that contains our thoughts on this historic spiritual event.

And then there was the Scripture text for tonight's Goodsoil worship service at Central Lutheran Church, across from the Convention Center. Mark 4: 35-41. The story of crossing the Sea of Galilee during which Christ calmed the seas. The story in which it is said that "A great windstorm arose..." And it did.

We had a tornado, with not a lot of warning. The problem with being deep inside a large structure like the Convention Center is that you are completely insulated from what is going on outside. Suddenly there was a shrill lip whistle heard in Goodsoil Central and an authoritative voice said that "no option, you are required to go to the lowest level of the center and stay there. Tornado coming."

And it did, a real tornado. Came down on 12th Street between the Hilton Gardens we are staying in and Central Lutheran. All the tentage, tables, and chairs of the meal service and Pub that Central Lutheran had been using to support the assembly were pushed down and thrown around. Some of the table ended up on the roof of the Convention Center. We were hustled to the bottom floor of the Convention Center. The assembly kept meeting. Guess they thought the assembly was safe enough where it was. Luckily no one was injured near the Convention Center, and none of debris penetrated the substantial glass on the Center.

Then there was the storm in the Hall. Not a storm really, but certainly a tension of anticipation. The rule was that we would take care of the amendments to the Social Statement and then vote on the amended Social Statement. An Ad Hoc Committee had been formed to receive all the proposed changes to the Social Statement, make sense of them, and group them into those that the committee recommend approval and those it did not, with reasons. The ones the committee said to adopt went along fairly quickly. It was when the motions came up that committee recommended a No Adopt that the tension level went up a couple of clicks. These motions were very similar and clearly had the intention of watering down the Social Statement to accommodate more of the "marriage is between a man and a woman."

There was one brief moment when it looked like we were going to move without debate straight through the amendment we were working on to the actual Social Statement and vote without any parliamentary debate at all - just vote on the amendment then just turn right around and vote on the Social Statement, done. The motion was defeated, but it gave everyone a scare.

All the efforts to change the Social Statement to make it reflect a-man-and-a-woman bias, an exclusive bias, were defeated.

The time for debate had to be extended past the scheduled end time to allow for as much debate as had been scheduled. As the additional time was running down, finally a motion was made to call the question. And a vote was had, 676-338.

It was said that it was a close vote. Actually it wasn't. It was a vote in which the Social Statement received 2/3rds of the votes cast; that's not close.

Tomorrow we take up the Implementing Resolutions that flow from the Social Statement. And we will have the Committee of the Whole on the proposed change to ministry policies.

In the evening we had a most glorious worship, presided over by Bishop David Brauer-Rieke of Oregon Synod. Rev. Barbara Lundblad preached a spectacular sermon in which she focused on the questions contained in the Scripture cited above in Mark. More than 1000 worshipers filled the church at Central Lutheran, which had some damage to its exterior from the storm, but none to the inside.

Ross Murray said someone asked him if it was a sign from the Holy Spirit that a great wind arose when the question of the Social Statement was taken up in earnest. He said he replied that, yes, it could have been just as much a sign as was the sun coming out when the Social Statement passed.

666

by David R. Weiss

Some sense of divine humor.

A tornado grazes the Minneapolis Convention Center just as we wrap up a Bible Study on the parable of the prodigal son (though we had just explored it from many angles beyond that of the younger son).

The hospitality tents (dare we say, “tabernacles”) next door to us were twisted into shambles. And the steeple of Central Lutheran Church, where Goodsoil will hold an especially festive worship service later this evening was bent 180 degrees—straight down.

Before everyone races to presume that such calamities express God’s anger, let’s remember that for generations far past and far more intuitively attentive to such phenomena, such swirling forces were merely indicative of God’s profound presence.

Reread the description of Mount Sinai in the moments before Moses received the Ten Commandments and it could pass for our afternoon weather report here.

I am not necessarily racing to ascribe God’s hand to our winds, but for anyone who wishes to, let’s be clear that high winds may be required to bring about Pentecost when churches (and convention centers) no longer have open windows making for the Spirit’s easy entry.

And all of this was prelude to about three hours of testy (though mostly civil) conversation about the proposed Sexuality Statement.

When the vote finally came, it passed 676-338. You can do the math yourself: it received 66.6 percent of the vote. It needed two-thirds to pass. It got just that much—and nothing more. One vote less would not have been enough.

As I remember, God’s reply to Paul was “My grace is sufficient.” Not too much. But enough. Luther spoke clearly of “daily bread” as the things we need for this day—not for tomorrow as well. And when the Israelites collected manna in the wilderness, they always got 66.6—anything more than “just enough” got sticky with maggots.

So don’t read anything into the three sixes beyond a big smirk on God’s face. There are children coming home tonight, and She is beaming!

Churchwide Assembly Day Two

by Phil Soucy

Peace, Grace and Blessings to you...

I have to give Minnesota and Minneapolis credit. Picture this: the hotel we are staying in, Central Lutheran Church, and the Convention Center are in a fairly straight line, about 200 feet from the hotel doors to the doors of the Convention Center. But, you can't walk that straight line. There is the 12th Avenue access to 35W that runs between the hotel and Central Lutheran, a split off from which runs in front of the hotel. Between Central Lutheran and the Convention Center runs 3rd Avenue. But to get to the Convention Center you have to go from the hotel door up to the corner with the access to 35W and cross the street to be even with the hotel doors but on the other side of the road. Walk away from the hotel along the right side of 12th Street to the corner of 12th and 3rd, turn 110 degrees to the left to cross 12th Avenue, turn right 110 degrees to cross the divided boulevard that is 3rd Avenue, turn left and walk 150 feet to the doors of the Convention Center. You cannot
get to Central Lutheran direct line from any public place. A tour de force of separation of church and state, if there ever was one.

The principal activity on the assembly floor was related to the Social Statement on Human Sexuality. First, it was introduced onto the floor of the assembly. Following the introduction, the assembly went into a quasi-Committee of the Whole, for the purpose of having a discussion without the encumbrance of parliamentary procedure. People simply lined up at the microphones labeled Red and Green depending on whether they were against or for the adoption of the Social Statement. The Presiding Bishop, Mark Hanson, using a computer program that kept track of who arrived in the line at the mic when, called on people alternating between against and for until he ran out of time or people to call on.

More time had to be allocated because things ran late in the morning, and part of the afternoon had to be used to finish out the 60 minutes allotted for this discussion.

Later that afternoon there was a hearing held on the Social Statement, among other hearings. There was also a hearing before dinner on the Ministry Policies and one after - to allow those who went to the Social Statement hearing to go to one on Ministry Policies.

I will not bother to tell you the arguments that were made. You are perfectly capable of guessing all of the arguments from both sides. They have been made over and over again. I heard no argument, pro or con, that I had not heard before. That does not mean that the arguments should not be made. They should be.

It is important to note that the disagreement we have with those opposed to full inclusion is not over the authority of Scripture in the life of the church, or in the life of any member of the church. Scholars disagree on the interpretations of Scripture, and that is something Lutherans can do till the Second Coming. Questioning someone else's interpretation of Scripture does not constitute an assault on the authority of Scripture.

In the evening, we held a wonderful event with music provided by Ovation and a panel discussion by the subjects of the DVD sent to all the voting members, "One Baptism, Many Gifts." The DVD is a picture into the lives of faith of two dedicated lesbian pastors, Katrina Foster and Robyn Hartwig, and an equally dedicated gay candidate for ordination, Javen Swanson, including their families. Copies of the DVD are available from LC/NA for $5, at Goodsoil Central, Room 200, in the Convention Center during the churchwide assembly, and after the assembly from the LC/NA office in St. Paul or online through www.lcna.org.

Tomorrow brings the parliamentary consideration of the Social Statement and vote for adoption.

God's Work, Our Hands

by David R. Weiss

While Churchwide Assembly will certainly address a wide range of issues beyond sexuality, it is simply honest to say that the Sexuality Statement and its accompanying recommendations are in the very air we breathe this week. It’s hard to hear anything said anywhere without immediately thinking about its relevance to the looming conversation about sexuality.

So, when Bishop Hanson further reflects this morning on our Assembly theme, “God’s Work. Our Hands,” and the question, “If I could follow your hands with a video feed for the last few weeks where would I see them doing God’s work?” well, you know where my mind went …

But before you scream, “TMI!,” remember, grace comes to us as bodied, not disembodied creatures. Jesus speaks of encountering him—or failing to encounter him—in “the least of these,” our brothers and sisters in need, because whatever Good News means beyond our bodies, it cannot be indifferent to our bodies.

And while doing God’s work surely involves putting my hands at the service of my neighbor’s need, it also involves placing my hands lovingly in pursuit of my beloved’s ecstasy. Soup kitchens and sexual joy are both instances of tactile grace, both moments when the “kingdom of God is … at hand.”

In this church, however, we tend to see sexuality—even while calling it “gift and trust”—as little more than “temptation to sin.” As though the best we can hope for is to hem in its potential for harm with a host of rules and boundaries so that we know at all moments what both our right hand and left hand are permitted to do.

The message is most explicit to our gay and lesbian members, but it remains powerfully implicit for those of us who are straight. We have learned too long and too well: making love, invoking intimate ecstasy in our loving relationships, is not God’s work.

But it is.

It is hardly the whole of God’s work. But I will say this. Sexuality is one corner of God’s creation where grace longs to be exquisitely present … and where its presence has an incredible capacity to heal and empower … and where its presence rests on our hands.

At times we seem determined as a church to hinder rather than welcome this Grace. But so long as the grace offered us by God through the goodness of bodily touch is shaped more by the long tradition of shame than by the deep (and holy!) intuition of joy, our response to the rest of God’s creation, from the pressing cries for economic justice and ecological care to the daring hopes for peace and flourishing, will be less than whole and less than gracious.

So, when I ask you, “when in the last few weeks or months have your hands done God’s work, offering someone a touch of grace?” I’m not trying to embarrass you. I’m trying to remind you that in our work to spread the gospel and to further God’s desire justice and peace we need all the grace we have available to us. And some of it—some wonderful portion of it—is right at our fingertips.


David Weiss is a theologian, writer, poet and hymnist committed to doing “public theology” around issues of sexuality, justice, diversity, and peace. His first book is "To the Tune of a Welcoming God: Lyrical reflections on sexuality, spirituality and the wideness of God's welcome" (2008 / available online and in Goodsoil Central). A longtime Goodsoil supporter, he lives with his wife and children in St. Paul, MN.

My story? No Problem.

By Rae Nelson

Every time I open my journal (yes, though I blog, I am an avid journal keeper as well) I am greeted by a flyer I taped there months ago that says "Change the world? No problem" it's cut from the newsletter of Interfaith Youth Core (ifyc.org). IFYC reminds me multiple times a day that I have the power to change minds and hearts through myactions and words- even though (or maybe because I am a 19 year old college student who doesn't know what I'm doing in a month, much less for the rest of my life). I am reminded daily by this flyer that I am a WITNESS- just as Bishop Hanson has reminded us many times thus far in the last 18 hours at Churchwide Assembly, reminded that we all have hearts and hands to witness, to change the world.

I enter this assembly with some trepidation. I'm at the time in my life where I have to be thinking about what I'm doing next- grad school, career, etc. Since I was very small I've tried to listen to God; about in the moment decisions like how to treat my neighbor, but also about longer term decisions like a career. I've heard a call to serve God as an ordained rostered leader in the past, and am currently discerning that more, but in the past few months I've decided to try to put that on hold. Let me share why;

Two years ago I attended my first Churchwide Assembly, August 2007. In July 2007 I had begun to come out as a queer person.
Needless to say, CWA '07 was an overwhelming experience. In the weeks leading up to the event, I had struggled with the idea of even being involved in the church anymore, because I felt as though the call that I had been feeling my whole life- the call to ordination in word and sacrament- was not possible in the church I had called home for 17 years. I felt lost and as though I needed to start all over.

While waiting in the airport for several other youth members of assembly, the staff person who was sent to pick me up began a conversation with me about call and vocation. It was through this conversation that I began to regain hope for my call to serve God as a pastor- he was the first person to affirm that I could follow that call, I just had to change the world (okay, church, but for the sake of this blog- world) first. He also was the first to remind me- out loud- that I didn't have to change the world on my own, there were a whole bunch of people who had been and would continue working for full inclusion for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities already, and I could join in the movement.

That day and week, Ted was a witness to me. He changed my world with words, actions, and just through his life as an active ally for full inclusion in the ELCA.

Now, two years later, I am in Minneapolis, praying, gracefully engaging, sharing my story, and yes, blogging to share my witness and hopefully through this active sharing and vigiling bring the church to an awareness of the Holy Spirit's call to love, regardless- or maybe because of- who we are or who we love. Bishop Hanson asked me to witness, right? No problem.