Nice to breath air you can't see!

August 13, 2007 (8:29am)
56º F, Beautiful Sunshine, Calm winds

Good morning,

Finally I am on this site and able to blog. Whew! When we arrived back, I discovered that the laptop had decided to lose it’s operating system for some reason. Fooled around with it all day yesterday trying to bring it back to life with no success. Me thinks we will be making a trip to the confuser doctor this morning and let him pronounce a plan of action for repair - hopefully. I also spent a very long time last night and this morning, trying to remember all of the passwords, &c. to use this one, Margriet’s, to access the various accounts. Finally was able to bring this up a couple of minutes ago. Whew! Whew! Still don’t have them all, but getting there. The big reason for not remembering the passwords, besides having a terrible memory, is that I have them automated on "my" computer, so don’t use them very often.

We had a very good trip to the Churchwide Assembly, but very happy to be away from Chicago - too many sidewalks, too many people, too many big building too close together, to much bad air (don’t really like to see the air), and way too hot. The hotel was too fancy for these old folks - pretty fancy digs. At $180.00/day, they better be. The food provided by the Church was excellent and I know we ate too much, but it ain’t gonna’ happen again for some time, if ever. Thank goodness for the transportation provided by the Church. Rides to/from the airport, to/from Chicago. We are amazed how the whole event was so well organized and so few glitches. It was a wonderful experience. Now if we could get them to have it say at Alpha next time - not.

We were in awe of the Assembly experience. I didn’t expect so much prayer, quiet time, and such a calling of the Spirit to guide us in our deliberations. Not sure why, but expected it to be more of a school board meeting like event more than a church event for some reason. Before EVERY vote, we called for the direction of the Spirit to guide us and a prayer. Really didn’t expect that for some reason, even though I normally would have on my own. Awesome! Each day had a Bible study and a worship service. They were awesome. The theme of the studies was the book of Galatians with the opening study a very dramatic reading of part of the book. Absolutely wonderful. Very thought provoking too. The worship services were many different settings and music than we are used to. Some with a Latino emphasis. I really liked the music of it, and the others too, but that style of music doesn’t have a bass line as such, so it was some difficult for me to sing to, besides being unfamiliar music and words. Still the services were totally enjoyable and inspiring for us.

The business of the Assembly also was awesome - in the amount of work before us. We re-elected our Presiding Bishop to another 6 year term. He has turned out to be a terrific leader, not only of the church, but of the Assembly. His patience is unbelievable, as is his knowledge of procedure. We also elected a new Secretary. This time an attorney who has been the Parliamentarian for the past couple of Assemblies. He seems capable, but we wonder if a non-ordained person will leave some holes in his fulfilling of the duties. Time will tell. We also accepted full communion with an expanded Morravian Church. That is a good thing. A new worship hymnal was also approved and consecrated. It is the one we used in our worship services. Many new settings and some of the good old hymns left out of the present one as a concession to another Lutheran church who also wanted to use it, then didn’t in the end. I like it. There also were some 30 actions taken my the Assembly. Some created some huge debate.

The gay lobby got one of their agenda passed, a fall-back item when their main thrust was not passed, but defeated soundly. I was not happy with it being passed at all, but it really has little effect on the scheme of things for the present time. The true measure comes in the 2009 Assembly. They tried to backdoor the measure, but it didn’t work. Instead they gained some time of no further discipline for gay pastors, but also no further ordaining of any either. I was surprised to see any gay pastors, but there are a number of them, some have been relieved of their duties. Most of the folks supporting the gay movement were guests/observers, so didn’t have any vote. The final resolution in 2009 will need to pass by a vote, so for the present, it looks like the gays will be defeated. Hope the margin stays that or increases. This whole issue is involving a very visible and blatant sin. The backdoor movement was to turn it into a discussion of "this ain’t fair" issue. Sin has consequences, but these folks seem to feel they don’t deserve the consequences for some reason. In the end, I believe the issue will exclude gay folks from the pastorate, but we still will minister to the gay influence. Some folks, and the media seems to encourage the idea, think there will be a split in the church, but if there is, it will be the gay folks leaving I think. At least that is my hope and prayer.

It was really good to be back and worship in our little church in Florence yesterday. The pastor surprised us by introducing us to the congregation during the service while commenting on the Assembly. He had followed much of the Assembly via the internet, www.ELCA.com which also has summaries of the Assembly online now and for some time to come. I have not viewed it much yet, since my computer has been down and I have been fooling around to get my computer back up again. I will though, as we left before it was over to catch our plane here. More about that in the future blogs I am sure. We did have some interesting experiences on the way to/from the Assembly too.

So today we get back to normal, resting up some and getting things done around here too. It is sooooooo nice to be home again. It was an absolute delight to step out of our vehicle, feeling a light, clean, rain falling. Not seeing any people or tall buildings, and no sidewalks. Just the sight of trees and actually seeing the sky without all of the thick air (we don’t like being able to see the air) and buildings in the way.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><