My wife, Ruth, and I were pleased to attend the Northwestern Minnesota Synod’s annual assembly again this year. It is always a wonderful experience to worship in a congregation of 500 or 600, most of whom are giving full voice to their songs of praise and close attention to the preaching of the Word. It is uplifting to hear what God is doing in other parts of the synod and comforting to know that we are not alone in some of the challenges we face. We also learn something new about the work of our church at every assembly we attend. As is true at conventions of any kind, there are reports that are tedious and sessions that seem overly long, but nevertheless, I would commend the experience to you and hope that next year more members of our parish will be willing to attend.
In his report to the synod, Bishop Larry Wohlrabe said “it’s been quite a year!” It was clear from the outset that those attending the assembly wanted to put this year’s contention behind them and affirm the leaders that have taken the brunt of the tensions in the church. A pre-assembly event was a “town hall meeting” with Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson and ELCA staff member (and former New York bishop) Stephen Bouman. The latter was delayed by plane connection problems so Hanson did this 2 hour session alone - brilliantly. Before he spoke he received a standing ovation from the overflow crowd of people at Trinity Lutheran Church.. Two hours later they did it again. I do not believe this means the people agree with everything he or his staff says and does, but people simply wanted to affirm their elected leaders during difficult times.
A resolution from one congregation requesting the ELCA to reconsider the sexuality issue was over-whelmingly defeated. I believe most people have heard enough about this subject for a while. Every-thing that can be said about it has been said in the last few years. Enough already. A resolution challenging the representative democracy by which decisions are made in the ELCA, much like in the USA, was also overwhelmingly defeated. Congregations will not be ratifying churchwide assembly or synod assembly actions. And a resolution asking for an end to producing social statements was also defeated, but this was in part because a moratorium on social statements has already be proposed by a task force of the ELCA church council. But, of course, because we are democratically governed, if the synods or the churchwide assembly ask for social statements there is no choice but to produce them.
One of the joys of synod assemblies is connecting and re-connecting with people from across the synod. We had chats with three former pastors from Hallock (Losch, Tobin, and Copeland) and greatly missed our annual lunch with the former pastors from Lake Bronson (Strug’s) since they have retired to Illinois. We sat at business sessions with Lake Bronson and Ross people and at worship with Middle River and Thief River people. At the town hall meeting we sat at a table with a large delegation from Lancaster. We had a long conversation with former Karlstad residents Paul & Dorothy Suomala. And we were delighted when the pastor and wife from Wannaska asked us to watch their children (age 2 and an infant) for a while during breakfast. We realized we haven’t lost all our parenting skills. Former synod vice president Patti Swanson of Kennedy says the synod assembly is like a family reunion, and that it was.
But there is more to it than just connecting with people we know and like. The synod assembly reminds us that the church is more than our parish or our congregation or our county. The church of Jesus Christ is made up of people from many different places with many different complexions and many different opinions about the hot topics of the day. The church is, as St. Paul put it in 1st Corinthians 12:27, one body with many members. All the members do not have the same function but all the members are called to work together in harmony with one another.
On the last day of the assembly the synod bishop and others on the stage wore the daily garb of people from India, like members of our companion synod, the Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church of southern India. It was strange dress for the Red River Valley but it was meant to remind us of our brothers and sisters in Christ on the other side of the world, some of whom will be coming for a visit in September. What did Jesus say in John 10:16? “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.”
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