From the Pastor

 

            The Southwestern PA Lutheran Synod held its annual three day assembly at Thiel College on June 17-19. My article this month is a report on what happened at the synod assembly.

            First, some numbers. There were 529 persons in attendance – 275 lay voting members, 169 clergy voting members, 61 visitors, and 24 Youth Convo participants. They all represent the 200 congregations in the synod.

            “Global Mission” was the theme of the assembly, and it was highlighted in the worship services and in the ELCA presentations. The synod also recognized the 40th anniversary of the ordination of women in the ELCA. Pastor Caroline Mendis, who has been ordained for 36 years, was the assembly chaplain.

            The three worship services on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday featured preaching by Bishop Kusserow, Rev. Rafael Padilla (director of Global Missions for the ELCA), and Pastor Mendis. The Friday evening service included music and songs from Lutheran churches around the world. Yes, there are Lutherans in places other than North America and Europe!!

            Rev. Padilla, a life-long Lutheran from Puerto Rico, spoke with passion about the work of the 270 ELCA missionaries around the world. He told an especially poignant story of a ELCA missionary in Tanzania, who went to visit a woman and her teenage daughter in their village hut, along with the local Lutheran pastor. Both women suffered from AIDS. The Lutheran churches have been active in assisting those with AIDS with medicine, food, supplies, and hope, and providing care for AIDS orphans.

            At the end of his visit, the pastors asked if they could pray for the women. The mother took them aside, and asked that they pray for her teenage daughter to die first, so that she could care for her daughter in her last moments. Rev. Padilla continued, “And you were there, you were there in that hut, through your support of the ELCA and its missionaries, bringing hope and comfort to a mother and daughter in desperate circumstances.” Rev. Padilla reported that both daughter and mother were buried together peacefully a few weeks later at a church service.

            There were the usual business sessions of the assembly. I am the chairperson of the synod budget & finance committee, and so I presented the proposed 2011 synod budget for approval. The 2011 synod budget contains considerable cuts in spending – a reduction of sharing with the churchwide offices from 55% to 50%, a reduction of synod staffing from three assistants to the bishop to two assistants to the bishop, and a 50% reduction of synod grants to the five major social ministry organizations the synod supports. The proposed budget was adopted, after considerable discussion.

            People from the synod were elected to various boards, including the boards of Gettysburg Seminary, Thiel College, Lutheran Service Society, Lutheran Senior Life, Glade Run Lutheran Services, Bethesda Children’s Home, Camp Lutherlyn and Agape, and also as voting members for the 2011 ELCA national assembly, to be held in August 2011.

            There were both printed reports and verbal reports from Bishop Kurt Kusserow, the vice-president, treasurer, and a whole range of synodwide committees and organizations.

            As expected, there were numerous resolutions concerning the ELCA assembly action last August, permitting congregations that wish to do so, to call as their pastor a minister living in a committed homosexual relationship. Several motions to call the ELCA to rescind or to block in various ways the decision made last August were defeated.

            A motion that “this synod teach and confess that marriage is between one man and one woman, and sexual activity belongs exclusively within the traditional Biblical boundaries of a faithful marriage” was passed and adopted. This motion was significant, as the church council here at Christ’s Lutheran adopted it, along with some other wording, as a teaching statement of the congregation. The full church council resolution is in a later article by Dave Hanshew, council president.

            Each year, the synod assembly is a reaffirmation of the bonds we share in Jesus Christ with other Lutheran churches in the greater Pittsburgh area. There are small congregations in small towns and rural areas, there are congregations in city neighborhoods, there are congregations in the suburbs, such as Christ’s. Together we work to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to support one another in our ministries.

            Attending the assembly were John and Kathy Schultz, Dave Hanshew, Nancy Sheehan, and myself. You can talk to any of us if you want to hear more about what happened.

 

Pastor Ed