Blog the Second
By Jean Etsinger
It was not an auspicious arrival. The directions to the assembly venue were fine, until I got in front of the place and made the turn to the parking garage. Red X’s at the ticket dispensers meant the multi-story structure was full, right? Well, no, you just had to figure out how to get to the lane without the red X, which I did by following a guy with local knowledge. Then it was into the hotel and up to the assembly check-in desk, where I received my packet and was directed back down and out to turn left and go up the stairs to the orientation for first-time delegates.
Starting up the stairs, I met a couple coming down who said the doors up there were locked. We all retraced our steps, and joined a few more confused folks, including one who said go past the sports bar, which we did, connecting on the way with a couple of synod authority figures also looking for the elusive Halifax suite. With due diligence we found it, and there I learned that I am not a delegate, but a voting member of the assembly – and also that voting members are to be guided in their decision-making by the Holy Spirit, not their constituency back home. Works for me.
After the orientation I had occasion to go from the third floor to the seventh and so of course took the elevator. My fellow blogger has already covered this one. All I can say is I’m not getting into any elevator here alone unless it’s going down (i.e., no key card needed) and that’s where I want to go, too.
Bishop Benoway’s sermon at the Opening Eucharist hinged on a verse from Micah 6 that I’ve heard a lot lately because of involvement in faith-based advocacy – the mandate “to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.” I liked his point that God does not want to be appeased (implying, by extension, that it is folly for mortals to seek to appease him). And let the record show that the liturgical music lived up to expectations (see Blog the First).
Among those bringing greetings was Daniel Lehmann, who three years ago became the first journalist (as opposed to clergy person) to be named editor of The Lutheran. Circulation dropped off a decade ago, he said. I wouldn’t know why; I wasn’t paying much attention to it back then. Today I can count on spending a couple of hours reading it pretty much cover to cover.
Friday’s keynote address was by Diane Jacobson, director of the ELCA’s new “Book of Faith” initiative to promote Bible literacy over the next five years. Having been at last summer’s Churchwide Assembly, where the initiative was adopted, and having included an article about it in the May issue of my congregation’s newsletter, I am fairly familiar with the project. For anyone who isn’t, the PowerPoint that comprised much of the presentation must have been mystifying.
The content was fine, but much of the text was in pale aqua and even paler pistachio on a white background – just impossible to see. Not that anybody asked, but I would really suggest going about three shades darker on both. (The third text color, a kind of café au grape, was just fine.) I also found the graphics disorienting. The figure representing Jesus made me think of Gort in “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” One might argue that Michael Rennie was a kind of Christ figure in that 50s classic, but I don’t think his robot was.
I just couldn’t decide among the seven workshops offered Friday evening, so I did the first half of one and the second half of another. The “Advocacy” session attracted an intriguing collection of attendees, from seasoned advocates to some who came out of curiosity and one, a youth voting member, who said “I’m just 15 and want to learn about helping people.” (Bravo!) The co-presenters made the point that a church body is in a unique position to lobby lawmakers – in Florida, say —because it has congregations statewide that can attract the attention of individual legislators from within their own constituencies.
The “immigration and Detention” workshop focused mainly on the presenter’s experiences as a chaplain at the notorious Krome detention facility in South Dade but segued into a look at the New Sanctuary Movement that emerged a year and a half ago in California. The new definition of “sanctuary” goes beyond providing a place of haven to offering public spiritual support for victims of unjust immigration practices. (To learn more, visit www.newsanctuarymovement.org.)
One attendee expressed dismay at the “poison” spread by television networks feeding the fires of anger, hate and polarization on the immigration issue. What can the church do, he asked. Presenter Andreas Thode’s response was an anecdote about a boy who came upon a man plucking starfish that had been washed onto a beach and tossing them one by one back into the sea. There were thousands of them. “Do you think what you’re doing matters?” the boy asked. The man scooped up one more starfish, flung it into the water and replied, “It mattered to that one.”
The last event on the assembly schedule Friday was a Healing Rite service at 8:45 p.m. held in the huge hall where the opening and plenary sessions had taken place. Earlier in the day, every seat had been filled. Now, the place was at least 80 percent empty. Sunday morning in the sanctuary in a pastor’s worst nightmare? Perhaps not. There were three songs printed in the book and projected on the screens for singing during the individual laying on of hands that followed the sermon. By the time we had finished them, a dozen or so individuals remained waiting their turn. So it may well be that more folks turned out for the service than the planners had expected.
Let’s see how many show up at 8 o’clock on Saturday for Morning Prayer.