Friday morning plenary
The assembly limped into its final plenary with the singing of “When Morning Gilds the Skies.”
Bp. Hanson introduced three “new leaders”: Eva Roby, President-elect of the Mission Investment Fund; Jeff Thieman, President-elect of the Board of Pensions; Linda Norman, ELCA Treasurer-elect.
Final credentials report: 1,023 present. He also gave all the demographic statistics, which you probably don’t care about. But roughly 38% of clergy are women, and slightly over half of laity are women. Total percentage under 30 is 12.7% (highest percentage of youth/young adults in history of ELCA).
Rich White, new president of Lutheran Men in Mission, brought greetings.
R&C brought a proposal to do some rewording of the action on the ELCA Malaria Initiative. This appears to be simply an editorial correction. Amendment adopted.
A motion to ask synods to hold Lenten prayer vigils in 2012 was referred to the Office of the Presiding Bishop.
A motion regarding immigration was presented:
Resolved, that the 2011 CWA declare its support of and encouragement for all efforts to prevent the enactment of punitive and unjust federal and state laws that target immigrants . . .that all congregations and institutions. . . are called to welcome and serve persons regardless of their documented status . . . and called upon to deepen their understanding of the current issues . . . and all members . . . be encouraged to protest laws and proposed laws that ignore the Bible’s witness to care for the stranger . . . Church Council be asked to consider designation of one day each year for ‘Stand for Welcome Sunday’ . . . etc etc.
R&C recommends approval, seeing it as consistent with 2009 social policy resolution “Toward Compassionate, Just, and Wise Immigration Reform.” There was brief speaking, all in favor, and the resolution was adopted. 882-40
A motion was submitted asking ELCA to seek dialogue with NALC. Substitute from R&C worded: “Resolved, that the ELCA through the Office of the Presiding Bishop’s Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations invite dialogue with the NALC and strive for a mutual relationship, where possible, for both the ELCA and the NALC.” The original proposer moved that the word “and” (before “strive”) be replaced with “to” (which was his original wording); when asked why, he said “Because it’s grammatically correct.” The assembly agreed, and approved the change. The motion to invite dialogue with NALC was approved 841-74.
A motion relative to suicide prevention was presented. The maker wanted “synods report to the 2013 CWA actions taken by them and/or their congregations to implement the Message on Suicide Prevention.” R&C instead moved to “call upon all expressions of this church, as appropriate, to seek ways to deal with this issue consistent with the message on suicide prevention.” Motion approved 901-21.
A motion was made that would call on congregations to set aside in 2012 the equivalent of one week’s offerings for mission and ministry outside the congregation (based on the fact that there are 53 Sundays in 2012). R&C moved referral to Mission Advancement unit, and “shared, along with other stewardship strategies, across this church as appropriate.” Motion carried.
Now a motion on to “urge the President and Congress to recognize and address the unintended consequences of US ethanol policy on world hunger.” R&C moved to refer to Congregational and Synodical Mission unit and the Office of the Presiding Bishop. The maker of the motion (Lowell Klessig) opposed referral so that the assembly could talk about the issue, which seems to be concern about the high price of corn and shrinking supplies because of growing use of ethanol. There was brief debate by people making utterly contradictory claims about the relative merits of ethanol. Motion to refer was carried, 860-73.
A motion reiterating the ELCA’s commitment to youth-led faith formation and leadership development. The president of Lutheran Youth Organization pointed out that R&C’s language eliminates reference to an “organization based at the churchwide expression,” and he moved as a substitute the original language which did make such a reference. There was no clear rationale from R&C for this change. There were several speakers, mostly youth and bishops. The motion to substitute was approved, 766-166. After more speeches by youth, bishops, and bishop-wannabes, the motion as amended was approved, 909-30.
A very controversial resolution asking the assembly to give thanks to God for the witness and service of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. There was no discussion prior to its approval 883-17.
A more substantial resolution proposed a constitutional amendment which would have synods “transmit to the treasurer of the ELCA a portion of that mission support as determined by the Church Council based upon the number of confirmed members of this synod and adjusted for the median family income in the territory of this synod . . .” R&C recommends referral to Mission Advancement Movement. Motion to refer adopted, 635-251. I doubt many members quite got what this was about.
A lengthy presentation was made on the World Hunger program.
A memorial regarding support for campus ministry was taken up next. There was an amendment offered from the floor. Part of the amendment had budgetary implications, and was disallowed because it had not met deadline requirements. The rest of it called for liaison from campus ministry to the Conference of Bishops, and some other stuff that didn’t get on the screen long enough to copy. Motion to amend approved. After way too much debate, mostly insisting on the importance of campus ministry, the amended motion was approved, 796-93.
The final memorial seems to be asking that the 60% “clergy” at assemblies etc. but widened to include all rostered persons—in other words, lumping lay rostered persons in with ordained rostered persons for “categorization” purposes. R&C recommended this be declined. Motion from R&C adopted, 676-196.
That completes memorials, and now I think all that is left is recognition of outgoing Church Council members and the resolutions of appreciation, for which I don’t really think I need to stay. So I’m off to the airport. I’ll leave any last minute breaking news to Charles. Watch for the wrap-up report in the October Forum Letter.
