Churchwide Assembly

Greetings from Chicago, where the ELCA is meeting in Biennial Assembly. I've been pretty busy these days because of multiple roles I have here. One is as the PLTS Admissions Representative to the Assembly, together with my colleagues representing the rest of our seminaries. Another role is as host, together with President Phyllis Anderson, for the PLTS Reception at the Assembly. Finally and, franky, most exciting, I have been participating in a gathering of rostered leaders under the age of 31.

This group, largely clergy and largely PLTS grads, has been meeting for a few days to share stories, hear from each other about experiences, learn some best practices, consider our spiritual/physical/emotional health, and have a reunion! You may know that there is a growing number of pastors in the ELCA who come to seminary right out of college. In fact, this gathering was initially intended to be for pastors under age 35. But, when the budget folks found out that there are about 1,000 pastors under age 35, the age had to be lowered. PLTS has the youngest student body in the ELCA seminary system. We have the highest percentage of "young students" of all 8 seminaries and a higher number of young students than 4 of the other seminaries . . . not bad! Of course, these younger students are balanced out by the invaluable contributions of our second-career students, whose life experience gives them a rich background from which to draw for classroom conversation and contextualization.

This Assembly has been an exciting place to be. Bishop Hanson was re-elected (handily) in an affirmation of his strong, bold, and courageous leadership of this church. Secretary Almen was honored for his many years of dedicated service to this church, and was succeeded by a layman from out here in the west! Bishops were encouraged to excercise restraint in their discipline of pastors and congregations caught in the middle of the discussion/discernment on sexuality that our church is facing. And a program to study ways that Lutherans read the Bible was launched (I think this discussion needed to come before the discussion on Sexuality . . . but, hopefully, they will inform each other.). Finally, seeing the church represented in one place by its highest legislative body was (for the second time) a fun experience. Said one participant: "I have been an active member of my congregation and a participant in the ministries of my synod. But I never imagined I was part of a church that was helping to change the world."