Social Media team member Pastor Lauren Muratore has your daily digest here.
…was the theme for day one of the Delaware-Maryland Synod Assembly, and it was the steady, beautiful undercurrent of the opening moments here in Ocean City. In his sermon this morning, Bishop Wolfgang reminded us that “walking together” isn’t just about the trip, it’s about the relationships we form along the way. It is, in fact, our deep interconnectedness and interdependence on one another and on the One who created us that speaks gospel into the world.
In this spirit of relationship, the assembly took several important actions today:
- Invited full-communion partners serving ELCA to have voice and vote at Synod Assembly;
- Pledged synod-wide, year-round, concrete support for ELCA World Hunger;
- Named June 25, 2015 as the “Day of the Seafarer” - to recognize and support those whose arduous work in international shipping makes our way of life possible;
- Celebrated exceeding our goal of raising $300,000 for the Malaria Campaign, having raised a total of $312,000 - complete with Bishop Wolfgang running a victory lap around the Assembly hall!
The Church in the World
In his timely and contextual keynote address, the Rev. Dr. John Nunes, the Jochum Chair at Valparaiso University, challenged the assembly to confront hard truths about realities that jeopardize our relationships with one another; hard truths about structural and systemic sin- about racism, poverty, and the lack of diversity in the Lutheran church. As is the mark of powerful prophetic speech, however, John spoke those truths in a manner that never once abandoned hope.
Calling forth the image of the tree of life from the book of Revelation, we were invited to creatively imagine what the healing of the nations, the church, the neighborhoods could look like, right here, right now. What if class, gender, and racial labels were replaced with the name God has given each of us- “Child of God?” What if we removed ourselves from the privileged position of deciding which types of people should be treated with dignity, and instead recognized that God is the giver of dignity- a gift given to all? For the sake of the gospel as realized in holy relationship, this is the task of our church today.
Lest this great and necessary task of truly walking together become too overwhelming, the assembly was also reminded that the God we worship is a miracle-working, justice enacting, salvation securing, forgiveness giving Jesus. And to that, we say, amen.