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For the first time, Lutherans Concerned / North America (LC/NA) was officially invited to participate in the ELCA National Youth Gathering, held July 22–26, 2009 in New Orleans. LC/NA was invited to host a 10'x10' booth in the "Interaction Center" of the Youth Gathering.
Ross Murray, Interim Associate Director, and Dylan Flunker, LVC Special Projects Coordinator, represented LC/NA at the booth and were joined by Youth / Young Adult Board Representative, Geoff Abel. The LC/NA booth was busy Wednesday through Saturday from nine to five. Hundreds of youth, adult leaders, and pastors came by. Participants could don a set of headphones and watch stories from LC/NA's "I Love to Tell the Story" training at Hearts on Fire, or browse a selection of stoles from the "For All the Saints" stoles project. Many wrote prayers for the church on prayer shawls, to be used at the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Some only stayed long enough for a sticker, button, or tattoo, but many stayed to hear about LC/NA's mission and work, and added their voices to the call for a fully inclusive church by becoming Reconciling Lutherans. By week's end, 303 buttons, 1,649 stickers and 3,361 temporary tattoos had been given away. In addition, 598 people from across the country became Reconciling Lutherans.
At the conclusion of the Youth Gathering, Ross continued on with about 220 youth to Hattisburg, Mississippi, for the Convention of the Lutheran Youth Organization, where he was invited to give a workshop on "Welcome and Participation of People of All Sexual Orientations and Gender Identities in the Life of the Lutheran Church," bridging the conversation between welcome on a congregational/individual level and on a churchwide level.
Three youth were inspired by the topic session to write a resolution that pertained to the welcome of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the life of the Lutheran Church. Eventually, two resolutions were written. One encouraged congregations to write a statement of explicit welcome in the congregation's mission statement or other documents. The other asked the LYO to support the adoption of both the Social Statement on Human Sexuality and Recommendation on Ministry Policies. That resolution also encouraged the youth who were voting members to share this sentiment with other voting members at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Both resolutions passed nearly unanimously.
The resolutions:
Resolution 12:
RESOLVED, that the Lutheran Youth Organization encourages all ELCA congregations to prayerfully consider including an intentional welcome to all LGBTQ people into full participation in the church by including a welcoming statement in their mission statement or other church documents.
Resolution 15:
RESOLVED, that the LYO support the adoption of the proposed Social Statement on Human Sexuality and the proposed Ministry Recommendations through a letter from the BLYO to the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Secretary of the ELCA, Executive Director of the Vocation and Education Unit of the ELCA, Vice President of the ELCA, and the Executive Director of the Church and Society Unit of the ELCA; and be it further
RESOLVED, that LYO Convention delegates who are also voting members of the Churchwide Assembly are encouraged to share the contents of this resolution from the LYO relating to the two documents to the members of the Churchwide Assembly.
[A more fulsome report of LC/NA activities at the New Orleans and LYO gatherings will be found in the next edition of Concord, our newsletter.] |
