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Peace, Grace and Blessings to you…
I have to give Minnesota and Minneapolis credit. Picture this: the hotel we are staying in, Central Lutheran Church, and the Convention Center are in a fairly straight line, about 200 feet from the hotel doors to the doors of the Convention Center. But, you can't walk that straight line. There is the 12th Avenue access to 35W that runs between the hotel and Central Lutheran, a split off from which runs in front of the hotel. Between Central Lutheran and the Convention Center runs 3rd Avenue. But to get to the Convention Center you have to go from the hotel door up to the corner with the access to 35W and cross the street to be even with the hotel doors but on the other side of the road. Walk away from the hotel along the right side of 12th Street to the corner of 12th and 3rd, turn 110 degrees to the left to cross 12th Avenue, turn right 110 degrees to cross the divided boulevard that is 3rd Avenue, turn left and walk 150 feet to the doors of the Convention Center. You cannot get to Central Lutheran direct line from any public place. A tour de force of separation of church and state, if there ever was one.
The principal activity on the Assembly floor was related to the Social Statement on Human Sexuality. First, it was introduced onto the floor of the Assembly. Following the introduction, the Assembly went into a quasi-Committee of the Whole, for the purpose of having a discussion without the encumbrance of parliamentary procedure. People simply lined up at the microphones labeled Red and Green depending on whether they were against or for the adoption of the Social Statement. The Presiding Bishop, Mark Hanson, using a computer program that kept track of who arrived in the line at the mic when, called on people alternating between against and for until he ran out of time or people to call on.
More time had to be allocated because things ran late in the morning, and part of the afternoon had to be used to finish out the 60 minutes allotted for this discussion.
Later that afternoon there was a hearing held on the Social Statement, among other hearings. There was also a hearing before dinner on the Ministry Policies and one after — to allow those who went to the Social Statement hearing to go to one on Ministry Policies.
I will not bother to tell you the arguments that were made. You are perfectly capable of guessing all of the arguments from both sides. They have been made over and over again. I heard no argument, pro or con, that I had not heard before. That does not mean that the arguments should not be made. They should be.
It is important to note that the disagreement we have with those opposed to full inclusion is not over the authority of Scripture in the life of the church, or in the life of any member of the church. Scholars disagree on the interpretations of Scripture, and that is something Lutherans can do till the Second Coming. Questioning someone else's interpretation of Scripture does not constitute an assault on the authority of Scripture.
In the evening, we held a wonderful event with music provided by Ovation and a panel discussion by the subjects of the DVD sent to all the voting members, One Baptism, Many Gifts. The DVD is a picture into the lives of faith of two dedicated lesbian pastors, Katrina Foster and Robyn Hartwig, and an equally dedicated gay candidate for ordination, Javen Swanson, including their families. Copies of the DVD are available from LC/NA for $5, at Goodsoil Central, Room 200, in the Convention Center during the Churchwide Assembly, and after the Assembly from the LC/NA office in St Paul or online through www.lcna.org.
Tomorrow brings the parliamentary consideration of the Social Statement and vote for adoption.
[Here is the second in a series of reflections written by David Weiss, a theologian, writer, poet and hymnist committed to doing "public theology" around issues of sexuality, justice, diversity, and peace. His first book is To the Tune of a Welcoming God: Lyrical Reflections on Sexuality, Spirituality and the Wideness of God's Welcome (2008). David Weiss will be in Goodsoil Central from 12:30–1:30 for a book signing. A longtime Goodsoil supporter, he lives with his wife and children in St Paul, Minnesota. This one was written on Sunday the 16th, as preparations for the opening of Goodsoil Central and the Assembly itself were underway.]
Goodsoil Central: Alongside the Chebar River
David R Weiss, August 16, 2009
I'm sitting in Goodsoil Central. Outside in the hallway the signs assure me that I'm in Rooms 200C-H at the Minneapolis Convention Center, but I don't believe them. I've read Ezekiel's "Travel Guide for Exiles" and according to that I'm actually sitting alongside the Chebar River.
First, there are the stoles. Everywhere. Hundreds of them. The room is aflame with their colors. They are the legacy of the countless LGBT persons whose gifts have led them into ministry — and whose calls have been fractured by the fear of their respective churches. Each stole tells a story of gifts denied, of calls stolen (a linguistic irony to be sure!) not just from individuals, but from the whole people of God. This is the palpable anguish of our community, decked out in colors for every liturgical season.
But it's the prayer shawls that really give it away. For months Lutherans across the country, both men and women, old and young, have been weaving, knitting, quilting, and crocheting prayer shawls for this Assembly. Prayerfully working their stitches toward the day when all of us are welcomed home. The shawls, hundreds of them, too, are simply piled high on tables at the front of the room. Many with tags identifying the person or the community whose love made this cloth as prayerful as the person whose shoulders it will soon wrap.
Starting tomorrow, as the Assembly takes up (yet again) the matter of "us" — debating whether the Bible or the tradition can support the wonders that God is already busily doing in our lives (of which the stoles are just a hint) — we will send some portion of ourselves into deep prayer. Carrying all the anguish of our past and all the hopes of our future into the presence of God, we will wrap ourselves in these shawls. Clothed in this love, we will tend to maintaining a contemplative quiet, steadying the words that others of us will speak in Assembly and enlivening the stories that others of us will tell over meals.
We, who are Goodsoil — gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, and ally people of faith — are as yet exiles in our own church. Even as we hold our heads high, even when our hearts are happy and our spirits sound, there is no denying that the policies in place and the attitudes that remain pervasive in too many places mark us as exiles.
But in this room, we are exiles in good company. Besides the wealth of ourselves — and the energy of faith and hope is tremendous here — between the stoles and the shawls we have all the colors of the rainbow in this room.
And in my mind I hear Ezekiel speaking from exile (in chapter 1), "There in Babylonia beside the Chebar River, I heard the Lord speak to me, and I felt God's power." In this place where he ought, by all rights, to have felt utterly abandoned, he receives his powerful vision of four living creatures with wings: "The noise their wings made in flight sounded like the roar of rushing water, like the voice of Almighty God." He describes "wheels within wheels" and "a throne made of sapphire" and "a human-like figure sitting on the throne who seemed to be shining like bronze in the middle of a fire."
Finally, Ezekiel says of this heavenly figure who meets him in exile, "And roundabout shone a bright light that had in it all the colors of the rainbow. This was the dazzling light, which shows the presence of the Lord."
Goodsoil. Good company. Here in the land of 10,000 lakes you'll find us … alongside the Chebar river. |
