ELCA Churchwide Assembly 2011, ctd

Now that the 2011 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA is complete, I think would like to share a couple of resources that can help us to understand the work this church has done in that place and continues to do around the country and the world. I did follow much of the Assembly online, and used and followed the Twitter hashtag #cwa11 like it was manna from heaven. I had the privilege of representing the European American Lutheran Association all week on Twitter, supporting resolutions related to immigration.

Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson set the tone for the week with his sermon at opening worship, which you can watch on the archived videos or read at LivingLutheran.com. I strongly encourage everyone to check out this sermon, which I believe started the week's path toward consistent post-Assembly feedback that this Assembly demonstrated that this church, the ELCA, finally knows its identity for the first time since its conception in 1987.

My Second Calling, ctd

For your amusement, I will post here a link to the radio interview about roller derby I did today on The Yard, 1600 FM The Fan. Sean, the host, goaded me into talking about my wedding plans more than I would've liked, but overall it was quite a fun time. Thanks, Sean, and I hope to see you Saturday night at Wings Stadium for KDD's final bout of the season.

ELCA Churchwide Assembly 2011

Today begins the biennial Churchwide Assembly (called CWA11 by us church-nerds) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Even though today is my day off, I've spent most of my recent hours watching opening worship on the ELCA's live stream. Bishop Mark Hanson's sermon on Mary's Song from Luke was very powerful, and I hope it will be available to watch later online. I am enjoying hearing some of my best people making music for the Assembly as well.

If you want to keep up with CWA11, in addition to following the live stream, go to Twitter and search #cwa11 - the official hashtag of the event, to hear what everyone is saying about it. You needn't join Twitter to do so, but of course it would be awesome if you did (and if you followed @AndrewTengwall and @EuroAmLuthAssn).

Also, the European American Lutheran Association (EALA) is active at CWA11, supporting the resolution on immigration that got me all riled up in my sermon this past Sunday.

So come and see what God is up to through the ELCA this week!

August Newsletter Article

Joyful, Joyful we adore thee,

God of glory, Lord of love!

Hearts unfold like flow’rs before thee,

praising thee, their sun above.

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,

drive the gloom of doubt away.

Giver of immortal gladness,

fill us with the light of day.

- Henry van Dyke, “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee,” ELW 836

As you have likely heard by now, I am getting married at the beginning of September. My fiancé, Sarah Friesen-Carper, is the pastor of Peace Lutheran Church in Charlotte, Michigan, where she has served since 2007. We met at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago during her senior year and my “Lutheran Year,” the extra year of seminary I was required to do because I had earned my degree at a non-Lutheran school. She laughs easily, cares deeply and doesn’t put up with too much of my foolishness. I am blessed to have her in my life.

Our wedding will take place in her parents’ backyard in Valparaiso, Indiana. It amuses me that the two pastors are to be married in the backyard rather than in a church building, but we are still having full church with a baptismal font, processional cross, hymns and communion. Our Bishop John D. Schleicher has graciously agreed to preside over the marriage parts of the gathering. Preaching and presiding at communion will be Sarah’s mentor from LSTC, John H. Tietjen Professor of Pastoral Ministry: Worship and Church Music, Emeritus Rev. Mark P. Bangert. We are very excited for the presence and participation of each of these church leaders in our ceremony.

We are also excited for the music at our wedding. Sarah’s father Dennis Friesen-Carper is composing a setting of Song of Solomon 8:6-7 for the service featuring choir, solo mezzo-soprano, and viola. Some of you may know of him from the Glory to God of ELW Holy Communion Setting Eight that we frequently sing on Sunday mornings. Sarah’s brother Paul is setting Psalm 98 for us to sing as a congregation as we have begun to do now on Sundays.

It Gets Better VI

I can't believe I have neglected to update this story, which left off when one of my parishioners left a copy of the It Gets Better Project book outside my office and I set it out in our reading nook. See also the earlier   posts in this series to hear how I came to receive the book and the support of Lutheran Church of the Savior in this work.

Not a week after setting the book out, we were hosting a luncheon after a funeral. After eating and visiting with folks, I had gone to my office. When I returned to the luncheon, I found a grandson of the deceased standing in the reading nook, reading the It Gets Better book. When I approached, he quickly returned the book to the shelf, but I picked it up and told him how great and powerful I thought the book was, and asked him what he thought of it. He said he had no idea IGBP had a book version, and that he was surprised to find it on display in a church building.

He had been removed from his youth leadership position in his former Baptist church when he had come out, he said, and had not found a church that wanted a 17-year-old gay kid around. I told him such churches exist; this is one, and there are many others. I told him about my dream of having the IGBP book in churches to parallel the drive to have it in school libraries, as church is another frequent setting for the bullying of gay teens. He told me he wanted to go to college for design, or something similarly awesome, hopefully in New York City. It was a great conversation, one of the most meaningful (for me, at least) I have had as a pastor.

I have not seen him again, and I don't even remember his name, but the joy I find in this memory is not about hoping to make him a member of my church. As great as that would be, I am content knowing that we were able to make this gay teen feel welcome in his time of grief. After his previous experience with church, all too common for LGBT folks of every age, he had every reason to be apprehensive about coming into a Christian church building, even for his grandmother's funeral. I am deeply glad we were able to make him feel as welcome as the rest of his family on that significant day.

Twitter

As of this afternoon I've joined Twitter, at long last. The reasons for this are multi-faceted, but worth mentioning. To start with the obvious, some of my closest friends swear by it, and it did lead to my having an excellent, healthy lunch in Urbana on Monday. Less likely, I joined in part because someone at a funeral viewing showed me his Twitter account, I guess because he was tired of talking about his late family member.

Along too-similar lines, I joined Twitter because of the tragedy in Norway today, and Twitter is the place to get news the fastest. Eighty kids, with the possibility of more? There are no words for this horror, this sadness, this senselessness. I pray for the victims, their families, their nation. Also, for the killer, though only with sighs too deep for words.

Green Burials, ctd

I've posted before about green burials, but here's a reminder from Al Jazeera news about the cost of business as usual when that business is death and burial in this country. I expect some of their numbers would be disputable, but in general, I believe green burial to be an option more natural and environmentally sound and less expensive than our usual plans. I would never say it is for everyone, but I do hope green burial becomes a viable option for more people around the country.