Churchwide Assembly--Travel Day

Today, Sunday, has been a day of travel for most of the 1,025 voting members and approximately 500 others coming to the Churchwide Assembly in Orlando. We are gathering under the theme “Freed in Christ to Serve.” The official business of the gathering will begin tomorrow afternoon, preceded by hearings and a voting member orientation tomorrow morning.

Lori Mueller, a voting member from Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Rockford, and I took the bus from Rockford down to O’Hare. Due to the bus departure time, neither one of us made it to church for worship, so it has hardly felt like Sunday. I had calculated which bus I needed be on, allowing some extra time for the construction on I-90. I must admit that I was a tad bit nervous when the driver announced that there was a semi rollover that was slowing traffic down. When traffic came to a stop before we even got to Belvidere, I resigned myself to the fact that this was a situation beyond my control and immersed myself in the Sunday newspaper I had brought along.

As it was, the bus was only 15 minutes late getting to the airport. The lines were long through security, but I got through just fine. Last February I had the joy of experiencing a full body scan. I now know that this would be far preferable to the search Lori experienced. One pat down apparently wasn’t enough and she was escorted off to a private room. I was relieved to find out that she was deemed to be safe for travel. After all, we were on the same flight!

We ran into Pastor Vicki Sauter, a voting member from Immanuel, Amboy. I still can’t figure out how Vicki made it to the airport about the same time we did, after leading worship in Amboy before driving to O’Hare. Her story made me felt a bit guilty, but I recalculated and again concluded that there was no way I could have made it to church this morning.

My suitcase made it to Orlando, but I didn’t recognize it without the neon red luggage tag it had on it when I checked it at O’Hare. The American Airlines employee, who apparently had had a very bad day, assured me that my case had indeed made it to Orlando. A quick search (on my part) of unclaimed luggage yielded a happy result.

Typical of Florida in the summer, there was a late afternoon thunderstorm, but it occurred while we were on the bus between the Orlando airport and the Orlando World Center Marriott. (This hotel and convention complex is big enough to live up to its name.) It was quite a downpour, but it was sunny, hot and humid when we arrived at the hotel. The check-in line moved rapidly. Lori, Vicki and I decided to run up to our rooms then meet in the lobby to check in for the assembly and have dinner. I very much surprised a couple when I entered the room that had been assigned to me! To be fair, they surprised me too! “Can I help you?” she said. “Uh, no,” I said as I backed out. They never saw my face, so there will be no embarrassing situations while we’re here. At least not with them. I went back to the front desk and was assigned a different room.

I asked both Lori and Vicki what they are looking forward to in this assembly. Both are anxious to experience the worship and to be a part of the business of the church. I have seen or spoken to a number of our other voting members and some from Northern Illinois who are attending as visitors or congregational observers. This hotel is alive with conversation between Lutherans from across the country.

Statistically speaking, it is a small number of ELCA members who are able to experience a Churchwide Assembly in person. Thanks to current technology and the Internet, you will be able to experience the assembly with those of us who are here. Just go to www.elca.org/assembly. All of the plenary sessions and worship will be streamed live.

It’s time for me to call it a day. Please remember to pray for this assembly and all of its voting members. Oh, by the way, has anybody seen Bishop Wollersheim? I know he’s here somewhere.

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