Caroline’s hands – our dried mangoes.
August 21, 2013
Long road trips require ample portions of dried mangoes in
order to properly maintain the mind, body, spirit and soul to be appropriately
prepared for the journey.
Pictured here are the all-important hands that handled the
dried mangoes on our recent trip to the 2013 Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America Churchwide Assembly in Pittsburg during the week of Aug. 12-17 in
Pittsburgh.
This picture was taken on our way up the road to Pittsburgh
on August 10, 2013. It captures a moment in which the dried mangoes are in
Caroline’s hands as she waxes poetically upon the importance and spirituality
of this food of the Gods…
The Assembly took “action on some 80 ‘memorials’ or requests
from synods asking for Churchwide Assembly action on significant issues,”
according to a thoughtful and comprehensive article written about the assembly
by
Lutheran magazine
writer, Elizabeth Hunter, “
Paperless
in Pittsburgh.” The article by Ms. Hunter appeared in the
August edition
of the magazine.
Ms. Hunter noted that voting members faced “Some big
decisions … amid daily worship, prayer and Bible studies under the theme
"Always Being Made New," based on
2 Corinthians 5:17.”
At the 2013 Lutheran Churchwide Assembly, 952 voting members
from the ELCA's 65 synods and 9,638 congregations elected a new presiding
bishop and secretary, and deliberated and adopted various budgets, financial
campaigns, social statements.
Last week, Caroline Babylon, Evelyn Babylon, Beth Clementson
and I volunteered at the 2013 Churchwide Assembly that was hosted by the
Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod.
It was the last biennial gathering of the ELCA's highest
legislative authority before the assembly transitions to a triennial cycle,
according to Ms. Hunter.
“Always being made New” was the theme of The Evangelical
Lutheran Church in American 2013 Churchwide Assembly that took place August
12-17, 2013 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, PA.
To learn more about the ELCA or to find an ELCA congregation
go to
www.elca.org.
