Brief report on Synod Assembly

There are lots of things I could say about this year's synod assembly. The worship, as usual, was magnificent and well thought-out. The workshops were good. The dorm rooms have not gotten any better since I left college (although the food was good). And being on the election committee... was probably an honor or something, but it was mostly pretty tedious.

Instead, I think I'll describe one image that I want to take with me. Most people would not be surprised to learn that most of the debate was around the upcoming proposed social statement on human sexuality and related documents. (If you haven't read it, by the way, I recommend that you do. Not just the resolutions, either. The whole thing. There are some helpful FAQs as well.) Not surprisingly, there was a lot of sincere emotion on both "sides" of the debate.

However, at the banquet on Saturday night, I saw people who spoke strongly for certain hotly-debated resolutions and people who spoke strongly against those resolutions--and they were sitting at the same table. If that can still happen, then maybe God is still working here, after all!

(P.S. If you're interested in the other business that happened at the assembly, another synod pastor made a post about the bishop election, and why it matters.)

~Pastor Sarah