Thursday, April 29,2010 - Blog 1

Blog Power?

Does anyone read Synod Assembly blogs? And particularly, does anyone do so who might be in a position to address in a meaningful way issues raised therein? Only the IT folks know the tracking figures for hits, but here’s a bit of anecdotal evidence:
Last year one of the points made by this blogger was that the assembly agenda provided no opportunity for Youth Voting Members to get together, except for Saturday night pizza with the bishop. At the appointed hour for workshops, at the suggestion of this writer, the youth representatives met on their own in the conference center lobby (they had little difficulty recognizing one another) and headed off somewhere for an hour of bonding (or not).
The tentative agenda for this year called for a half-hour of “Mentoring for Youth Voting Members” at 12:30 p.m. Friday, right after the one-hour “Orientation for New Voting Members.” An Assembly Update posted later on the synod Web site states that, instead, Youth Voting Members “are invited to meet together” from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Friday (just before the voter orientation), in the same space where the orientation is to take place – Salons C and D of the Palms Ballroom. It’s okay to bring lunch to the meeting, since most of the young people will be staying for the orientation, and the first plenary session will begin right after that.
Oh, yeah – pizza with the bishop is on again this year. It’s at 5 p.m. Saturday. If you’re neither a youth nor a bishop, don’t expect to get in.

What’s Happening

This time last year, synod assemblies, including this one, were agonizing over what would or would not happen a few months later at Churchwide Assembly regarding the proposed Social Statement on Human Sexuality and proposed changes to Ministry Policies. Now, what did happen is not only history but history in the making.
If you would like to hear some encouraging news from Florida-Bahamas Synod congregations who find the Churchwide Assembly actions cause for celebration, stop by the panel discussion at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the Siesta Room (next to the snack bar near the hotel registration area). All are invited to join the conversation immediately afterward, and again after the Opening Eucharist service. Brown bag your supper at 5:30 if you want, since the gathering music for the service begins at 7.

Passions and Pensions

A couple of highly contentious controversies are raging within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America right now – and neither of them has anything to do with sexuality. Both are about pensions – the pensions of those retired from the roster of the ELCA and the pensions of employees of Augsburg Fortress, the ELCA publishing house.
ELCA retirees learned last September that, effective in January, their benefits would be reduced by 9 percent a year for the next three years, a total cut of 27 percent come 2012. Blazing e-mails have been fanning the flames of outrage, with one complaint being that the Board of Pensions failed years ago to establish a reserve fund. One retired clergy member wrote that “Many of the pensioners, if not all, were advised by representatives of the BOP to annuitize, and they were guided into a so-called bridge fund with some assurance these conservative instruments would protect their pensions . . . there has yet to be an explanation of how the funds are managed and where they were invested.”
The situation with Augsburg Fortress (as reported April 23 in The Wall Street Journal, among other places) is that the publishing house announced in January that it was terminating the retirement plan for its 500 employees and retirees, saying the plan had been underfunded for the last nine years. Employees and retirees of AF, based in Minneapolis, have since sued the publisher in federal court, claiming that it allowed their pension plan to fail and that it used its connection to the ELCA as a shield to avoid paying them their pensions. ELCA Secretary David Swartling, by profession a lawyer, drafted a lengthy and lawyerly defense of the ELCA’s stand that it is not a party to the issue because Augsburg Fortress is a separate corporate entity.
What does this have to do with the Florida-Bahamas Synod Assembly? With regard to the ELCA pensions, find out at the traditional Retired Rostered Leaders Luncheon at noon on Saturday in the Lemon Ballroom (you must be retired and have registered in advance for this one). If you’re retired but didn’t register for the luncheon, you can go to the Lemon Ballroom at 2:15 p.m. to meet with John Kapanke, executive director of the Board of Pensions, who has been in the hot seat at other Lutheran gatherings, notably at the Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly last weekend. Finally, if you’re not rostered and retired, you can meet with BOP representative Fana Tekle, who will have a display table in the Ministry Marketplace. According an assembly update, she’ll be available “to conduct individual consultations with plan members, congregational representatives and synod staff.”
As far as Augsburg Fortress, it had been known for some time that the publishing house, because of financial constraints, would not have representation at Synod Assembly this year.

How to Help in Haiti

A year ago the synod celebrated the formation several months earlier of The Haitian Lutheran Church and the ordination of four pastors to serve its members. One of those pastors, Livenson Lauvanus, spoke at a hospitality suite gathering during the 2009 assembly, asking synod congregations to provide financial support for the young congregations of l’Eglise Lutherienne d’Haiti to build permanent church structures that could also serve as community education, health and social service centers.
In response, synod conferences and congregations began fund-raising efforts to support this outreach ministry. And then on Jan. 12, 2010, the earthquake struck. Fund-raising for church buildings was put on the back burner and the focus changed to disaster response. Pastor Livenson – who had come to Florida on a fund-raising mission the day before the earthquake and was not able to return home for some days – will be here again at the 2010 assembly. Help – of money and muscle and materials – for rebuilding will be needed for years. Hurricane season is almost at hand, with mudslides certain to wreak further destruction to people’s communities, lives and spirits. Ask Pastor Livenson what you can do to help. He will tell you.

Keep Your Cool

Another observation from this blogger last year was that one way the synod could witness to “going green” would be to have the hotel crank the thermostat up a couple of degrees in the conference hall. A meeting of the Synod Council on Thursday afternoon took place in a comfortable ambience. Whether voting members will have to endure the big chill again this year remains to be seen. Not too encouraging is this note from an assembly update: “Cold natured? Bring a sweater, as it can become quite cool in the Palms Ballroom and workshop rooms.”

Stay Tuned

Those who volunteered by way of their online registration to sing in the Synod Assembly choir were advised by e-mail soon afterward that there will not be a choir this year. Given that a volunteer choir adds next to nothing in the way of production costs, the reason for this decision is not immediately clear. If an explanation can be found, you’ll find it in tomorrow’s blog.