…Speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:15-16

They can be seen at almost every large ELCA gathering, from synod assemblies to churchwide assemblies – those who sit among the voting membership and busy themselves with something additional to the business at hand: knitting (or, for you keen observers, crocheting).

We, as the body of Christ, are brought together so closely – knitted – and these are the people who are quietly showing, in a small but practical way, what being knit together means.

Doing her part to knit us together!

A first-time voting member to a synod assembly, Kristen Gyorgy from Good Samaritan Lutheran Church, Lexington Park, Md.,, is one knitter who is sitting in the back of the Assembly Hall and creating with her hands while she listens to the presentations.

She is a teacher of third-grade children and finds that some of her students need to keep their hands occupied. She also finds that keeping her hands busy makes it easier to pay attention to the deliberations in the front of the room. Of course, she puts her needles down to pick up the voting device when elections occur.

Gyorgy has been working on a pair of green booties for her sister’s baby during the two days of this Assembly.

Gyorgy, along with other lay members of her congregation, was asked to attend the Assembly as a voting member. But her presence is not the only extension of her congregation here at the Assembly. So is her knitting. About a year ago, she joined her congregation’s knitting group, called the Stitching Sisters, where she learned the skill. The group gathers twice a month to not only socialize but some make prayer shawls that are shared with others.

Perhaps there is no better metaphor for the body of Christ coming together as a corporate group these days. In order to be the synod, we must gather in Assembly; we must knit ourselves together.

Participants in this morning’s Bible study, led by Diaconal Ministers Kathy Garrison and Wayne Ralston, looked at Scripture that examines the Assembly’s theme and that addresses the question: ITALICS How are we perceived when people come to visit our congregation? A person’s perception is his/her reality.

Participants split up into groups of three or four. Each group examined an Old or New Testament story and the perceptions among the various actors in the story – how one group or person saw another and how this affected their relationships. These perceptions were applied to the present day in our congregations.

One thing that was noted about all the readings was that they address the difference between love and fear – fear of the other (someone not like us) vs. accepting someone unconditionally.

One of the passages that a group examined had come up before – it was the same one that was used yesterday in the presentation of the keynote speaker.

In introducing the keynote speaker, Joe Myers, the Rev. Phil Hirsch said that Myers has thought about the ways people connect with community and the sense of belonging.

Before he began his presentation, Myers offered some explanations about his approach and personality. One request was that the audience gives him just five minutes to let something he says sink in rather than be dismissed.
Canaan

He began with Matthew 15:22, including the book’s opening genealogy and later the story of the Canaanite woman. What has captured his mind is how people connect, something he sees through a lens of social economics.

“You are leaders in the thought and process of bringing unlike people together.” It’s a part of our history, the fabric of who we are, Myers said.
How do we think and behave now?

We live in a time that no one can figure out, “so don’t feel lost.”

From a sociologist’s standpoint, there has been a major cultural shift. Myers talked about “cultural vertigo,” when people lose their sense of who they are in the world, when comfortable places of meaning are swept away, when memory becomes stronger than hope, and when every acquaintance and stranger is possibly our next best friend.

Myers described a cultural move away from an agrarian way of life, which he said is recalled as an over-romanticized Americana. Subsequent ages have had elements of the agrarian mindset. We still run our churches on an agrarian model.

Now, Myers said, we seem to be moving back to a pre-agrarian age, back to the nomadic age. But it is not a geonomadic type – geography as our map for social behavior. Now we are “technomadic” – technology as our map for social behavior.
Technomadics

Technomadics are multi-tribal, getting rid of a silo mentality. They are “quilting” their lives together, with no barriers between social, work and religious lives and with choosing which “tribe” to belong to in each area of life. It’s the way people today move, belong and behave.

Jesus, too, quilted his family together, as he did with the Canaanite woman. He’s bringing together diverse parts of his life, Myers said.

Everyone wants to belong, but everybody has a sense of vertigo because those ways of belonging have been shifting and are being swept away.

If you have the ability to step forward and help them belong with you, Myers asserts, they will.

The representative to the Assembly from the ELCA’s churchwide expression is Mark Burkhardt. He is the Director for Congregational Centers for Mission, which encompasses the program areas of new congregations, congregational renewal, congregational-base organizing, campus ministry, youth ministry, young adult ministry, the youth gathering and outdoor ministry.

Burkhardt began his remarks by saying “we all need a place to call home” – a part of the country, for example. In the church as well, we all need a home, and that is our congregation, our faith community. Congregations are “housed” in a synod, which is part of the larger ELCA, which itself is part of the larger, worldwide church. It was a reminder that we as individual members of the ELCA and as part of congregations are part of bigger things.

He explained the ELCA’s theme of “Freed in Christ to Serve,” which gets its inspiration in John 8. The connection from that theme to this Assembly’s theme is the hope that others will see a church that is not afraid to step out boldly in faith and serves others in need.

Burkhardt explained that it’s important to do some self-reflection, which the ELCA and the churchwide organization has been doing over the past several months. Budget and staff reductions have occurred, and the churchwide office has been completely reorganized. There are now three primary units – global mission and domestic mission units and a mission advancement unit. In a vocational shift, many churchwide staffers have had to switch gears. In the midst of this, the ELCA’s LIFT (Living Into the Future Together) Task Force focused on a couple of key questions:

• What is God calling this church to be and to do in its future?
• What changes are in order to help us respond faithfully to God’s call?

Burkhardt noted that these are great questions for the church and for us individually and even better for congregations to ask regarding their communities. He acknowledged the outstanding work of Bishop Graham as a member (and the only bishop) on the Task Force. Burkhardt said that he believed that the ELCA will be a stronger, more focused, more effective church because of the Task Force’s report.

Video greetings from ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson were shown. The video included stories about a new mission start outside Phoenix, Ariz., and a large congregation in Grand Forks, N.D. The video also spoke about Bishop Hanson’s trip to Haiti and the ELCA’s support of work there – relief following the earthquake and ongoing support of the Lutheran World Federation’s Caribbean program.

Burkhardt thanked the synod for its support of churchwide ministries, even during tough economic times. He noted that this synod has been “faithful in its response.” He reminded the Assembly of the programs to which the synod’s mission support goes.

Burkhardt gave a glimpse from his particular area of work of new congregations that are being started and those that are being refocused with help from the ELCA. He mentioned a HIV/AIDS initiative before the ELCA Churchwide Assembly this summer, which would involve a $15 million appeal for a malaria campaign.