wfn.org | ELCA Assembly Opens with Service of Holy Communion

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 9, 2001

ELCA ASSEMBLY OPENS WITH SERVICE OF HOLY COMMUNION
01-CWA07-MM*

     INDIANAPOLIS (ELCA) -- The 2001 Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly opened with a service of Holy
Communion.  The Rev. H. George Anderson, ELCA presiding bishop, presided
over the Eucharist, and the Rev. Susan R. Briehl, Spokane, Wash.,
delivered the sermon.
     The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the
ELCA, is meeting here, Aug. 8-14 at the Indiana Convention Center.
There are more than 2,000 people participating, including, 1,040 ELCA
voting members.  The theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ
Known: Sharing Faith in a New Century."
     "We are clay," said Briehl.  "God bending low, lovingly shaped the
clay, creating a person.  As it was in the beginning, so it is now, we
are clay vessels, formed by the Potter and filled with the quickening
breath of God," she said.
     Briehl spoke of a time when she took up the craft of pottery.
"The first time I sat at a potter's wheel, my imagination danced with
the lovely things I would create," she said.  "All was going well until
a little wobble appeared," she said.  After Briehl's creation collapsed,
someone told her to make a new ball and "firmly center the clay," she
said.
     "This is our story, yours and mine.  We know from the biblical
witness, from the unfolding of human history, and the saga of our own
lives: we are not well-centered," said Briehl.
     Briehl reminded the assembly that the evidence of un-centered
lives is everywhere.  "The little wobble at the lip of our lives widens
into sadly misshapen relationships.  Households turn in upon themselves,
ignoring the needs of their neighbors.  Communities completely collapse
where gifts are not shared for the common good," Briehl said.
     Briehl said the biblical prophet Jeremiah reminds people that
"when we no longer serve as vessels of God's blessing in the world, the
One who fashioned us for good, also has the power to re-form us, to re-
fashion our communities of faith, or to begin again," she said.
     God becomes clay for our sake, said Briehl.  God enters "our
misshapen communities, our self-centered hearts, our poverty and death,
Jesus makes a home among us."
     Briehl reminded the assembly that the "Spirit calls us back to the
center, back to the waters of baptism, in which we were buried with
Christ Jesus and raised with him to a new life.  This day, the Spirit
declares us beloved of God, whole and holy, clean and worthy in Christ
Jesus."

     Information about assembly actions will be at
http://www.elca.org/assembly/01 on the ELCA's Web site.  Recorded
updates during the assembly are available by calling 773/380-2477.

*Michelle T. Mills is a senior at Bradley University, Peoria, Ill.  This
summer she is an intern with ELCA News & Information.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html