wfn.org | ELCA Presiding Bishop Says 'Walking On Water Is Permitted'

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ELCA Presiding Bishop Says 'Walking On Water Is Permitted'
CWA-05-05-MRC

     ORLANDO, Fla. (ELCA) -- At opening worship of the 2005
Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA), the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA,
told Lutherans that "walking on water is permitted but not
required at this assembly."
     The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of
the ELCA, is meeting here Aug. 8-14 at the World Center Marriott
and Convention Center.	About 2,300 people are participating,
including 1,018 ELCA voting members.  The theme for the biennial
assembly is "Marked with the Cross of Christ Forever."
     In his sermon, Hanson said the miracle of the 2005
Churchwide Assembly is occurring "even before I declare us to be
in session, before one word of debate is uttered, before the
results of any votes are known.  It is the miracle that we, by
the power of the Holy Spirit, will with one voice confess our
faith, 'We believe in one God.	We believe in one Lord Jesus
Christ.'"
     Hanson encouraged worshippers to "take heart" and not be
afraid, since the assembly "begins not in fear but in faith."
     In a second, "very important announcement," Hanson said, "We
have not come to Orlando to try to keep afloat a sinking church."
     "If that is the question you believe that we have gathered
in Orlando to answer, 'Will we keep this church afloat?' Well,
with all due respect, I need to say -- I think that is the wrong
question, and it is not finally our task," said Hanson.
     "We are here to be the church, to be a people who are loved
by Jesus and who love Jesus in return, to be a people saved from
their sins, to be those who take heart and are not afraid because
(of) the crucified," he said.
     Hanson said he is not "in any way minimizing" the
significance of what voting members of the assembly will discuss
and decide.  "Those decisions will have an impact on the life and
ministry of this church.  Yet, it is what will occur in this holy
space each day that makes us the church," he said.
     In one final announcement Hanson offered a word of caution.
"Beware, someone, somewhere is watching our feet," he said.  "As
much as we concentrate on the words spoken and focus on the votes
taken, when all is said and done, the impact of our work in the
life and ministry of the ELCA may depend most upon our feet."
     "For those marked with the cross of Christ, walking on water
is optional.  Plunging into troubled waters of suffering and
despair, poverty and hunger is not," Hanson said.  "For there we
may glimpse what God is doing, participating in our very being,
bringing healing, life and salvation in ways that we can hardly
imagine."
      Some of the most important questions with which the
assembly will struggle may be these -- "Will we proclaim the Good
News so that all might believe?  Will we heed Jesus' command to
come and follow?  Will we trust Christ's promise? Take heart,"
Hanson said, adding Jesus' words, "It is I.  Do not be afraid."
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      Information about the ELCA Churchwide Assembly is at
http://www.elca.org/assembly/05 on the Web.

For more information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org 
http://www.elca.org/news