wfn.org | Women of the ELCA Closes Gathering with Call to Act

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: Women of the ELCA Closes Gathering with Call to Act
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>July 15, 2008  

Women of the ELCA Closes Gathering with Call to Act
08-120-FI

SALT LAKE CITY (ELCA) -- The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton,
bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Northeastern Ohio Synod, Cuyahoga Falls, said Lutherans
are often nostalgic for "the good old days" instead of
remembering they have been called to "adventure and
abundance."  She preached July 13 during the closing
worship of Women of the ELCA's 2008 gathering.

More than 2,000 women were here July 10-13 at the
Salt Palace Convention Center for the Seventh Triennial
Gathering of Women of the ELCA.  The event theme, "Come
to the Waters," focused on the celebration of Baptism
through Bible study, speakers, workshops, community
service and worship.

"We have given way not just to memory and expectation,
which is where the people of God always live -- the memory
of the mighty acts of God which freed us, which claimed
us and the expectation of His final victory.  We sort of
like to hang on to nostalgia," Eaton said.

"We remember the way things used to be," she said.
"You remember back in those days when we had 500 kids in
Sunday school, 20,000 kids in the Luther League, that there
were at least 200 circles per church, and the average age
of those in the circles was about 25?  It was all that way."

"Folks are not going to come into our churches.  They
only did that in the '50s for a few short years," Eaton
said.  Everyone who is in is already there.  So, don't expect
by opening the doors they're going to come walking in," she
said.

"God is calling us to freedom, and He's calling us to
work.  Being a church doesn't mean just sitting and waiting
for people to see how marvelous we are," Eaton said.  "We
are surrounded by a culture that does not think that the
church is marvelous.  It thinks in a lot of cases that the
church is inconsequential."

"We have settled, accepted and bought into a culture of
scarcity and fear," Eaton said.  "So, it is incumbent upon
us as good stewards," she said, "to hold on to what we have."

"God doesn't call us to survival.  That's crazy," Eaton
said.  "He doesn't want us just to exist.  He wants us to
live, and not only to live but to be an example of that new
life in the world.  So we are called to give up this ethos
of scarcity and fear, and think instead we're called to
adventure and abundance."

"When we get to our congregations, people are going to
say we cannot support global mission," Eaton warned.  "When
people look at their budgets, they're going to say we're so
tired.  We can't do this.  The resources aren't there."

Eaton recalled many of the stories told during the
gathering about bold women, who "took that first step" to
affect positive changes in their lives, families, communities
and the world.  "Sisters, act," she concluded.

The Rev. CeCee Mills, Rejoice Lutheran Church,
Chesapeake, Va., presided during the liturgy of the Lord's
Supper.  The Rev. April Ulring Larson, bishop, ELCA La Crosse
(Wis.) Area Synod, directed the Triennial Gathering choir.

The gathering closed with the announcement that Women
of the ELCA's Eighth Triennial Gathering will be held July
14-17, 2011, in Spokane, Wash.

Linda Post Bushkofsky, executive director, Women of the
ELCA, Chicago, announced that 300 women registered for the
2011 gathering during the 2008 gathering.
- - -

Information about the Women of the ELCA Seventh
Triennial Gathering is at http://womenoftheELCA.org/tg08/ on
the Web.

Audio from Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton's address to the
Women of the ELCA gathering on the Web:

[Listen] http://media.ELCA.org/ramgen/audionews/080713a.mp3
[Listen] http://media.ELCA.org/ramgen/audionews/080713b.mp3
[Download] http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/080713a.mp3

[Download] http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/080713b.mp3 

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog