21^st Annual Assembly of the New England Synod

June 5, 2008

Report of the ELCA Churchwide Representative

The Rev. Rafael Malpica Padilla

Executive Director for Global Mission

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

I’m honored and delighted to be here as the representative of the ELCA churchwide organization to the New England Synod – to be among your congregations, your rostered leaders, the baptized members, and this gathered community of church leaders; and to share with you a few words about the churchwide organization and about the ministries that we are working on together.

I visit synods and congregations because it gives me an opportunity to see ministry as it is happening on the ground, the ministry we do together. We are one church with interdependent expressions working together to accomplish ministry. In fact, we can leverage ministry and do things together that we cannot do separately. And, when the church is working at its best, we can learn from each other so that our work together will have a multiplier effect.

Our joint ministry crosses geographical and demographic borders; cooperative ministry that unites us in faith and service and responds to the great commandment of Jesus to love our God with all our being and our neighbor as ourselves; cooperative ministry that lives out our shared vision that Jesus Christ calls us to live in Him as we serve others, and that the Holy Spirit equips, and sends us into the world. Whether we are in New England or San Juan, New York City or Seattle, we are all doing God’s work – God’s work with our hands

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In thinking about doing God’s work with our hands, let’s take a moment and hear from our Presiding Bishop and see some of the ministries that we share. So now, it’s my great pleasure to introduce a greeting to you from our Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson.

(VIDEO prepared by the ELCA for 2008 synod assemblies)

When I see this video I feel awe and inspiration at being part of the body of Christ that is the ELCA. When we reflect on all that we do together in ministry, I think that we gain an expanded appreciation for the Apostle Paul’s description of the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians. Truly, the body is made of many parts, but as Paul writes: “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body.” When I see this video, I also feel a sense of appreciation and say a prayer of thanksgiving for being connected to so diverse ministries – and being connected to you! Truly, we are living in God’s amazing grace!

When I reflect on this video, I also want to thank God for you, for your work in the vineyard – in so many, many ways – and for your support of the many ministries of the ELCA through your mission-support contributions. As Bishop Hanson said, the offerings taken in your congregations, a portion of which is sent to the New England Synod and to the churchwide organization, support the mission of the whole church. This mission support helps to fund missionaries, new congregational starts, seminaries, colleges and universities, Lutheran campus, social ministry organizations, Lutheran Disaster Response, and many, many more. All these are ministries that we could not support so effectively on an individual basis, but we can as interdependent partners. Together we are leveraging ministry! Ministry that has a multiplier effect!

Specifically, I want to thank you people of God in the New England Synod for your generous and faithful support of the ministries of this church in our congregations and synod here and through the churchwide organization. Despite the economic challenges in our country and in this region, you have maintained you commitment to mission support. We will continue to leverage ministry together!

I thank God, too, for your work in your companion synods, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and the Iglesia Cristiana Luterana en Honduras. Thanks be to God, as well, for your mission support that makes numerous other connections and ministries throughout the United States and around the world. God is making a difference through the ELCA and your offerings.

I also want to thank God for the leadership that members of your synod have shown:

for Bishop (Margaret G.) Payne and her service in this synod and for her leadership in the task force that led the study and conversation on human sexuality; for your synod staff; for your Synod Council; and for the following people serving in program committees or other capacities in the churchwide organization: Bruce George and Roger Sayler, who serve on the Board of Pension Committee; John Hoffmeyer on the Vocation and Education Program Committee, and Ann Sponberg Peterson in the Foundation Program Committee.

I also thank God for your support of the Mission Investment Fund. Sixty-four of your congregations and ministries and many, many individuals hold more than $5.5 million in Mission Investment Fund (MIF) investments. But, you should also be aware that MIF is supporting 20 of your congregations and ministries with more than $ 6.3 million in loans.

I also want to thank God for your clear vision for mission: In Witness to our life in Jesus Christ, and as a church that is rooted for life and transforming for mission we will:

listen deeply, pray unceasingly, give extravagantly, insist on justice, trust in partnership. This mission statement will guide your reflection on mission and ministry for the next five years gathered around the theme Called to Listen, Called to Serve. This is a renewed effort to continue the ministry that has been happening in this synod as we reach out to changing communities, vulnerable groups, strengthen existing ministries, offer opportunities for learning and spiritual growth, and challenge the people of God in this synod not just to be members but disciples of Christ and companions in God’s mission.

But there is also imaginative, far-reaching ministry going on elsewhere in the ELCA.

What’s happening in the ELCA? God’s work. Our hands. You will hear this again because it will become the tag line for the ELCA. It captures so poignantly what it means to be a disciple of Jesus and to be in ministry in the 21st century. It begins with God’s work. Indeed, although the word “work” is a noun, what we are really talking about is God working – God working today and tomorrow, God working through you and me, God working with our hands. And, as a starting point, what informs God’s work through you and me is scripture.

I’m excited about the Book of Faith initiative for both substantive and procedural reasons. Substantively, this initiative is intended to make members of the ELCA fluent in the first language of our faith – the Scriptures. It is designed to help us get into the Bible and become engaged – individually and in discussion with one another. Procedurally, this is not a program of the churchwide office. It started out as an idea from a Synod Council that became a memorial directed to the churchwide assembly that was passed as an action and became a priority of this church. Because it springs from the grass roots and was endorsed by the churchwide assembly, it has widespread support and impetus. New resources are being developed, and in 2009 we will have a Lutheran Study Bible! And, if you stop by the Augsburg Fortress display, you will receive a free copy of a study guide, Opening the Book of Faith.

I encourage this synod to be a Book of Faith synod and each of your congregations to become a Book of Faith congregation; I encourage you to appoint a Book of Faith advocate. Find out how to do so by going to elca.org/bookoffaith. I hope to return soon and learn that the New England Synod is a Book of Faith synod and that a majority of your congregations are Book of Faith congregations. I hope that you – individually and as congregations – discover that the scriptures set us free to do God’s work with our hands –

that we, like the young adults in the video, can boldly live out our faith.

Let me reflect with you briefly on another initiative on which we are working throughout the ELCA – it involves stewardship. At the instigation of the Conference of Bishops, a Blue Ribbon Committee was established to look at mission funding and our work in ministry together. This is pivotal because mission support – your offerings – provides more than 80 percent of the resources needed to fund churchwide ministries. The committee’s report was endorsed by the Church Council and the Churchwide Assembly last August, and it is in the process of being implemented. It seeks to grow “generous and faithful giving.”

I want to hold out two goals from the Blue Ribbon Committee for you. First, is the need to improve stewardship education. A task force is working on how we can better equip our future clergy to address stewardship. Second, the committee charged the Presiding Bishop to begin one-on-one conversations, beginning with all the synodical bishops and then the Church Council, to talk about their individual stewardship, including remembering the church in their estate plans, and the importance of tithing. You see, an underlying premise is that leaders must model in their own good stewardship. Those conversations will take place among all rostered leaders in this church. The hope is that we can come to appreciate that God has given to us abundantly, and that in gratitude and thanksgiving we can respond. God’s work empowering our hands.

Another new initiative is taking shape – one that actually made the front section of the Chicago Tribune in April! The Church Council met recently, and it received an update and gave interim approval to an exciting new initiative that addresses diseases of poverty. The ELCA – together with The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and Lutheran World Relief – is cooperating with the United Nations Foundation to undertake a significant campaign to help eradicate malaria and other diseases of poverty. The partners have applied for, and received, a grant from the United Nations Foundation to begin the effort.

I anticipate that this will be a major focus of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly.

You probably have heard about another issue that will be addressed at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly: the social statement on human sexuality. On March 13, the draft of this social statement was issued. This document resulted from a lengthy and thoughtful process by a diverse task force, including theologians, ethicists and people from across this church. It resulted from actions taken at the 2001 Churchwide Assembly. I want to emphasize it’s only a draft! It will go through a significant review process, and input is encouraged from everyone. I encourage you to read the draft and prayerfully reflect on it. The review process involves hearings around the ELCA (one of which was held right before this assembly opened); the draft will then go back to Church in Society unit, where the task force will edit and revise the document. (It is important to point out that one-third of the social statement on education approved in 2007 was substantially revised from the original draft.) Revisions will be incorporated into a proposed social statement that will be issued in February 2009, and there will be additional opportunity for synodical input. Then the proposed social statement will be considered at the 2009 Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis, Minn.

Another area of activity warrants brief comment. It involves communications. In April, a whole new Web site was rolled out at elca.org. It looks different, and is more user friendly. On it, you will find diverse resources for congregations and individuals. In addition, there is a new publication: Stories of Faith in Action. It is the successor to Making Christ Known – the large newsprint publication that could not be conveniently carried anywhere. This new magazine is not just about a change in format. As its name implies, it tells stories – diverse stories about people all over the world through whom God is working. God’s work. Many hands.

It would not feel right to me to conclude without spending a moment and talking about ministry stories. I want to pick up on this idea of stories of faith in action, ministry stories that proclaim God’s working through our hands. In my travels into synods and congregations, my modus operandi is to share ministry stories. Let me give you several examples.

I was given a copy of the newsletter Building Communities of Hope. I opened it and there was a story entitled “Sowing Hope”. It began as follows:

In the summer of 2006, Olivet Lutheran Church in Fargo, North Dakota, launched a project called Growing and Gardening Together. The congregation was looking at ways to connect intentionally with new neighbors — and new Americans — in the community. The soil for a garden plot about the size of a football field was prepared. Between 40 and 50 people joined together each week to cultivate tomatoes, peppers, squash and corn, with each family tending its own small plot. In a larger adjacent plot, everyone worked together planting and growing more vegetables.. . Through the gardening project, relationships sprouted up, too, and they continue to be nurtured beyond the gardening season. Refugees grew hope in Fargo, not only by receiving basic resettlement services from Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, but also by connecting to and socializing with other people in their community.

What a great ministry story that addresses greeting the stranger! God’s work. Our

hands.

Let me tell you another ministry story – a story of two women. Jean Wahistrom has no biological sons or daughters, but hundreds of children call her Mama Jean. I first met Jean when she was the dean of students at the Lutheran Bible Institute in Seattle and was elected to the first Northwest Washington Synod Council. What talent and wisdom! In 1998, Jean and her husband Marvin accepted a one year call to be chaplain to the Maasai Girls Lutheran Secondary School in Tanzania. She is still there! You see Jean has a passion to bring the gospel and an education to young Maasai girls who customarily are sold into marriage for a few cows at age 12 or 13. For 10 years Jean has walked with hundreds of these young women to give them hope and courage. Some of them are now students at Concordia College. Some of them are teachers, professional women, one is in medical school. And one – Neema Ndooki – attended Makumira Seminary and has returned as an ordained Lutheran minister to replace Jean as the chaplain of the Chaplain of the school. This indeed is accompaniment in the best sense of the word!

It is these stories that energize and inspire me. And everywhere I go I hear about other examples of God’s work and our hands. Let’s take a moment and share some of our ministry success stories. Turn to your neighbor or someone close by (who is not from your congregation) and share a ministry story, one that is a success in your congregation or one that you’ve heard about, and maybe even one that we can celebrate because it involves our interdependence and mission support.

More importantly, thank you for your prayers and support for the work of your colleagues in ministry at the churchwide organization and here in this place of God that is the New England Synod. It is an honor and delight to be among you at this Synod Assembly. It is an honor and delight to celebrate with you the diverse ministries of this synod and to urge you to continue your focus on being a synod where the great commission is translated into reality. It is an honor and delight to bring you greetings on behalf of the 10,500 congregations and 4.8 million baptized members of the ELCA and the interdependent ministries in which we share. Indeed, let us share the vision together as we live together in God’s amazing grace – receiving the transformational words of the Book of Faith, and doing God’s work with our hands! Thank you!