Posted on 06/14/2010 5:45:46 PM PDT by rhema
Look for a LCMS church. I am happy there.
Synod Constitutions are required to impose this quota on the membership of Synod Assemblies:
1/3 Clergy (any sex)
1/3 Lay Male
1/3 Lay Female
Most Synods county retired clergy as Voting Members, and many of them are very advanced in years and unable to attend meetings; the result is that the percentage of laity is probably closer to 70-75%
Keep in mind that most Assemblies are on a Thursday-Friday-Saturday schedule so the laity are pretty much restricted either to those who are super-committed and willing/able to miss work, or else are retired. Trust me, there are mostly grey heads in the auditoriums.
That would mean a congregation sending people to Synod assemblies who don't represent the views of the congregation. Doesn't seem plausible to me. Possible, though...>
ACK! You said the verbotten word "represent".
The ELCA Office of the Secretary provides a boilerplate to each Synod Office title "Assembly Vocabulary is no accident" in which the "Voting Members" are warned that they should not consider themseles to be "delegates" who "represent" a congregation but individuals free to vote their own conscience.
I do know of at least one Synod which omitted that screed from its Assembly packet this year.
How politically incorrect of me.
To me, your breakdown of quotas and subsequent description of who attends assemblies would indicate a senior group mostly opposed to liberal interpretation of Biblical passages. Am I wrong?
The ELCA Office of the Secretary provides a boilerplate to each Synod Office title "Assembly Vocabulary is no accident" in which the "Voting Members" are warned that they should not consider themseles to be "delegates" who "represent" a congregation but individuals free to vote their own conscience.
So, there's no desire for congregational input. Why am I not surprised, I guess.
Yet, such a blatant attempt at circumventing congregational intent could be stymied by the level of seniors attending assemblies (my point above), who are far more grounded in Scripture than younger, more impressionable, members may be.
Thus, I still wonder at the large number of attendees willing to swallow Synod dogma.
One would think so; however, I neglected to add that generally about 50% of those attending an Assembly are doing so for the very first time in their lives. They are overwhelmed by the sheer size, the complexities of Roberts' Rules, etc.
A lot of the seniors are of the generation that held the ministry in very high regard. So on any given vote they are likely to say, "Pastor, what should I do?"
In almost every Synodical assembly votes are taken by show of hand holding either a green card for "yes" or a red card for "no". It is fairly easy to see what way a person seated nearby is planning to vote.
Thereby ignoring the admonishment of voting one's conscience instead of representing someone else...
But I see your point. There's a lot that can influence (or confuse) a "newbie" at one of these assemblies. I can see where they can become disoriented in their thinking.
I also can see where that 50% figure would be accurate, if not a little on the low side. I know the ELCA congregation we attended years ago always had different members attend most years (including my wife one year).
A lot of the seniors are of the generation that held the ministry in very high regard. So on any given vote they are likely to say, “Pastor, what should I do?”
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You’ve made a good point. My own parents, who have both passed on in the last few years, would absolutely have taken whatever their ELCA minister told them to be gospel (excuse the pun) without question.
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