The Never-Ending Procession

What a procession! I watched what I thought was all of it ... and thought, TERRIFIC. Then ... they kept processing. And kept processing. And kept processing.

So many green stoles. Walking with canes and bad knees, even so dancing joyfully and clapping to the processional music. One in a wheelchair. One in a scooter. Side by side, bunching up, here and there a beautiful chasuble. Long hair and short. Of so many colors of skin.Several familiar faces; most of them not pastors I knew.

And they looked like my sisters and me. And they are my sisters and me.
+ + +

Last week, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America gathered in assembly, as it does every three years. This year, Churchwide Assembly was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; in 2022 it will be in Columbus, Ohio.

I was not in attendance, but livestreaming and phone-created videos let me in on pieces of it, including sermons, plenary sessions, and worship. This year's assembly begins a year of celebrating 50 years of ordination of women in the denomination and its predecessor bodies; 40 years since the ordination of a woman of color; and 10 years of the ordination of people along different gender and identity spectra.

On Friday afternoon, scrolling Facebook (as one does), I saw a video that the bishop of North Carolina, Tim Smith, took on his mobile phone. The video was of the procession out of Friday-afternoon worship, which celebrated the ordination of women in this Lutheran body. The first few paragraphs of this blog post ... are what I wrote when I shared the video on Facebook.

There is much to celebrate - and some issues for lament - coming out of this year's Churchwide Assembly. The ELCA has become the first denomination, it seems, to declare itself a sanctuary body. It's issued a social statement on sexism and embedded patriarchy. There is yet more.

But of the many moments that caught my excitement - it was this video that made my heart sing. After watching it, as I went about my Friday-afternoon chores, I found myself singing, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around." Over and over.