Dear People of God of the Southwest California Synod,
During these Lenten days and still in the midst of a pandemic, I hope you are all finding your way on a sacrificial journey with Jesus toward Jerusalem, to Calvary Hill, to a cross and a tomb. I trust that these 40 days of Lent, even during these unique times in our global history, are preparing us for the promises God has given us through the life, death, and the resurrection of Christ Jesus.
When an ELCA Bishop is installed, the Presiding Bishop speaks these words, which I have slightly adapted:
… empower this Bishop’s ministry in your church
Sustain this person as a shepherd who tends the flock… and oversees the ministries of the church with vision and wisdom.
Uphold the Bishop as a faithful steward… and a strong sign of reconciliation.
Give courage and fortitude to sustain the Bishop in this ministry…
This week I am meeting with the ELCA Conference of Bishops (COB). As we prepare to elect a new Synodical Bishop in the Southwest California Synod, I will share a few details with you about these meetings and other gatherings of the ELCA Bishops. I do so as a way of informing you about one aspect of a Bishop’s call—namely, the call to serve the whole Church, which involves travel and gatherings that, in the past, took Bishops out of their Synods and brought them together in other places. We have no idea yet how our work will be conducted post-pandemic, but this is the way it used to be and what is still happening today through Zoom.
Of course, we have no certainty about how things will be in the future after we emerge from all the precautions we are taking during the COVID-19 crisis.
The 65 Synodical Bishops, along with the Presiding Bishop and the ELCA Secretary, make up the 67 members of the Conference Bishops. There are two meetings each year that are obligatory. One of those meetings meets, and is currently meeting, in the first days of March. Typically, the bishops have gathered in a location away from the Churchwide offices in Chicago. The meetings began on Thursday and ended the Tuesday of the following week. Pre-meetings brought many of the Bishops a day or two early. For many, it was a full week of travel, meetings, decision-making, receiving updates from churchwide staff, daily worship, good preaching by the Bishops who were our worship leaders, and Bible studies offered by visiting teaching theologians.
That pattern repeated itself in September/October for the Fall COB meeting, a gathering that brought the Bishops together at the Churchwide offices on Higgins Road in Chicago. Housing was next door at the Marriott O’Hare complex. The Synod Vice Presidents of the ELCA meet biannually at the same time, and several meetings would be scheduled together. The primary leaders of the ELCA seminaries often gathered in Chicago at that time as well, which was another opportunity for meeting together.
ELCA Bishops are divided into committees which work with various churchwide staff in their areas of service. Those committees gather prior to the COB meetings. They include an Executive Committee, Committees for the Roster, Theological and Ethical Concerns, Synodical-Churchwide Relations, the Bishops’ Academy, Bishop Formation, Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, Global Missions, two Domestic Missions groups, Synodical and Rostered Leader Care, and a Church Council Liaison Committee.
There are also a number “Ready Benches” whereon the Bishops may serve. The Ready Benches met in the past by conference calls between the meetings and then when together, met during noon mealtimes. Some of those Ready Benches are focused on Immigration, Environmental Concerns, Justice, Hunger and Poverty, the Middle East, Rural Ministry, and others. Individually, some bishops are assigned as specific liaisons with various agencies and institutions of the church such as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, Lutheran Disaster Response, the ELCA Fund for Leaders, and Federal Chaplaincy Ministries, and some work with some of our ecumenical relationships.
In the past, there were two optional gatherings of the Bishops where most, but not all, attended. In early January, they ELCA bishops attended an Academy for a week of continuing education, daily worship each morning and evening, and community. Spouses were also invited to join for those times together. The church’s theologians, teachers, inspirational leaders challenged, taught u, and sent the Bishops home with more than when they came. Times for rest and excursions into the surrounding area were built into the agendas. The Lutheran Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and their spouses also joined The Academy. (For many years, Bishop Dean Nelson so capably and creatively chaired the Academy Committee.) Now the Academy gathers every other year, rather than annually.
ELCA Bishops also gather(ed) each year in September in Washington DC for “Advocacy Days.” Bishops are given briefings from people of the Lutheran Office of Governmental Affairs in DC, and others serving the Federal Government in a variety of capacities. There have been gatherings in the late afternoons and evenings with Congressional Representatives and Senators. Throughout those days, the Bishops go to “The Hill” in small groups to meet with members of Congress and their staffs, thanking them and advocating for their support regarding the many critical issues our church knows is facing our nation and world.
Annual visits to the ELCA seminaries are among the Bishop’s responsibilities—meeting and speaking with the seminarians, primarily those anticipating the next steps in their theological education, such as internship, their synodical assignment, and their first call. We also meet with faculty and have opportunities to spend a day or more meeting one on one with some of the students. Teams of four or five bishops travel together in the Fall to each of the seven seminaries on eight campuses across the US.
On a rotating basis, one Bishop from each of the nine ELCA Regions sits with the ELCA Church Council for a long weekend of meetings twice a year. Those meetings typically happen in Chicago.
These are the primary gatherings of Bishops as those in this office serve the church at large. All of these meetings now are happening by Zoom. How our church will emerge through and past the pandemic and how it will gather again in the months and years to come is yet to be known and decided. We know we are becoming a different church than we were a year ago, and we will be meeting and gathering in a variety of old and new, innovative and interesting ways in the days to come. There is another set of Bishop’s responsibilities that involve meetings and travel with the other Synods with whom we share our Regional relationships. I will write about that in another communiqué.
I share these details to hopefully help the Synod better understand some of the responsibilities and obligations that are assumed by the person who accepts the call to become a Synodical Bishop. Many years ago, I sat in a Synod Assembly as a new Bishop was being elected. One of the candidates, during the time of speeches, said that while he knew that the church expected its Bishops to be meeting and traveling with some frequency, that if he was elected, he would be “a stay-at-home-Bishop,” that he would not be traveling back-and-forth to Chicago and elsewhere like the previous Bishops had done. Interestingly, that person was elected. Very quickly, the new Bishop learned that “staying at home” was not going to be possible in order to best serve the Synod and the Church. The Bishop had been elected to show up and be present where the Bishops were needed. It is one of the ways that we are church together. Serving as Bishop has wonderful opportunities, privileges, responsibilities, and sacrifices.
May God continue to bless and keep you all during these holy days of Lent.
The Reverend Murray D. Finck
Bishop (Interim)
