Yes it did. I’m back. With vengeance. Okay not with vengeance, but with perspective.
From the end of sabbatical to the full-immersion return into pastoral ministry. In other words, out of the frying pan and into the fire.
I’m attending our denomination’s national-setting biennium gathering, General Synod (#29) in Long Beach, California. Roughing it, I know. I’m serving for the first time at one of these events (this is the 4th Synod I’ve attended) as a delegate – a voting representative of the conference I am serving within, the Rocky Mountain Conference, of the United Church of Christ.
This exponentially amps up the responsibility of simply attending as a visitor or guest of the Synod as committee meetings and business sessions are, pretty much, required. And I can tell you, as a visitor, I don’t believe I made it through a single business meeting without leaving early. This will be a test of faith…and patience.
I arrived yesterday and today the fun began in a sabbatical-esque fashion. I thought I was serving a committee for a resolution to study a reframing of conference boundaries, but then discovered the number of that committee didn’t coincide with the number of the resolution that I was supposed to be sitting on a committee for. Sound confusing? We’re not even halfway through the fog.
To make a long story short (too late, Greg, too late) I’m serving on a totally different committee than the previous two numbered resolutions had eluded to. I’m serving on a committee that’s discussing comprehensive immigration reform. It’s a resolution calling every level of the Church, the National, the Regional, the Association, and the local Church to action – to stand up for immigrants’ rights and, maybe more importantly, their safety and well-being. The latter of which I strongly feel called to as a Christian with empathy – one who feels for another. I care. Not all Christians, as we’ve most likely experienced, care for others.
As it pertains to me personally and to the local church I serve in Fort Morgan, Colorado, the resolution is quite personal. Immigration is and should be a rather important issue to those in my church. Immigration reform and how we, as a Christian body, respond to our neighbors seeking citizenship is crucial to our own history of being a people primarily from “another place.”
Immigration is biblical – our earliest Israelite ancestors were migratory. Immigration is historical – populations move. Immigration is global – there isn’t a single country that isn’t effected by immigration in some way, shape, or form.
For some people immigration is the culmination of dreams while for others it is or was an unwanted passage.
With one southern border being (still being raised) a large steel wall, reminiscent of the Berlin wall only broken less than 30 years ago, we may find ourselves close to repeating history…and not the kind of history we want to repeat. We can do better.
Over the coming days I’ll be sitting in more educational meetings about this resolution and preparing more blog entries (sans family, RV, neurotic cat, hospital stays, etc.) to do my pastoral duty in something I truly believe in – covenantal relationship. Simply this – I must communicate to the local Church and communicate the local Church to the larger Church setting. That’s my job. This week, it’s overwhelming.
So far, however, I’ve reconnected with friends from across the states, some from our stay in Portland, Oregon, too. I’ve also made new friends and discovered more about the wonderful, diverse tapestry of American Christianity that I have come to love. Here our “church” is much less generic and much more colorful in a way I believe every Christian should experience. Grace abounds no matter who you are or where you are on this journey of faith you’re on.
I’m happy to be back to this blog. I’m also happy to have a 6-month old, without a feeding tube being as chipper as any father would want them to be… pictures to be posted soon… Thanks for returning to this with me.
The Journey. Rev. Greg Larsen 