This summer we will be holding the first ever Special Convention of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada! I am looking forward to our Special Convention with a spirit of joy and anticipation—and I hope you are too. Last year we held our National Convention online and it will be wonderful to be together in person and online.
Our convention theme again this year, Let There Be Greening, underlines our Easter hope for our church, our world, and the creation.
We will spend part of our time meeting in Assembly with the delegates to the Anglican Church of Canada General Synod. It is another way we can live out our full communion relationship.
Together we will worship, pray and study. I pray that these sessions will enrich us all and strengthen our ties with one another.
This year’s Special Convention will have a different kind of agenda. Most of the reporting that normally happens at our conventions took place at last year’s National Convention, as did all the elections.
This convention will focus on items up for debate and decision-making. We will hear reports and recommendations from four task forces—the Task Force on Addressing Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, the Task Force on Addressing Ableism, and the Task Force on Addressing Racism, White Supremacy and Racial Injustice. We will entertain motions on full communion with Moravians, and on peace and justice in the Holy Land.
I urge you, whether you are a delegate or not to read about these reports and proposed motions in the Bulletin of Reports which you can find online at www.anglicanlutheran.ca/assembly .
As with any convention, we may come to our national gathering with differing opinions and points of view. We all have different life experiences that inform us. In the discussions that will take place both before, during and after the Special Convention we need to work to follow the way of Christ in word and deed.
For delegates at convention, we have two documents to guide our speaking and actions—a Job Description for Delegates (Section B: Information for Attendees) that sets out expectations for your participation at convention. And a Code of Conduct for Participants in Events Organized by the ELCIC (Appendix 01). This second document applies to all participants at convention—delegates, guests, visitors, presenters and displayers. The Code of Conduct lays out ways of good behaviour that will help us be accountable to one another, prevent harm, and provides us a way to work for reconciliation when there is harm. I urge you to read these documents.
The Code of Conduct reminds us that our church has adopted the following understanding:
This church upholds the dignity of all people. We recognize the image of Christ in every person and serve that person as Christ himself. In meeting diverse people, we begin with a core sense of respect for the value of each person as a unique child of God.
I would also encourage us all to use the Code of Conduct as a guide to our speaking and writing before the convention and on social media. Let those around us know by our speaking and actions that we are followers of Christ.
We will need to work together to accomplish all that is before us but in the end, we trust that God will work through us to make decisions that will strengthen the mission and ministry of our church.
Please join me in praying for our church as we prepare to meet in Special Convention. May God bless you!
Rev. Susan Johnson
ELCIC National Bishop
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