This year's assembly was surrounded in Bible Study. Participants were engaged and inspired as they were led through the ELCA Faith Practices by excellent Bible Study Leaders.
The Rev. Linda Winkelman opened and closed each plenary session with prayer.
Organizations, agencies, and institutions had displays in the College Center and a bookstore was available on the lower level of Centennial Hall.
Forums on Friday and Saturday were offered by a variety of topics including Budget/Synod Council, Campus Ministries, Congregational Life, Conversation/Questions with Bishop Wollersheim, Diakonia Program, ELCA Board of Pensions, ELCA Living into the Future Together (LIFT): Renewing the Ecology of the ELCA, Global Missions, Lutheran Advocacy, Lutheran Men in Mission, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, Ministry Support, NIS Women of the ELCA, Outdoor Camping Ministries, Outreach, Racial Justice and Multicultural Committee, Run, Walk, ‘n’ Roll, Social Ministry, Stewardship, Stretch & Pray, World Hunger, and Youth.
GPS (God's People Serving) Faith Community in Machesney Park was welcomed as a new congregation in the Northern Illinois Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Bishop Wollersheim's sermon at the service of Holy Communion and Ordination on Friday evening focused on the Faith Practice of Prayer. He explained that prayer is a great gift of communication from God. "Communication includes listening," he said. "God speaks to us in our hearts and minds and guts and through other people and through the scriptures - if we just ask what God's will is for us, and then we listen."
At the Saturday morning Memorial Worship Service, Pr. Henrietta Milner reminded the assembly that "Joy is not the absence of suffering or loss, but the presence of Jesus Christ our Lord."
