Twenty faithful men and women from the Northern Illinois Synod are serving with 1025 others from across the country as voting members to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly August 17-23, 2009, in Minneapolis, Minn., under the theme, "God's work. Our hands."
 
Northern Illinois Synod Bishop Gary Wollersheim said, "I am always thankful to be among the churchwide assembly voting members because they are the kindest and most faithful Christian people that you will ever meet. The voting members at an ELCA Assembly are people which one would wish for as neighbors, friends, and family. If you can't trust this company of believers, then who can you trust?"
 
While the assembly is dealing with many important issues such as Full Communion with the United Methodist Church; a Social Statement on Justice for Women; Funding of the HIV and AIDS Strategy; the Lutheran Malaria Initiative; and the 2010-2011 Budget Proposal, the two documents on sexuality issues have been receiving the most attention.
 
Monday afternoon, over 2300 Lutherans opened the assembly with a festive worship service. The assembly will break in the middle of each day of the assembly for worship, centered in Word and Sacrament, prayer and song.
 
In the first evening of the Churchwide Assembly, the voting members approved the Rules of Organization and Procedure. Lengthy debate on several proposed amendments stretched the session over an hour beyond the scheduled time. The most significant proposals sought to require a 2/3 majority to pass the Ministry Policy Reccomendations regarding rostering gay and lesbian clergy and other leaders in publicly accountable, lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships. After a respectful discussion, the rules of procedure related to these rostering decisions passed as originally written.
 
Also considered was a proposal to require that the Assembly consider the four resolutions on Ministry Policies in sequential order, such that consideration of resolutions 2 through 4 would require passage of the preceding resolutions. After lengthy discussion, this proposal was also defeated, allowing each of the four proposed resolutions to be considered separately.
 
A respectful discussion on sexuality will show the world that while Lutherans may not be "of one mind," they can still be "united in faith and in our shared mission together," said the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA. Hanson also serves as President of the Lutheran World Federation representing 68.5 million Christians in 72 countries around the world.
 
Finally, the Assembly adopted the Agenda, Order of Business, and Procedural rules before adjourning with a hymn and prayer at around 10:40pm.