Memorable events in 2007 for Creator Lutheran ChurchSince Pastor Dayle’s email about the blog I have received comments and expressions of support from the congregation. This blog apparently serves purposes outside of being a personal repository for my observations of this church’s activities. Given that I invite you again to please feel free to comment on posts or add your own posts to this blog. Simply click on the Comments link available under each posting to do this.
I especially make this invitation to comment given the subject today, Creator Lutheran’s 2007 Year in Review. Please feel free to add what you found memorable during the year.
December 2, 2007 marked the 20th anniversary of Creator’s first worship service. More 20th anniversary celebrations will happen in 2008. Hearing the stories of how Creator assembled for the first time from people who were there was fascinating during the anniversary service. How members of Creator consciously, creatively and courageously moved the life of this church forward was inspiring.
Those were years of establishing the congregation and, later, building the physical structure for the church. This was a year of recognizing and deepening Creator’s relationship to the community around us, to our cluster, to our synod and to the ELCA as a whole.
Creator participated in the last annual Cross Walk for our ELCA Oregon Trail Cluster. This was a unique ministry where church members and pastors followed a pre-planned route and carried a cross in a local neighborhood on Palm Sunday. This year Colton was the chosen neighborhood.
There was also a Synod Assembly and a Churchwide Assembly this year that both made decisions with definite impacts on Creator.
The Synod elected a new Bishop, Dave Brauer-Rieke. Besides members of Creator stepping up in important ways to take part in his installation ceremony, the Brauer-Rieke family are now active members in our congregation.
The congregation appeared more cognizant of Synod events like Living Faithfully and Stewards of Abundance this year than in the past. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds in 2008.
Highlights of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly included: the re-election of Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson and the election of Secretary David Swartling; The approval of the Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible initiative (the Book of Faith emails have encouraged fresh readings of the Bible for me, you can subscribe through the Oregon Synod website) and the assembly did take action to pray, urge, and encourage the leadership of the ELCA to "refrain from or demonstrate restraint in disciplining" pastors and other rostered leaders who are "in a mutual, chaste, and faithful committed same-gender relationship".
Many memories of Creator for 2007 for me were bound to that last Churchwide Assembly highlight. Pastor Dayle preached in January about Pastor Brad Schmeling who, because he is a gay man living in a partnered relationship, fell out of compliance with the standards the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America set forth in Visions and Expectations which require chastity in singleness and fidelity in marriage.
I especially make this invitation to comment given the subject today, Creator Lutheran’s 2007 Year in Review. Please feel free to add what you found memorable during the year.
December 2, 2007 marked the 20th anniversary of Creator’s first worship service. More 20th anniversary celebrations will happen in 2008. Hearing the stories of how Creator assembled for the first time from people who were there was fascinating during the anniversary service. How members of Creator consciously, creatively and courageously moved the life of this church forward was inspiring.
Those were years of establishing the congregation and, later, building the physical structure for the church. This was a year of recognizing and deepening Creator’s relationship to the community around us, to our cluster, to our synod and to the ELCA as a whole.
Creator participated in the last annual Cross Walk for our ELCA Oregon Trail Cluster. This was a unique ministry where church members and pastors followed a pre-planned route and carried a cross in a local neighborhood on Palm Sunday. This year Colton was the chosen neighborhood.
There was also a Synod Assembly and a Churchwide Assembly this year that both made decisions with definite impacts on Creator.
The Synod elected a new Bishop, Dave Brauer-Rieke. Besides members of Creator stepping up in important ways to take part in his installation ceremony, the Brauer-Rieke family are now active members in our congregation.
The congregation appeared more cognizant of Synod events like Living Faithfully and Stewards of Abundance this year than in the past. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds in 2008.
Highlights of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly included: the re-election of Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson and the election of Secretary David Swartling; The approval of the Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible initiative (the Book of Faith emails have encouraged fresh readings of the Bible for me, you can subscribe through the Oregon Synod website) and the assembly did take action to pray, urge, and encourage the leadership of the ELCA to "refrain from or demonstrate restraint in disciplining" pastors and other rostered leaders who are "in a mutual, chaste, and faithful committed same-gender relationship".
Many memories of Creator for 2007 for me were bound to that last Churchwide Assembly highlight. Pastor Dayle preached in January about Pastor Brad Schmeling who, because he is a gay man living in a partnered relationship, fell out of compliance with the standards the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America set forth in Visions and Expectations which require chastity in singleness and fidelity in marriage.
The Gospel for that Sunday was Luke 4:14-21 which describes Jesus’ mission:
To bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind… and to let the oppressed go free.
Pastor Dayle made a powerful connection with the Gospel lesson and the charges against Pr. Schmeling and the ecclesiastical trial that began in January.
Creator now has an RIC team with a mission to discern Creator’s openness and welcome to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. I believe we will understand more about how to be welcoming as a church when we are truly engaged in this process.
There was intention, spirituality, personal growth and a devotion to work in Outreach this year at Creator. Nancy launched the Back Pack Buddies program; donations to the Oregon Food Bank continued, shepherded by the Hunger Awareness Team. Pastor Mark championed our adoption of the Ntira-nya-bagira family we are now helping, who are refugees from Barundi Many members were involved in Habitat for Humanity projects.
We said goodbye to Matt as our music minister replaced by David with Kelly coming back in as Choir Director. We found ourselves singing many pieces from the new ELW hymnal (a.k.a. the Cranberry hymnal).
To bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind… and to let the oppressed go free.
Pastor Dayle made a powerful connection with the Gospel lesson and the charges against Pr. Schmeling and the ecclesiastical trial that began in January.
Creator now has an RIC team with a mission to discern Creator’s openness and welcome to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. I believe we will understand more about how to be welcoming as a church when we are truly engaged in this process.
There was intention, spirituality, personal growth and a devotion to work in Outreach this year at Creator. Nancy launched the Back Pack Buddies program; donations to the Oregon Food Bank continued, shepherded by the Hunger Awareness Team. Pastor Mark championed our adoption of the Ntira-nya-bagira family we are now helping, who are refugees from Barundi Many members were involved in Habitat for Humanity projects.
We said goodbye to Matt as our music minister replaced by David with Kelly coming back in as Choir Director. We found ourselves singing many pieces from the new ELW hymnal (a.k.a. the Cranberry hymnal).
Greg commented on a musical highlight of the year, the choir and an amazing youth ensemble joining in Easter service performances of the Hallelujah Chorus. The music came together rather quickly because most of us knew the piece. I remember many different reactions to this full, heavenly sound that was present when it was performed. Music doesn't get much better than that.
Speaking of Greg and the Dobbe family, the newsletters and the new website were immensely helpful in reminding me of highlights and have kept us all up to date with the news, church events and photos of much of what is in this post. The website was launched in June.
Creator began a series of joint worship services with Holy Family Episcopal Fellowship this year. They also joined us in the Harvest festival, Advent worship on Wednesdays, and our Christmas Cantata.
Pastor Mark’s son Brandon was born in April and was baptized in July with two other babies, Samantha and Taylor. Among the events that happened this year for youth and family were rafting and kayaking trips and family camping at Promontory Park. People who were at the family camping had funny and memorable tales to tell. Greg commented on how this was a highlight for him.
The loss of Bethany Hartung was certainly our time of sorrow and loss for those who knew this remarkable young woman. Many attended or participated in a memorial service for her in June. In September many from Creator remembered Bethany and participated in the Light the Night Walk, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's nationwide evening walk to raise money for research to cure blood cancers.
In December Jacob Nolte for his senior project organized Notes of Hope in honor of Bethany, which was a concert to support the research of the OHSU Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Program.
For more details on individual events or services refer to the individual posts in this blog and again, if I was not there or did not write about what you remember, please feel free to post or comment on any activities I may have inadvertently missed.
posted by Gary at
9:54 AM
2 Comments:
For me, the Family Camping trip certainly was a highlight of this year.
And I'll add to your list the Easter choir performance of the Hallelujah Chorus with the amazing youth string combo. That was as good as we've ever been, in my memory.
Greg
By
Anonymous, at 3:46 PM
I added Greg's highlights to the post.
By
Gary, at 7:07 PM
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