Day Two of the 2012 BC synod convention: Friday, May 11th.

by · May 11, 2012

Note: Please head over to facebook.com/BCsynod for detailed coverage of the synod convention.  I’ve been blogging over there all day, and there’s some really good stuff over there.  What follows below are some highlights — but there are no pictures here.  For those – head over to facebook.

  • The major highlight of the day, at least in my opinion, were the two excellent presentations by Rev. Dr. Alan Roxburgh, whose wit and truth-telling were very well received by the convention, and which sparked a great deal of conversation afterwards.  Alan contends that the Spirit of God is responsible for the changes we see in our world today.  He says: “The Spirit of God is up to something and you can be sure that the Spirit of God is going to mess with the church in really big ways”.    Alan also asks  “What is God up to out there ahead of us in our neighbourhood and communities and how do we join in?”.  Alan is presently working with a team of clergy and laypeople from our synod to develop a process that will help some of our clergy and congregations search for answers to these questions.
  • Also a major highlight was a presentation by Jagrup Brar, MLA For Surrey-Fleetwood, who came to share his experience of living on welfare for a month. His blog about this experience may be found at http://mlaonwelfare.com/
  • The convention gave a standing ovation to Rev. Tyler Gingrich, and also acknowledged the work of Keith Peterson in this ministry of the All Saints Lutheran Church mission, which is now closing.
  • We heard a great deal from ELCIC national bishop Susan Johnson about structural and spiritual renewal.  We also heard from the National and Synodical implementation team for the national church restructuring plan.  The Bishop and the two implementation teams all indicated their continued support for the plan, even though MNO Synod recently voted not to merge with the Saskatchewan Synod.  This item will be discussed in detail tomorrow.
  • Rev. Dr. Kevin Ogilvie, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, made a presentation, indicating that the seminary’s capital campaign is going well, having already raised $1.7 million of its $2.5 million goal.  He also noted that student enrollment is very low, and that there will be a need to focus on recruitment in coming years – both in our seminary, and in our congregations.
  • The day finished with a field trip to the Surrey Urban Mission, where convention delegates were overwhelmed with their fantastic hospitality.  The day closed with Compline evening prayer at SUMS, accompanied by cello and bassoon!

Anyhow, it is past this blogger’s bedtime.  My live blog of the convention will resume tomorrow morning at around 9AM at facebook.com/BCsynod.

 

 

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