Day 1 Summary

Greetings from Chicago, and the ELCA Churchwide Assembly!

I'm happily ensconced in my hotel room for the night, and ready for some sleep. It's been a long day!

I arrived in downtown Chicago this afternoon. After checking into my hotel (an experience for me - I've never used valet services or had my bags delivered to my room before), I had just enough time to catch my breath, and then catch the shuttle over to Navy Pier. I couldn't have done much better for location - the Hyatt, where voting members are staying, is even closer than I thought. It's no trouble at all to walk over and catch the shuttle buses, which (I think) run all day.

As I arrived at the exhibition hall at Navy Pier, the opening worship was just beginning. I can tell already that I'm going to enjoy the worship services here. For one thing, it's not very often that pastors get to be members of a congregation, instead of presiding over services. To be a "normal" person once in a while is always a gift. Also, the music at assembly is excellent! It makes sense that the church would pull out all the stops (both literally and figuratively, for you organists out there), and I was expecting the services to be impressive. But I've got to say, the opening worship music surpassed my expectations. The variety and talent of the musicians - trumpets, percussion, choirs, handbells, along with the organ and many others - gave a taste of what's possible with our new Evangelical Lutheran Worship book. Not many people will be able to worship this way outside of the assembly, but quite a few, I suspect, will go home inspired to take what they experienced here and adapt it for their own congregations.

There was some confusion with my registration as a volunteer. My informational packet never arrived in the mail, and when I called the Metropolitan Chicago Synod office to find out my shifts, it didn't sound as though I was scheduled for anything. Hence the suggestion that I might help with the early morning run/walk/roll. Following the opening worship, I attempted to check in. After visiting several info desks in the various concourses outside the exhibition halls, I managed to discover that not only was I registered (complete with an official name badge and a red "volunteer" baseball cap to set me apart), but that I was scheduled to help monitor entrances to the assembly floor while the voting members ate - scheduled to help immediately.

Working with a team of other volunteers, I helped make sure that only people with the proper colored badges were allowed onto the floor, and directed attendees to their assigned seating. My shift began at 6:00, and lasted until the first plenary session ended around 9:30.

Most of the business of that first session consisted of orientation for the voting members. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has provided electronic balloting this year, allowing the assembly to do away with the traditional red and green cards, in favor of a small wireless doodad with multiple number buttons on it, along with a "yes" and a "no." The results are tabulated immediately, and a chart illustrating the vote, along with the number and percent cast for each option, is displayed on the screens as soon as the voting is closed. I'm jealous that I won't get to play with one of these. Presiding Bishop Hanson led the voting members through several informative and humorous sample questions to help them get the hang of it, and to work out the inevitable kinks in the system.

What followed was about an hour's worth of instruction in the ins and outs of parliamentary procedure and the rules of the assembly. I'll spare my readers the summary, and simply say that although it's involved, it should make things run very smoothly as the assembly considers a number of important issues.

We closed with a hymn and a prayer, before boarding the shuttles to return for some well-earned rest.

As I mentioned, I actually was scheduled for shifts as a volunteer. In addition to this evening's activities, I'll be ushering the morning worship tomorrow, and serving as a page on the floor for two plenary sessions later on this week. During the times I'm not scheduled, I'll be able to attend all of the worships, meetings, and other events on the schedule. Since it doesn't appear that anyone's expecting me at the event tomorrow morning, I'll be able to get a little more sleep than I expected. Not lots more, though - things rev up again at 8:30 prompt.

One side note - it was mentioned more than once this evening that the use of cell phones, Blackberries, pagers, and other communications devices is not allowed in the meeting or worship spaces. Anyone needing to talk a call, send a text message, or e-mail someone was asked to do so in the concourse outside the hall. Since, as a volunteer, I'll be way back in the hall (and could hang out 50 feet back from the seating and still be in the hall, unobtrusive), I think I'll still manage to post a little bit live as things are happening. But it looks as though my main blogging will be done in the evenings, after things have wrapped for the night.

Time to call it a night, and catch some ZZZZs. Tomorrow promises to be another full day.