The 2016 Churchwide Assembly

August 8-13, 2016
New Orleans, Louisiana

Hey, voting members, it was great talking to you April 12. 

The 2016 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will be held August 8-13 at the New Orleans Convention Center. Click the link in the previous sentence for more info. 

Check out the orientation video: https://vimeo.com/151067896
Click the link to download the Guidebook App. Look for the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Paper materials will be provided at your request, but be warned, there are a lot.

The ELCA Churchwide Assembly is the primary decision-making body of the church. This assembly gathers every three years. Voting members are chosen locally from across the United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. There will be 980 voting members.

Over the course of five days, voting members will:

  • Worship, pray and sing together
  • Hear reports and review the work of churchwide officers, leaders and units
  • Receive and consider proposals from synod assemblies
  • Elect officers, board members and other leaders as specified by the constitution or bylaws
  • Establish ELCA churchwide policy
  • Adopt a budget
  • Conduct other business related to the ELCA churchwide organization.

Gulf Coast Synod Voting Members:

  1. Andrew Bell
  2. Angela Bell
  3. Curtis Bradbury
  4. Tracey Breashears Schultz, on Reference and Counsel
  5. Rene Garcia
  6. Bill Mintz, on Reference and Counsel
  7. Evan Moilan, Vice President
  8. Candy O’Meara
  9. Michael Rinehart, bishop
  10. Kami Wagner

Follow us:

Travel: Gulf Coast Voting Members will book flights with BEST Travel.
Materials: We will receive all materials on an iPad.
Bible: There will be several small group Bible studies, so bring your favorite Bible.

The schedule is in the guidebook app. Here’s a screenshot of the first day from the Guidebook app.

  

The 2013 Churchwide Assembly was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The 2013 Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will be held August 12-18 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Follow us:

Voting Members from the Gulf Coast:

Mike Button
Adriana Johnson
Jen Kindsvatter
Alex Norden
Evan Moilan
Bonnie Parker
Terry Richter
Michael Rinehart
Ryan Dockery

Travel: Participants will book flights with BEST Travel.

Materials: We will receive all materials on an iPad.

Bible: There will be several small group Bible studies, so bring your favorite Bible.

Where do we meet will be announced when we have the information.

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to call the TX-LA Gulf Coast Synod office at 281-873-5665.

What we do: We’ll consider reports, elect leaders, recommendations, memorials, and resolutions. Among reports, we’ll hear from the Presiding Bishop, Mark Hanson, the Vice President, Carlos Peña and others.

Recommendations are brought by the Church Council. They meet two or three times a year. They follow up on previous actions of the previous assembly, and are the legislative leadership between Churchwide Assemblies.

Voting members will also consider memorials. These are not gifts in memory of someone. These are actions brought by one or more synod assemblies calling the church to certain actions. Information on this year’s memorials will probably be up on the web page by summer of 2013.

Resolutions can be brought to this body by voting members. A Reference and Council Committee consisting of assembly voting members reviews all resolutions. In some cases they will encourage the assembly to accept or reject it. They may decide that the resolution is in violation of our constitutions, or they may send it to the assembly with no recommendation whatsoever.

CLICK HERE to check out a 13-minute video by David Swartling. .

During the assembly watch my blog (www.bishopmike.com) for information. Feel free to click on a post and make comments. You can also follow us on Facebook at the synod page (www.facebook.com/gulfcoastsynod) and my page (www.facebook.com/bishoprinehart). You Twitter folks can use hash tag #TLGCS.

The schedule is heavy. We begin on Monday and finish on Friday. We meet morning, afternoon and evening. Please keep us in prayer during these days.

2011 Churchwide Assembly

When: August 15-19, 2011

Where: Marriott World Center, Orlando, Florida

Follow us:

This summer we meet under the theme, Freed in Christ to Serve. The text for this assembly is from Galatians 5:

For freedom Christ has set us free …

only do not use this freedom as an occasion for self-indulgence,

but serve one another in love.

Participants from the Gulf Coast:
1. Judy Biffle
2. David Hollrah
3. Pat Keen
4. Tim Lenz
5. Evan Moilan, Synod Vice President
6. Robert Moore
7. Philip Oestreich
8. Bonnie Parker
9. Michael Rinehart
10. Pamela Tamburello
11. Edward Wang

Travel: Participants will book flights with BEST Travel.

Materials: We will receive all materials on an iPad.

Bible: There will be several small group Bible studies, so bring your favorite Bible.

Where do we meet: Gulf Coast Voting Members will meet at our assigned tables at 1:30 on Monday, August 15. There is a Voting Member orientation at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, before lunch. If you have not attended a Churchwide Assembly before, take advantage of it.

ELCA Churchwide Assembly Website

Theme

Registration

Schedule

If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to call the TX-LA Gulf Coast Synod office at 281-873-5665.

We’ll consider reports, elect leaders, recommendations, memorials, and resolutions. Among reports, we’ll hear from the Presiding Bishop, Mark Hanson, the Vice President, Carlos Peña and others. Recommentations are brought by the Church Council, which consists of 37 members. (Can you imagine?) They meet two or three times a year. They follow up on previous actions of the previous assembly, and are the legislative leadership between Churchwide Assemblies.

Voting members will also consider memorials. These are not gifts in memory of someone. These are actions brought by one or more synod assemblies calling the church to certain actions. For example, in 2009 memorials were brought to the Churchwide Assembly asking for worship resources in Braille. Information on this year’s memorials are being considered as I’m writing this by a Memorials Committee of which our own Evan Moilan is a part. That information will probably be up on the web page by the time you receive this: www.elca.org/assembly.

Resolutions can be brought to this body by voting members. A Reference and Council Committee consisting of assembly voting members reviews all resolutions. In some cases they will encourage the assembly to accept or reject it. They may decide that the resolution is in violation of our constitutions, or they may send it to the assembly with no recommendation whatsoever.

If you’d like to learn more about these things, CLICK HERE to check out a 13-minute video by David Swartling. You can also check out information on the assembly at the CWA web page: www.elca.org/assembly. It has FAQs, a schedule and more. You will be able to watch the assembly on your computer at this site. Daily worship will also be available to watch.

Our synod is one of several synods that are participating in a pilot program to use iPads for the assembly, instead of the flurry of paper. Typically, there is a notebook of 3-4 inches of paper to master. The iPads should save a number of trees. Amendments to resolutions and memorials will be uploaded automatically each day.

During the assembly watch my blog (www.bishopmike.com) for information. Feel free to click on a post and make comments. You can also follow us on Facebook at the synod page (www.facebook.com/gulfcoastsynod) and my page (www.facebook.com/bishoprinehart). You Twitter folks can use hash tag #TLGCS.

The schedule is heavy. We begin on Monday and finish on Friday. We meet morning, afternoon and evening. Please keep us in prayer during these days.