I am full of emotions on this last day of the 2022 ELCA Churchwide Assembly in Columbus, Ohio. The last time I attended a mass gathering with my Lutheran sisters and brothers was in 2018 at the ELCA youth gathering in Houston, Texas. As 30,000 Lutherans received Holy Communion together in NRG stadium, I found myself in tears; it was an experience of a lifetime! The Holy Spirit was on the move in that space, and the amount of warmth that filled my heart was overwhelming.

This Friday, I felt this warmth once again. We gathered for our last worship together on Friday morning. We had the great pleasure of hearing the sermon from Bishop Patricia Ann Curtis Davenport. The readings of the day were explicit calls for us to embody the word of Jesus. Bishop Davenport charged us with her words, “the call to embody the word is for us all.” Her words filled the Battelle Grand Ballroom at the Greater Columbus Convention Center with the reminder that in the same room, 35 years ago, we formed a new church of the ELCA. We are called to be the living word of God. As the world changes, we must take the warmth that filled that hall and embody the word of Jesus; we must together change this world.

Thank you, NC Synod, for allowing me to do the work of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. My soul is transformed, and I am so grateful to be a servant of our church and Jesus.

Here is the link to Bishop Patricia Ann Curtis Davenport’s sermon, so you can be touched by her words as well.