Emergency Feeding Program

During the month of July, the Social Ministry Committee will be collecting food for needy local families.  For too many children, the end of the school year also means the end of subsidized lunches.  That’s why the Emergency Feeding Program of Seattle and King County is having a food drive.

Social Ministry will provide large recycled brown paper bags or reusable bags with EFP labels, listing these needed foods:

· Peanut Butter (18-oz plastic jar)

· SPAM

· Canned Vienna Sausages

· Canned Soup

(Low-sodium & vegan soups are particularly needed)

· 24-oz Cans of Beef Stew

· 15-oz Cans of Pork & Beans

· 15-oz Cans of Chili

· 15-oz Cans of Corn, Green Beans or Peas

· 15-oz Cans of Peaches, Fruit Cocktail or Pineapple

· 1-qt Envelopes of Powdered Milk

· Jars of Baby Food (1st & 2ndFoods Only, please)

Members are encouraged to take home an empty bag and return it by the end of July, filled with the requested EFP food items.

LWR World Fair Trade Day Coffee Sale

Thanks to all who supported our Mother's Day coffee and chocolate sale.  Proceeds from these sales support small scale farmers who practice sustainable, agricultural methods that help cool the planet, protect the environment, and restore local eco-systems.

Community Lunch for the Homeless

A big thanks to all of the wonderful volunteers who rose extra early Friday morning, June 20th to bake potatoes and to help prepare and serve a fantastic lunch to about 300 people.  Our Capital Hill guests at Central Lutheran Church thoroughly enjoyed this hot, delicious meal.  Your good work and good food was truly appreciated by all.

LWR Project Comfort

Thank you to everyone who so generously contributed to the LWR Project Comfort Shipment.  Wooden Cross members, through their donations, were able to send 120 health kits to those dealing with the effects of earthquakes.  These much needed kits, which are sent all over the world to places like Haiti and Chile, contain basic hygiene supplies to help reduce the spread of germs and disease.

Northwest WA 2010 Synod Assembly

The 2010 ElCA Synod Assembly was held on May 14^th and 15^th in Everett, WA.  The theme for this year’s conference was “Living the good news of God’s welcome”.  Michelle Billmaier and I, Jim Billmaier, joined Pastor Woody as the lay representatives for Wooden Cross Lutheran Church.  The full resolutions and the entire voting results of the two day conference can be found at www.lutheransnw.org/assembly/2010/voting.asp

While there were many people elected and resolutions past, I was most interested and most proud of our fellow Lutherans for voting, with an overwhelming two-thirds majority, to not even consider discussing two particular resolutions.  Before I go further, its best that you read what our conservative Minnesota Lutheran leaders mustered the courage to do in making the ELCA the most welcoming religion on the planet.

Reported by the Huffington Post:

After 25 years of deliberation the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Church Council has abolished its anti-gay policies, effective immediately.  Following efrom discussions at the ELCA Church-wide Assembly last summer, the ELCA will now allow people in same-sex relationships to serve as rosterd leaders.   Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) human beings are no longer considered abominations but blessed church members with full standing.  Same-sex partners and families can now fully participate in the ELCA Pension Plan.

Best of all, the ELCA is reinstating people who were removed from ministry positions because they were truthful and came out of the closet, as well as those who conducted holy unions for non-heterosexual couples.  The ELCA has practiced restorative justice.  All votes passed overwhelmingly, with no votes against and no drawn-out hassles about how to implement the policies.

From the formal ELCA press release about the decision reads:

These actions are important because they are a major milestone along a journey of full inclusion.  We have a policy that recognizes the gifts of its member…and that will allow the return of those who have been removed or alienated…There will be new life in the church through new leaders.  We have lifted up crucial questions for the church:  What is the relationship of sexuality to salvation in Christ?  What is the diversity in God’s wondrous creation?  What is sinful?  Who continues to face barrier to ministry and mission?  How do we journey together faithfully, in spite of so many differences?  What some people have dismissed as a narrow issue has both opened up and profoundly deepened our moral and theological life.

With this amazing news as the backdrop, two resolutions were brought to the Synod Assembly floor.  These resolutions were desperate attempts by a few individuals to overturn 25 years of deliberation, this progress of welcoming all parties to participate in the Lutheran faith.  Within 60 seconds of the resolutions proposal an objection was made and vote taken (apparently this is standard parliamentary rules).  It requires a 67% vote to stop a resolution from even being considered.  In both cases this super-majority was attained, further securing the ELCAs position as the most welcoming church on earth.  I have never been more proud to be a Lutheran!

by James Billmaier