Trevor Thom

Vice President Imran Siddiqui was elected in 2022 to a six year term, so there will be an election for Vice President in 2028. If he chooses to run again it may end up being a quicker election, but that's up to him and the Holy Spirit.

Rev. Lowell Almen served as Secretary from 1988–2007. No other officer has served longer than that.

I was a voting member in 2016 & 2019 and Monday evening to Saturday morning has been the schedule at least since that time. I'm sure it's been around longer. I'm sure cost is a major factor. We'll see what the schedule ends up looking like. 🙂

Thanks, everyone! It was fun to watch and offer commentary throughout the week with other church nerds! #ELCACWA25

August 7-11 is a Monday-Friday. It will be interesting to hear what that means for the assembly. Do they intend to begin earlier on Monday and end Friday evening? Hold even longer plenary sessions? Just get less work done? #ELCACWA25

The 2028 ELCA Churchwide Assembly will be held August 7-11, 2028 in Des Moines, Iowa. That's a Monday-Friday. Interesting. #ELCACWA25 #ELCACWA28

It was clear the pastor who proposed it had discussed it rather extensively with others. During debate she couldn't remember the scripture passage she wanted to reference. Someone had to shout it out to her. How none of them decided to actually read the text and take a second to think about it, idk.

Several speakers have said if there was a motion to remove it, they'd support it. Just make the motion! 🙃

Hoping that people will come to us with interest in serving on a committee that they don't even know exists is not a strategy. There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach, but we need to do something. The idea from the floor that we can't have more young leaders because it's hard to reach them is lazy.

I get that, but it doesn't fix the issue. Synod leaders and staffs are swamped with all kinds of responsibilities. (I was on synod council for about 9 years.) My point is that this church (in all its expressions) needs to do a better job of communicating out these opportunities directly to people.

That's just it. Does a form exist on ELCA.org? Can people find it? We need to be using means beyond personal connections and synod offices (as great as they are) to reach out. Use Youth Gathering email and socials, synod WELCA groups, ELCA socials, etc. so people know leadership opportunities exist.

#ELCACWA25 How do we share these open positions with the wider church in a way that all people across this church can be involved?

#ELCACWA25 Perhaps part of the problem is the nominations process itself. (Not any person's fault - just the process.) How do we find people for these roles beyond nominating committee members contacting the people they know? Are lists of open positions sent to bishop's emails where they go to die?

#ELCACWA25 During the previous discussion we heard from a Nominations Committee member about how difficult it is to get younger people involved in Churchwide boards and committees during the nominations process. We've also heard from another member that it's hard to get people of ANY AGE involved.

We're still on the amendment to move from 10% to 20% youth and young adult participation.

It's my understanding that they have live translators for what's being spoken in the plenary hall (likely using listening devices), but there should also be people staffed for translating documents. That appears to be what's missing.

And why do we keep repeating videos? We've seen that one at least twice now. Previous assemblies have had a pretty large bank of videos prepared specifically for the assembly, but we seem to be recycling a lot of content. One of the videos shown was from like 2012! #ELCACWA25

I was very confused, too. According to the guide, "For both Wednesday’s and Thursday’s services, the color of the day is blue, symbolizing our hope in Christ and our longing for justice and peace." #ELCACWA25

It will be interesting to see if something similar plays out in future ballots for Secretary.

You'd think the CWA would want to vote for the people they pre-identified. Then again, we have no idea how many voting members actually participated in the pre-identification process at all OR who was pre-identified and chose not to participate.

But more to your main point, I think it's interesting how poorly some of the pre-identified folks did - especially considering that CWA voting members themselves were the people tasked with the pre-identifying.

Agreed. Definitely not shocking. I suspect Bishop Curry's name was lifted up and he chose not to participate, and that the timing of his re-election to MCS likely played a big role in that.

Basically, yes! From the assembly guide: "The Rodgers all-digital organs used at this assembly are provided by Mark Austin Organ Services, LLC of Phoenix, Ariz. and Anderson Organ Works of Logan, Utah."

Yes. The fourth and fifth ballots are supposed to take place back to back within this plenary session.