Again, we are gathering.  

For those of us who are blessed with the health to gather in-person, we are increasingly finding ourselves grouped up again: in meeting rooms, around altars, in schools and universities, and around dinner tables. We look ahead to busy seasons of Thanksgiving and Advent with familiar feelings of hope and sometimes dread, along with some new emotions. 

After a few years of pandemic isolation and societal upheaval, I feel we are all somewhat more fragile. Our brokenness feels more broken. Our spiritual and mental health is spread thin, which makes the thought of gathering all the more fraught. 

I felt this anxiety as I planned to attend our ELCA Churchwide Assembly last month. I was grateful to have the camaraderie of our Grand Canyon Synod voting members: Glenn Austad, Barbara Carl, Hannah Manzanares, Pastor David Brandfass, Roger Bailey, Laura Hollengreen, Pastor Chris Stoxen, Pastor Charles Newman, Pastor Matthew Metevelis, and Sarah Morris. You’ll be hearing some of their experiences in our news in the upcoming weeks. 

But for now I’ll share that I was worried about the pent-up feelings we’ve nurtured over months of isolation, and how we could possibly be focusing on division rather than healing. My anxiety was for naught. One pastor captured this change in the room:

‘Burn it down’ was my tongue-in-cheek mantra for day one of the Churchwide Assembly. However, one quickly learns that these systems — which often find themselves perpetuating systemic harm — also have people in them that you care for and even love. Quickly, one connects a valued human body with whom you might find contention. Quickly; prayer, song, worship, and striving together take over. In these things the Spirit enters in and makes us Christ's church.

This is the 2022 theme of the Grand Canyon Synod: Stirred up in the Spirit. As the Holy Spirit stirs, this church and its people are renewed. This is our story—life, death, and resurrection.  

I am remarkably blessed to witness the Spirit in action as I am invited to the many ways we live our callings in the Grand Canyon Synod: installations, funeral services, celebrations, preaching, board meetings, synod council meetings, rostered minister gatherings, and one-on-one meetings. These relationships sustain me, and I am grateful to be Church Together with you. 

Whether we are aware or not, the Holy Spirit enters and is at work wherever we gather: at our occupations, in our homes, in Sunday worship, in service to neighbor, and even in traffic.  

I invite you to be patient with one another, and be patient with yourself. I ask you to notice the Holy Spirit’s activity in your life and in the many gatherings of the upcoming busy season.  

Grateful for your encouragement, 

The Rev. Deborah K. Hutterer
Bishop
Grand Canyon Synod of the ELCA