A serious discussion and decision making process currently occupies the agenda for several Lutheran Churches in Lake and Cook Counties, MN. The main decision for congregations and individuals is whether to leave the ELCA Synod, and become members of an association called Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC). To become members of LCMC requires approval by two-thirds of the voting members of the congregation. From the literature and the website, it also appears to be possible for individuals to be associate members.

Why am I concerned? Each of these local congregations includes close friends, and many others who are a positive influence on the wider community. The congregations are too small to survive a contentious estrangement of the membership. I can see it in the faces of my friends that decision is a cause of depression, deep emotional and spiritual pain.

As Baha’is, my wife and I pray for unity in the community daily.
Is unity of spirit, thought, and action possible in these congregations? That’s the high level goal I try to encourage in one-on-one conversations.

The specific issue causing the potential split is the decision by the ELCA this past August not only to allow gays in committed sexual relationships to be Lutheran Pastors, but also to allow congregations to make their own decisions about the issue, including the possibility of leaving the synod.

As I understand the Statement of Faith, and the brochures published by the LCMC in advance of the discussions and vote, I think there is opportunity for further splits into smaller and smaller groups. In the Baha’i Scriptures, we have the warning that failure to remain firm in the Covenant would result in a schism of a thousand sects.

Many of the foundational documents mentioned in the statement are common to any Lutheran synod or congregation. Baha’is reading the LCMC Statement of Faith can immediately identify significant differences from the fundamental verities of our Faith.

Here is the link to the LCMC website, and the pdf Statement of Faith.

http://www.lcmc.net/index.html

http://www.lcmc.net/pdf/StatementofFaith.pdf

I have taken a strong interest in two organizations this week. I joined the Institute of Noetic Sciences almost twenty years ago, and now it is prominently featured in Dan Brown’s book The Lost Symbol. My membership lapsed years ago, but now I will join again. Already I have subscribed to “iShift”, a monthly IONS e-Newsletter.

Following some of the discussions on the IONS website, I found Ervin Laszlo’s WorldShift 2012. I recommend a thorough reading of the Declaration. If you agree with it, sign it electronically. The supporting documents listed at the end of the Declaration are important too.

There is a Baha’i flavor to the declaration. I met Dr. Laszlo at the 1986 Baha’i International Peace Conference in San Francisco. He spoke to an audience of about 7,000, and also led a workshop. I bought his book The Multicultural Planet.

I want to invite discussions and more blog posts about the urgency of the current situation. As I see it, the most urgent requirement is to encourage positive community action, and redirect the depressing influence on the masses by those who are paralyzed by fear.

This is the lead paragraph of the Declaration:
“There is no doubt that we are now in a state of global emergency. This unprecedented worldwide crisis is a symptom of a much deeper problem – the current state of our consciousness: how we think about ourselves and our world. We have the urgent need, and now the opportunity, for a complete rethink: to reconsider our values and priorities, to understand our interconnectedness and to begin a new direction – living in harmony with nature and each other.”

Here are the links:
WorldShift Declaration
http://worldshift2012.org/content/the-worldshift-2012-declaration

Institute of Noetic Sciences
http://www.noetic.org/about.cfm

My wife and I took a bike ride yesterday along another North Shore, from Evanston, IL., northward through some of the wealthiest suburban Chicago neighborhoods to the Botanical Gardens. Our North Shore home is on Lake Superior in Minnesota. It’s amusing to me and our Chicago Area friends that even our county names are the same. We live in Lake County, MN, and Cook County is to the immediate northeast, the reverse position of Lake and Cook counties in Illinois.

The bike trail along Lake Michigan is relatively flat.  There is a slight rise on Sheridan Road as it passes the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette.  My wife and I have been Baha’is for 36 years, but have never had a photo taken while wearing bike helmets in front of the HOW.  Friend Tom Brennan of Evanston provided the bikes and the photos, which are not ready for publication.  Here are two photos of the House of Worship I took earlier this week, showing some of the major masonry renovation, and replacement of reflecting pools that has been ongoing for several years.  The Temple is constructed of a specialty concrete that gleams like marble.  The talent of the craftsmen who built it during the 1930’s Depression is outstanding, and so is the current work of those who are doing the restoration.

The trip to the Botanic Gardens was 12 miles.  It seemed farther.  I’m not in great shape, but have ridden more rugged trails near our home this summer, usually an eight mile round trip.  I was exhausted by the time we left the Green Bay Trail and rejoined the heavy traffic on a major thoroughfare past the gardens.  My hands were muscle-bound and cramping.  I had lost my balance along the trail where we stopped for a break, and I fell into my wife’s bike.

As we sat beside a duck pond at the gardens, I was wishing for a ride back to Evanston.  At that moment, Tom’s cellphone rang, and it was his wife Sharon wanting to meet us at the gardens.  She had room for me and my bike in the suv she was driving.  How’s that for a meaningful, timely coincidence!

Sharon is a nanny caring for two small girls, and she often takes them to the Botanic Gardens.  Tom and my wife rode their bikes back to Evanston.  Sharon and I took the girls to a model railroad exhibit, a permanent display in the gardens.  It’s a wonderland for little kids.  There were lots of them.  The walking paths are like a maze enclosed by tall, green hedges.  All kinds of railroads are represented; the Baltimore and Ohio, Sante Fe, Union Pacific, the Chicago Metra, a San Francisco cable car.  The model terrain includes mountains, rivers, tunnels, bridges, and trestles, small town buildings and national landmarks.  One little boy exclaimed. “I want to build models like these”.  That’s the kind of inspiration that leads a young man to excellence.