The ECC Synod took place from October 24th to the 27th in Florida.  Thanks to the generosity of the community of Spiritus Dei ECC I was sent as a representative to the HOP (House of Pastors).  Eileen Knoff was also sent as a representative to the HOP.  Steve Knoff and Louise McCallister were sent as representatives to the HOL (House of Laity).  Steve went in place of Linda Mains.  I was blessed to travel and room with Louise.

A Synod is a General Assembly.  If you are like me, this word is not one you use in every day conversation.  Having "Houses" is also a new experience for me.  I am more used to "Councils, Commissions, and Committees."  I understand that the organizational structure for ECC has been modeled after other Church structures that are more egalitarian than the Roman Catholic Church.  However, I find that I am not comfortable with this "parliamentarian" structure.  The two Houses are too reminiscent of two other Houses I know about:  the House of Lords and the House of Commoners.  I think that ECC can do better than this structure.  However, every organization has to start somewhere, and it is very common to start with what exists already.  As the old saying goes -- why reinvent the wheel.  

This "Statement of Intention for Synod" was displayed everywhere:  "Our intention is to create TRUST in relationships, that is:

• Transparency:  in all our dealings.
• Respect:  affirming the dignity and diversity of each participant.
• Understanding:  a sympathetic and tolerant hearing of another's position.
• Story:  telling your own and soliciting those of others.
• Together:  in the end, we're all in this together.

Our intention is also to have fun and to enjoy each other!

The liturgies during the Synod were Spirit Filled events, extraordinary and wonderful.  At the Opening Prayer and Address we prayed the Spirit to come upon us, and as far as I'm concerned that prayer was answered beautifully.  Morning Prayer the next day was a call for peace and reconciliation.  Morning Prayer on Friday was a Healing Service, and on Friday evening we had our Closing Eucharist, and that included liturgical dance.  During all these liturgies I was wishing all our Spiritus Dei ECC members could be present and experience the heartfelt prayers of this gathering.  Mirella, Bishop Peter's spouse, pulled together a motley crew of choir members, including our own Steve Knoff, into a choir that sounded as if they had been playing and singing together for years.  

Here is a summary of what we did in the HOP over the few days we were together:  we elected a new president and vice president for the House; discussed, changed and affirmed canons on Bishops for the regions; affirmed the ECC budget; created two resolutions.

At our first gathering with the HOP Eileen and I helped to lead the opening prayer.  Our focus at this first session was on electing new leadership for this House.  The three candidates were placed before us to answer questions.  This questioning was in depth and mainly concerned with the candidates' vision for ECC.  The first vote ended in a tie between 2 candidates who at the next vote became our new leaders:  Steve Rosczewski (from Florida) and Arturo Querijero (from California).  The HOL elected Sarah Bell (from Arkansa) and Celina Martinez (from Colorado).  At this first gathering those of us in the HOP also looked over the proposed budget as presented to us from the HOL, and affirmed their work.  

We had a joint session after lunch to share with each other, especially our election results.  At this time there was a presentation from the commission that was charged with writing new canons.  According to my brief notes we heard the following values and concerns:  we are the Church of acceptance;  sensus fidelium; subsidiarity; shared leadership; collegiality; collaboration.  We are based on but not bound by tradition.  We have disparate and diverse views about the hierarchy.  We never want to allow forms and structures to take precedence.  The Bishop's authority comes from community.  We were asked to note the "living documents" of ECC in the Affirmation of Faith, and the Constitution with its canons; to attend to the ministry and role of Bishops.  We were asked to ponder what it means to be Catholic; what is a bishop?  We were asked to pay attention to the behavior and actions of ECC.

The next gatherings and meetings become blurred in my mind as to when we did what.  We worked on the canon on the Ministry of Bishop, and Synodal Structure.  The canon on Synodal Structure seemed to go together easily.  Mainly this coming together involved cleaning up the language the commission prepared for us.  For example, changing the word "synodal" to "leadership" council.

The work on the Ministry of Bishop was very intense.  There were strong feelings about the words and terms used in the canon, as in "apostolic", "shepherd", "primary".  There were concerns about how to describe the ministry,or call of a bishop.  HOL and HOP exchanged ideas as we re-wrote the canon.  My original draft ended up a complete mess with scratching out and adding words, etc.  In the process I began to learn about the temperaments and personalities of these pastors, and how serious each and every one of us was about how we set up this foundational canon.  At some points it seemed we came close to breaking apart, but everyone stayed with it.  There was great respect for one another, expressed in the way each person was listened to.  In fact, there was something extraordinary in the way this group of people could stay with each other in such an intense process.  

Our first effort excluded any reference to "apostolic" and later Bishop Peter came in to us to plead the case for including this aspect of being Bishop.  We began again to wrestle with tradition, the abuse of tradition, the healing of tradition.  In the end the canon is the product of all these dialogue partners and you can no longer identify who said what.  The HOL saved us with a beautiful re-writing of the canon out of the input from all the parties.  They took leadership, and pulled us together!

After this struggle we moved on to the struggle of how a region chooses a bishop.  There were 17 canons relating to this process.  It became apparent that we pastors were well able to discourse on theology, tradition and faith, but not as able to put words around the outcome of all the varied discourse.  Then there was a miracle!  One of the members, inspired by the Spirit of God, suggested that we accept the work of the HOL -- UNSEEN! in regard to these canons.  The pastors for centuries have imposed their wills on the people.  There was immediate reaction of assent -- a "felt" presence of the Spirit of God in the room.  At that very moment a representative from the HOL came to us with their report, and we clapped -- to her great surprise -- and informed her of our decision.  One of our members returned with her to let the HOL know.  We heard back that there were tears and clapping from the members of the HOL to this news.  The HOL worked through dinner on these canons.

For a short time we were at a bit of a loss in the HOP, having entrusted the HOL with these canons.  But, being pastors, the group soon found suitable work.  Our focus turned to our immediate need -- relief for our Bishop, Peter.  Much discussion took place for why and why not to allow Peter to invite other bishops, from other faith communities, to help with his sacramental duties.  This discussion was again very intense.  Finally even we pastors found words to put a resolution together affirming Peter's request to ask for help not only from "outside" bishops, but from ECC clergy.  We also discussed the Affirmation of Faith document, and eventually resolved to use this as a "source document" for reflection in our communities.  

Well, this is my report from the Synod, from my point of view.  What impressed me the most from attending the Synod is the diversity of the membership of ECC, and how natural and good this diversity is, and how pleasant it was to be together.