Live-blogging from camp

This week I am a camp pastor at Camp Mount Luther, our Upper Susquehanna Synod camp. My family has been here much of the week, but they are at home for a couple of days and so I have time to sit and write for a little bit.

It was a very eventful couple of weeks. Our Vacation Church School was last week, and was successful. This is, I must admit, my least favorite part of being a pastor. Not the getting up in front of kids and acting silly part, but the planning and execution part. Nevertheless, with the help of an awesome staff, eighty kids had a great week.

Following VCS was our Synod Assembly. Both memorials to the Churchwide Assembly which oppose the Church Council recommendations passed without nearly the intensity of debate that I expected. I have a feeling that we all know what we are going to say about this topic anymore. In a way, that is too bad, for certainly a substantive discussion might be fruitful.

We also passed resolutions condemning torture and religious abuse (I wasn't sure about this one, but the speakers for the resolution convinced me), against the "Separation Wall" in Israel (abstained - although I understand the land grab issue, I also sympathize with the need of Israel to defend itself and can't help but notice that there have been not nearly so many suicide bombings since the wall began to go up - anyone want to disabuse me on my ignorance?) and other resolutions and memorials relating to supporting Augsburg Fortress, Christ-like living, evangelism, social ministry, etc.

I was on the Committee for Reference and Counsel this year, and am proud (not in the theological sense) to say that because of the commitment of our chairperson (not me), our hard detail work on the resolutions/memorials and our willingness to send them back to the originators if they were unsubstantiated or unclear, the process was a much smoother one than in years past.

I am using some of the down time I have this week to read Bonhoeffer's Ethics. I have been putting this off until I had some serious time to chew on it. I can only say that I am chewing. Yum, yum. I hope to be able to blog on the conclusions I come to and the questions that are raised.