500 Years of God’s Grace in Action

Reflections on the Churchwide Assembly 2016

by Kolloh Nimley

The state of the ELCA is the state of our faith. The 2016 Church Wide Assembly in New Orleans brought together the church for the state of the world. As voting members, we saw and heard from a multitude of speakers. We heard many proposals and debates on the issues that came before us. We made numerous of decisions on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

A highlight was seeing the church as a whole creating accountability within the body of Christ as evidenced by the repeal of the Doctrine of Discovery and by the requirement to have anti-racism training at least every two years within every synod of the church. If we as a church will proclaim the good news of Christ to all, this is a good starting point.

I was encouraged by the openness of the church wide office on charting the future of the church. They asked voting members to provide their views and feedback on the future of the church and how we will get there.

The leadership of Bishop Eaton is evident when she said, “to be effective we must first know who we are as Lutherans and work together as a church for the sake of the world. This is truly a church in action. As we look forward to celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation next year, what will we say to the media when they ask, ‘who are you’? We must be ready to answer with boldness and certainty that we are Lutherans for the sake of the world.”

Grace and peace in all that we say and do.

-Kolloh Nimley

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