ELCA NEWS SERVICE July 15, 2008 Women of the ELCA Closes Gathering with Call to Act 08-120-FI SALT LAKE CITY (ELCA) -- The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Northeastern Ohio Synod, Cuyahoga Falls, said Lutherans are often nostalgic for "the good old days" instead of remembering they have been called to "adventure and abundance." She preached July 13 during the closing worship of Women of the ELCA's 2008 gathering. More than 2,000 women were here July 10-13 at the Salt Palace Convention Center for the Seventh Triennial Gathering of Women of the ELCA. The event theme, "Come to the Waters," focused on the celebration of Baptism through Bible study, speakers, workshops, community service and worship. "We have given way not just to memory and expectation, which is where the people of God always live -- the memory of the mighty acts of God which freed us, which claimed us and the expectation of His final victory. We sort of like to hang on to nostalgia," Eaton said. "We remember the way things used to be," she said. "You remember back in those days when we had 500 kids in Sunday school, 20,000 kids in the Luther League, that there were at least 200 circles per church, and the average age of those in the circles was about 25? It was all that way." "Folks are not going to come into our churches. They only did that in the '50s for a few short years," Eaton said. Everyone who is in is already there. So, don't expect by opening the doors they're going to come walking in," she said. "God is calling us to freedom, and He's calling us to work. Being a church doesn't mean just sitting and waiting for people to see how marvelous we are," Eaton said. "We are surrounded by a culture that does not think that the church is marvelous. It thinks in a lot of cases that the church is inconsequential." "We have settled, accepted and bought into a culture of scarcity and fear," Eaton said. "So, it is incumbent upon us as good stewards," she said, "to hold on to what we have." "God doesn't call us to survival. That's crazy," Eaton said. "He doesn't want us just to exist. He wants us to live, and not only to live but to be an example of that new life in the world. So we are called to give up this ethos of scarcity and fear, and think instead we're called to adventure and abundance." "When we get to our congregations, people are going to say we cannot support global mission," Eaton warned. "When people look at their budgets, they're going to say we're so tired. We can't do this. The resources aren't there." Eaton recalled many of the stories told during the gathering about bold women, who "took that first step" to affect positive changes in their lives, families, communities and the world. "Sisters, act," she concluded. The Rev. CeCee Mills, Rejoice Lutheran Church, Chesapeake, Va., presided during the liturgy of the Lord's Supper. The Rev. April Ulring Larson, bishop, ELCA La Crosse (Wis.) Area Synod, directed the Triennial Gathering choir. The gathering closed with the announcement that Women of the ELCA's Eighth Triennial Gathering will be held July 14-17, 2011, in Spokane, Wash. Linda Post Bushkofsky, executive director, Women of the ELCA, Chicago, announced that 300 women registered for the 2011 gathering during the 2008 gathering. - - - Information about the Women of the ELCA Seventh Triennial Gathering is at http://womenoftheELCA.org/tg08/ on the Web. Audio from Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton's address to the Women of the ELCA gathering on the Web: [Listen] http://media.ELCA.org/ramgen/audionews/080713a.mp3 [Listen] http://media.ELCA.org/ramgen/audionews/080713b.mp3 [Download] http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/080713a.mp3 [Download] http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/080713b.mp3 For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog