Title: ELCA Assembly Receives Greetings from Rocky Mountain Synod
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

August 17, 1999

ELCA ASSEMBLY RECEIVES GREETINGS FROM ROCKY MOUNTAIN SYNOD
99-CWA-08-LS

     DENVER (ELCA) -- The Rev. Allan C. Bjornberg, bishop of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Rocky Mountain Synod,
brought greetings from the synod's 180 congregations and more than
93,000 baptized members to participants in the opening session of the
ELCA Churchwide Assembly meeting here Aug. 16-22.
     The churchwide assembly, the chief legislative authority of the
ELCA, is meeting at the Colorado Convention Center. There are more than
2,500 people participating, including 1,039 ELCA voting members. The
theme for the biennial assembly is "Making Christ Known: Hope for a New
Century."
     "We have been eager to welcome you," Bjornberg said. More than
800 volunteers from the Rocky Mountain Synod will help facilitate the
assembly, he said.
     Bjornberg traced the history of the land of the Rocky Mountain
Synod that includes Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and a portion of
west Texas.
     The Rocky Mountain Synod is a "land of explorers and discoverers,"
he said, listing Kit Carson, Brigham Young and Lt. Zebulon Pike as
pioneers of the American West.
     "This is a land of vision," Bjornberg said, citing the 1858-1859
Colorado Gold Rush that included a discovery on Cherry Creek in present-day Denver.
     "Welcome sojourner, welcome child of God," Bjornberg said.
     This is the season in the Rocky Mountains where the last of the
snowcaps melt, he said. Melting snowcaps "bring life from on high to
this thirsty land," he said.
     "Welcome pilgrims. Here is the water in the desert," Bjornberg
said.
     "This vast land is long in history, deep in faith -- bold in
witness, young in faith. May you discover anew the rich abundance of
God," he said.


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