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My view


the majority indicate such an interest? All congregations should be open to calling a first-call pastor, and synods and interim pastors ought to be doing


more work to encourage them to do so. The Rev. Joshua D. Ebener Long Beach, Calif.


Troubling numbers As a pastor who has for the entirety of my career served small-town congre- gations that struggle financially, I do empathize with the current first-call dilemmas of recent seminary graduates. If the ELCA believes small congrega- tions are valuable as is a seminary edu- cation, then it should find a way to have the loans forgiven by some percentage to those clergy who serve in smaller, struggling congregations. Otherwise, there is a question whether they are


truly valued in the ELCA. The Rev. David Coffin Ada, Ohio


Which way to turn I just heard a sermon on the text of John 15:1-8 in which Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” You should prune away dead growth in order to give room for new. How does this fit with the withdrawals of congregations from the ELCA because of the 2009 Churchwide Assembly’s action on sexuality? Do we rejoice because they are gone, leaving us room to grow? Or should we look for


ways to bring them back? Ruth Boe Sun City Center, Fla.


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“My view” submis- sions should be 400 words on a societal event or issue or on issues in the life of the ELCA. All submis- sions are subject to editing. Send to: “My view, ” The Lutheran, 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, IL 60631; e-mail: lutheran@ thelutheran.org; fax: 773-380-2409.


Chenoweth is a seminarian at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, S.C., and also serves as director of youth and family ministries at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Dallas, N.C.


By Ingrid Chenoweth


Beauty on the edges A place of freedom for the imperfect


O


ne of our family’s favorite traditions, when we travel to my in-laws’ home, is to gather around my mother- in-law when she takes her freshly baked communion bread out of the oven.


Her communion bread is a beautiful, light-brown loaf


that fills the kitchen with the smell of honey and baked bread. The loaf is round, but not perfectly so. My mother- in-law uses a sharp knife to cut around the communion bread to make it a perfect circle before she prepares to take it to church. All of us eagerly devour those irregular edges that she


cuts off—the pieces that are not perfect but are nonethe- less delicious.


Perhaps one of my reasons for enjoying those edges


and the imperfect pieces is that I recognize the ways in which I am imperfect, on the edges. Sometimes being on the edge is a good place to be. On the edge, you don’t have to trim off your eccentricities to fit perfectly into the mold of someone else’s making. The edge can be a place of freedom. ELCA and North American Lutheran Church members


are covering new and painful ground as we seek to define our denominational relationship. Conversations are just beginning, and each denomination will be challenged in the months and years ahead to redefine themselves accord- ing to what each stands for, rather than how each is differ- ent from the other. As we struggle to find our own space in this new


Lutheran landscape, I am struck by a statement from the NALC website: “The NALC embodies the theological center (italics mine) of Lutheranism in North America.” Maybe that’s true. Or maybe those who are truly in the


theological center of Lutheranism will instead find a way to remain firmly within the ELCA. One thing I know is that the ELCA will continue to have


room for those who, like me, may be edge people. People who don’t fit comfortably into the boxes that society tries to impose. People who enjoy being around all kinds of different people and who value the richness that diversity offers.


The church needs both its center and its irregular, imperfect edges in order to be able to hold together and to embrace all the irregular, imperfectly beautiful people of God. And that is the reason that I am content—proud, even— to be part of the ELCA. M


July 2011 49


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