Yesterday afternoon, Elizabeth A. Eaton was installed as the Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was as joyous and momentous occasion. I was honored to be among those gathered for the service, and especially glad to be sitting with Emily Ewing, an LSTC student,member of Proclaim and former Joel R. Workin Scholar. I was also glad to be sitting next to ELM’s new program director, the Rev. Jen Rude (also a Proclaim member & former Joel R. Workin Scholar!). I met two Proclaim members for the first time in person that day. I also loved seeing many Proclaim members active in the worship service.  At one point, Jen and I elbowed each other when Proclaim members Rev. Erik Christensen, Kyle Severson, Rev. Steve Wilco, and Rev. Michael Fick all passed by us within minutes as members of the procession.

This great day came just two weeks after many of us gathered in Thousand Oaks to celebrate the installation of the Rev. Dr. R. Guy Erwin as Bishop of the Southwest California Synod of the ELCA. It was a powerful day for many and we were fortunate especially that day to hear a fierce sermon from Bishop Mark Hanson.

Bp. Hanson began his sermon at Bp. Erwin’s installation with a long series of thank yous. He ended his introduction with these words:

“On behalf of this whole church, I want to say a deep and heartfelt thank you to everyone here and everyone who’s watching the live stream, and those that have gone on to glory that have worked so tirelessly, fervently, prayerfully, prophetically, agitationally so that we could come to this day as a church when Rev. Dr. Guy Erwin, in the presence of his husband Rob, could be installed in the office of bishop in Christ’s church. Thank you.” 

You can watch Bp. Hanson’s sermon here (with thanks to the Rev. Megan Rohrer for recording and posting the sermon).

We gave thanks for what has been, what is, and what is to come.