2005 Synod Assembly

First Plenary Features Greetings from Mayor

(Live Update added 11:30 a.m., Friday, May 6, 2005)

The Rev. Harold L. Usgaard, bishop of the Southeastern Minnesota Synod, welcomed the attendants of this year's assembly during the First Plenary.

He said hundreds of people have arrived, but noted some are still en route. The Rev. Sijifredo Buitrago, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Colombia, is still traveling and expected to arrive later today.

Usgaard said Buitrago's journey was unexpectedly long and difficult. A complicated visa process had to be restarted, and plane tickets reissued, after Buitrago's briefcase was stolen at a Colombian airport.

Usgaard thanked U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Rochester, and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minnesota, for helping bring Buitrago to Assembly. He and other delegates from the Southeastern Minnesota Synod's companion synod in Colombia are expected to arrive at noon.

"They are wonderful people, and this is an exciting partnership," he said, "but I wanted to explain why they are not here at the moment."

Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede also welcomed Assembly attendants. Brede, who attends Bethel Lutheran in Rochester, thanked the attendants for meeting in Rochester despite road construction along U.S. 52.

"I pray that your conference will be productive to you," he said, "and each of you be blessed by being here."

Usgaard noted one addition to the Assembly agenda – "a quasi committee of the whole" at 4 p.m. today. He said the session is essentially an "open mike conversation" where attendants can discuss recommendations from the ELCA's Sexuality Task Force, and related Assembly resolutions.

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2005 Assembly photo album