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Last Sunday, January 18, representatives of nine Wake County ELCA Lutheran congregations and one from Durham met together for a moving worship service honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. on the eve of his birthday holiday. The gathering was hosted by Joy of Discovery Lutheran Church. Rev. Judith Klusman attended to represent the Bishop of the NC Synod. Rev. Julius Carroll of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia SC, preached on "How Far Is It To the Promise Land?: Living the Dream -- Past, Present and Future"..

About 100 people attended. I enjoyed fellowship with several old friends who are scattered among the various churches. And by being there myself I surprised a lady who came at the invitation of her dear friend who is a Joy of Discovery member, while I am her supervisor at her Monday-to-Friday job and it must seem unlikely to her that I would appear at an African-American church gathering.

It has been several years since I remember a similar gathering involving all of these churches. The ELCA merger took place in 1988, and was celebrated in such a joint worship on or near Reformation Sunday at the Raleigh Civic Center. This occasion was attended by a few thousand Lutherans. Annual joint Reformation services continued for a few years thereafter, at locations rotated among the churches, with gradually diminishing attendance. (I seem to recall an early year when the venue was the St. Raphael Catholic Church -- because no Lutheran church in Wake County had enough seats to accommodate the expected attendance. It was a rich irony for the observance of Reformation Sunday!)

At the end of the service, some plans were started for holding a "second annual" event like it next year. This will be hosted by Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in 2010. It will be interesting to see whether future observances sustain themselves. Perhaps starting "small" instead of extremely large and being centered around a contemporary issue of this nature will make it important enough to a core group of people.M