Love Out Loud 5

Darwin's First Visit

Fall semester 2020 was FINALLY underway across the greater Milwaukee area and, with Synod Assembly coming on the weekend, the district's leaders of campus ministry and education (Rachel Belding, Jessica Sherman, Marc Schmidt, Laura Capshaw) met with Bishop Emerson and Campus Ministry Board chairman Tom Williams at Corner House (UWM's home for LCM) to work out some particulars for filling Rachel's vacancy in the Spring and going forward. A productive 90 minutes led to the following decisions made:

* Laura would take the majority of scheduled office hours and oversee the Wednesday morning breakfast-and-fellowship time at the facility;

* Jess and Marc would each cover half of the semester's worship services, with the former presiding at the ones prior to UWM's Spring break (March 22-26, 2021) and the latter those following it;

* Student leadership would handle nearly all the day-to-day administration and programming for the ministry, with a peer minister selected to represent it at the Campus Ministry Board's monthly meetings;

* Rachel would be departing the ministry as of December 31st, making her participation at the LSM-USA National Gathering voluntary as opposed to required; and

* A call process that would be longer and more robust than when either Rachel or Jess came to their positions and would seek to address the issues which led to their calls by the Campus Ministry Board.

Following their work on UWM's ministry, the leaders discussed that weekend's Synod Assembly, as all of them would be delegates. Marc laid out his two pieces of legislation (the Diaconate Expansion memorial and the Oversight Equivalency resolution) along with plans to codify the position of and requirements for Associate Chaplain at TLU during Friday's Board of Trustees meeting. The last handful of minutes were spent cobbling together provisional plans for the Synod VP election on Saturday afternoon and, if necessary, Sunday morning.

***

Back on campus and in his office, Marc prepared for the arrival of the Six Pack (Alyssa, Steph, Erin, Julie J., Corey, and Brad) for their meeting to name a new head for the Peer Ministry Alliance and to discuss how to replace Alyssa. As all six knew he was a stickler for time, they showed up several minutes ahead of 2:00.

Marc: Before we get into the two main purposes of our gathering, I want to fill you in on what happened this morning at Corner House. First, Deacon Laura, Pastor Jess, and I have split up the services and "office hours" for the Spring 2021 semester, with student leadership being required to step up in areas where none of us are actually needed. Pastor Rachel's involvement with National Gathering will be less than originally projected, as she and Kurt will be heading to Holden Village (a Lutheran retreat center in Chelan, WA) for three weeks before he returns to his job at Marquette on January 25th. Therefore, the plan to have her preside at Final Worship on the 4th has been adjusted and Jess and I asked Laura if she and Jared would consider co-presiding. Of course, her husband is going to get his panties in a twist because he's being bypassed, but again, these two have experience in the arena and are best able to give that resounding send-off the students will need following the previous few days of work, fun, and service. We also planned out a potential call process to fill the void permanently, but with proposals coming at Synod Assembly that might change both the possible range of candidates and the level of involvement Bishop Emerson and the Campus Ministry Board will have, we're waiting to finalize it until after then. Now, onto OUR business.

Marc gave the floor to Alyssa, who resigned her post as President of the Peer Ministry Alliance, which was followed by him appointing her as the Chaplain's Office's advisor to the group.

Alyssa: With that accomplished, the floor is open for nominations for a new President.

Corey: I nominate Brad. He is the member of the PMA that works closest with Deacon Marc in his official capacity as Chaplain.