Wednesday at the churchwide assembly

Today was the day we dealt with the social statement and as much related business as we could. As we began the plenary this afternoon, we were informed that a tornado had touched down a few blocks away and we were being asked to stay in the assembly hall for our safety for the next half hour. After that initial shock wore off, we realized that we were just fine and we needed to get working on the work of the assembly. Tornado sirens sounded as Diane Jacobsen (prof from Luther Seminary) presented a Bible study on the story of the prodigal son, using a framework from Mark Allan Powell and introducing the four hallmarks of the Book of Faith studies.

We were still being encouraged to stay in the assembly hall, as the tornado warning was extended. (People were even brought in from other parts of the building for their own safety.) When we got back to work, we dealt with several attempted amendments to the human sexuality social statement. There were a lot of them, but not all were considered. An Ad Hoc committee had suggested passage of a few and defeat of most of them. People calling the question or attempting to manipulate the process in other ways (ruling amendments out of order, moving to postpone discussion, moving all matters before the house) were abundant.

A tornado apparently did touch down at the corner of the convention center. That was probably during the time when it sounded like Noah would be calling for the Ark at any point.

I'll write more later.