Punk Pentecost

If I were brave enough to "punk" the resolutions process at synod assembly, it would include this:


WHEREAS the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is a peer, liturgically and theologically speaking, to the resurrection of Christ at Easter; and

WHEREAS current liturgical practice in our churches does not reflect this elevation of Whitsuntide; and

WHEREAS the gifts of the Spirit are in fact the Spirit her/himself, although most western and protestant views refuse to say that the gifts of the Spirit are the Spirit and want to talk about them as "created grace"; and

WHEREAS in other traditions Pentecost is one of the Great Feasts, second only to Easter; therefore be it

RESOLVED, THAT the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in its guiding liturgical and worship texts, makes Pentecost a peer with Easter,

Be it further RESOLVED, THAT this church find a liturgical way to separate the laying on of hands at baptism, and the marking with the immersion in baptism itself.