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synod school
The Rev. Bill Davnie was a Presbyterian pastor for five years before hearing a different call: he then served 27 years as a career Foreign Service Officer.
Before the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins took to the stage at Schaller Memorial Chapel to deliver the final convocation for Synod School on Friday, the Rev. Dr. Matt Sauer of Manitowoc (Wisconsin) Cooperative Ministry, as he’d done all week, donned a red zip-up cardigan just like another Presbyterian, Fred Rogers, used to. It was Sauer’s duty to remind those attending the 69th annual gathering that not all the world is like the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School, which concluded Friday on the campus of Buena Vista University.
Concluding her week-long journey through biblical accounts starting with the letter “c” — Creation, crisis, covenant and Christ came before — the Rev. DeEtte Decker, the preacher during Synod School last week and the communications director for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, concluded worship on Friday with more alliteration: the church as co-creator.
Communion was served to those attending Synod School worship on Thursday. The elements — a small round cracker and a green grape — were distributed in compostable plant starch sandwich bags.
“Y’all responded a little better than I thought you would yesterday,” the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins told Synod School attendees Thursday morning, referring to a talk he delivered Wednesday on whether some symbols belong in church. “So today I thought I’d talk about Christianity and capitalism.”
A time for children during worship Wednesday at Synod School saw about two dozen children make pinky promises before God and the 500 or so people assembled.
The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins warned Synod School attendees that his Wednesday message “might be a challenging. My wife says I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.”
“Hey,” a middle school improv class member playing the serpent in the Genesis 3 account told the Garden of Eden’s first female inhabitant during Synod School worship on Tuesday, “I see you’re interested in that tree over there.”
On Monday, the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, the PC(USA)’s advocacy director, told the Synod School gathered at Buena Vista University what Presbyterians believe.
Closing with “Beautiful Things” by the artist Michael Gungor as performed by Synod School musicians, Monday’s worship service held in Schaller Memorial Chapel at Buena Vista University explored how Creation came about and what an act that occurred 4.5 billion years ago means for us today.
