Saturday, September 01, 2007
Summer Air Travel 2007
Near the beginning of Kris' and my August vacation, I tried to fly to Chicago for the retirement dinner for my dear friend, Don Hallberg, who retired on August 31 from his position as Executive Director for Development Services at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA's) churchwide office in Chicago. Since Kris and I were vacationing with friends who have a home on Chincoteague Island, Virginia, I made arrangements to fly to Chicago from the Norfolk, Virginia airport, the closest (still a two hour drive) airport to Chincoteague with direct air service to Chicago. My plan was to fly to Chicago on the afternoon of Thursday, August 23, attend Don's dinner that evening, and fly back to Norfolk and Chincoteague on Friday morning, August 24. That was my plan.....
The weather report for Chicago on August 23 did not look good - thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. However, my flight was still listed online as on and on time, so I headed to the airport on Thursday morning. I arrived at Norfolk airport in plenty of time for my 2:30 p.m. flight to Chicago. The flight was on time. With a little luck, I thought, I'd get to Chicago even before 4:00 p.m. local time and have time to stop at the churchwide office before going to Don's 6:30 p.m. dinner at the Marriott O'Hare Airport Hotel.
As they boarded our flight, United announced that those who might be in the boarding area for the 5:30 p.m. flight could/should board our 2:30 p.m. flight since the 5:30 p.m. flight was already known to be two hours delayed. (It never flew that day). We took off on time and were in Chicago airspace by 3:15 p.m. Chicago time.
At this point, the day began to "go south" as they say.
We circled O'Hare for nearly an hour before the pilot told us that we could not land because of tornado warnings at O'Hare. And, we were running out of fuel, so we had to divert to Fort Wayne or South Bend, Indiana, to get more fuel and wait out the storm. The pilot added that the weather was so severe that the control tower at O'Hare had been evacuated!
We were diverted to Fort Wayne and landed there around 4:00 p.m. Then we sat on the runway. Each time it appeared that we might take off, we were delayed again by a new batch of thunderstorms at O'Hare. By this time I sort of knew I was not going to make any of Don's dinner!
We sat on the runway until nearly 7:30 p.m. Finally, they found a gate and jetway and let us deplane. The pilot announced that he hoped to reboard us within an hour or so to fly to Chicago. We quickly lined up for food at the one place still open at the Fort Wayne airport. It was not pretty.
No sooner had I sat down with my food when it was announced that we should pick up our luggage which was already in baggage claim and board one of the buses which would now be taking us to O'Hare. We left Fort Wayne by bus around 8:00 p.m. and reached O'Hare, still in the midst of thunderstorms, around 11:45 p.m.
As I looked around the lobby of the O'Hare Hilton, filled with folks sleeping on the floor since the hotel was full, I was happy that I had a guaranteed room. My room was available and on the top (10th) floor. Just one problem - limited electricity because of thunderstorm power outages meant no elevators. I walked up 20 flights of stairs to my unairconditioned, warm room. However, I was still glad to have a bed and I even got a little sleep.
Fortunately, when I had checked in on Thursday, I had already checked in for my return flight on Friday. Hundreds of people off of cancelled flights on Thursday were trying to get onto flights on Friday. Mine took off about an hour late. I was happy to be back in Norfolk and soon back in Chincoteague and, mostly, happy to be out of Chicago!
Now I remember what I do not miss about my former life when I travelled regularly by air! Delays are part of air travel. I'm told they are worse this summer than ever.
I do have to say that United and United Express handled our situation quite well. The pilot kept us informed and, obviously, could not control the weather problems which were quite real. Hundreds of thousands in the Chicago area were without power on Thursday night.
Anyway, I was sorry to miss Don's dinner, but very relieved to be out of Chicago that Friday!
Sometimes all you can do is live in God's amazaing grace,
Eric Shafer
The weather report for Chicago on August 23 did not look good - thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. However, my flight was still listed online as on and on time, so I headed to the airport on Thursday morning. I arrived at Norfolk airport in plenty of time for my 2:30 p.m. flight to Chicago. The flight was on time. With a little luck, I thought, I'd get to Chicago even before 4:00 p.m. local time and have time to stop at the churchwide office before going to Don's 6:30 p.m. dinner at the Marriott O'Hare Airport Hotel.
As they boarded our flight, United announced that those who might be in the boarding area for the 5:30 p.m. flight could/should board our 2:30 p.m. flight since the 5:30 p.m. flight was already known to be two hours delayed. (It never flew that day). We took off on time and were in Chicago airspace by 3:15 p.m. Chicago time.
At this point, the day began to "go south" as they say.
We circled O'Hare for nearly an hour before the pilot told us that we could not land because of tornado warnings at O'Hare. And, we were running out of fuel, so we had to divert to Fort Wayne or South Bend, Indiana, to get more fuel and wait out the storm. The pilot added that the weather was so severe that the control tower at O'Hare had been evacuated!
We were diverted to Fort Wayne and landed there around 4:00 p.m. Then we sat on the runway. Each time it appeared that we might take off, we were delayed again by a new batch of thunderstorms at O'Hare. By this time I sort of knew I was not going to make any of Don's dinner!
We sat on the runway until nearly 7:30 p.m. Finally, they found a gate and jetway and let us deplane. The pilot announced that he hoped to reboard us within an hour or so to fly to Chicago. We quickly lined up for food at the one place still open at the Fort Wayne airport. It was not pretty.
No sooner had I sat down with my food when it was announced that we should pick up our luggage which was already in baggage claim and board one of the buses which would now be taking us to O'Hare. We left Fort Wayne by bus around 8:00 p.m. and reached O'Hare, still in the midst of thunderstorms, around 11:45 p.m.
As I looked around the lobby of the O'Hare Hilton, filled with folks sleeping on the floor since the hotel was full, I was happy that I had a guaranteed room. My room was available and on the top (10th) floor. Just one problem - limited electricity because of thunderstorm power outages meant no elevators. I walked up 20 flights of stairs to my unairconditioned, warm room. However, I was still glad to have a bed and I even got a little sleep.
Fortunately, when I had checked in on Thursday, I had already checked in for my return flight on Friday. Hundreds of people off of cancelled flights on Thursday were trying to get onto flights on Friday. Mine took off about an hour late. I was happy to be back in Norfolk and soon back in Chincoteague and, mostly, happy to be out of Chicago!
Now I remember what I do not miss about my former life when I travelled regularly by air! Delays are part of air travel. I'm told they are worse this summer than ever.
I do have to say that United and United Express handled our situation quite well. The pilot kept us informed and, obviously, could not control the weather problems which were quite real. Hundreds of thousands in the Chicago area were without power on Thursday night.
Anyway, I was sorry to miss Don's dinner, but very relieved to be out of Chicago that Friday!
Sometimes all you can do is live in God's amazaing grace,
Eric Shafer
ELCA Churchwide Assembly - one more time
I wrote a column for the local daily newspaper, "The Reporter," which was published on Saturday, August 25, 2007. Here is the copy for that article:
--------------
Prayer holds our church together
If you Google “Lutheran” and “homosexuality” you will come up with more than 250 news stories from the past two weeks related to this topic following the actions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA’s) churchwide assembly (convention) which met in Chicago earlier this month. I was a voting member (delegate) to this assembly, the biennial business meeting of the ELCA, which, with nearly 5,000,000 members, is the largest Lutheran church in North America.
What most secular media missed was “the rest of the story” as radio commentator Paul Harvey would say. Most of the week long assembly was not about debate on homosexuality. We spent much of our time in worship, singing and prayer, conducted elections, and heard inspirational reports of this church’s work in the US and the Caribbean.
Here are a few of the key decisions from this important gathering:
• ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson was re-elected to a second, six year term as Presiding Bishop.
• A Bible study initiative, “Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible” was endorsed.
• A social statement, “Our Calling in Education,” was adopted.
• A churchwide strategy for responding to HIV and AIDS was approved.
• The assembly called for more study and involvement in the situation in Darfur, Sudan, and declared its opposition to “any escalation of the war” in Iraq.
The assembly did spend time debating our standards for ordaining pastors. The specific debate was whether our church should change its current policies which do not permit homosexual persons who are not celibate to be pastors. The assembly did not approve any change in policies at this time, but asked that recommendations come to the next biennial meeting in 2009 on this subject when a full social statement on Human Sexuality is scheduled to come before the assembly. A further action asked our regional bishops to consider restraining from disciplining pastors in homosexual committed relationships until that time. You can read more of these actions and others online at www.elca.org/assembly.
Much has been written about division in our church, and many other churches, around the homosexuality issue. However, I am holding one image in my heart and mind from the assembly. It is an image that was caught by an Associated Press photographer.
Whenever there was debate during the assembly, voting members lined up at microphones to speak for or against particular items before the assembly. If you were in favor of the topic being discussed you went to a green “yes” numbered microphone and if you were against the topic being discussed, you went to a red “no” numbered microphone. 14 green and red microphones were paired so there were seven sets of microphones throughout the assembly floor.
During the homosexuality debate, the most contentious at the assembly, we paused every twenty minutes for prayer. The Associated Press photographer caught one group of voting members, clearly on opposite sides of this issue, in a prayer huddle at the debate microphones during one of these prayer breaks. I know several of the folks in this photo, pictured arm and arm, and they disagree strongly about this issue. But, there they were, praying and hugging each other.
And, that is a story so often missed in the church and homosexuality discussion. There are good Christians with strong views on all sides of this issue. We can and do live and pray together as we discern what our church’s stand on these issues should be. If we continue to pray and talk together, these do not have to be church-dividing issues.
Whatever our view on contentious issues before our churches, we continue to have our unity in Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior.
The Rev. Eric C. Shafer
Senior Pastor
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lansdale
eshafer@trinitylansdale.com
-------------
My Trinity August 18/19 sermon, "So Great A Cloud of Witnesses," includes the incident and photo mentioned in the article above. That sermon, with the photo, is online at www.trinitylansdale.com/sermons/20070818-19ecs.pdf .
Always living in God's amazing grace,
Eric Shafer
--------------
Prayer holds our church together
If you Google “Lutheran” and “homosexuality” you will come up with more than 250 news stories from the past two weeks related to this topic following the actions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA’s) churchwide assembly (convention) which met in Chicago earlier this month. I was a voting member (delegate) to this assembly, the biennial business meeting of the ELCA, which, with nearly 5,000,000 members, is the largest Lutheran church in North America.
What most secular media missed was “the rest of the story” as radio commentator Paul Harvey would say. Most of the week long assembly was not about debate on homosexuality. We spent much of our time in worship, singing and prayer, conducted elections, and heard inspirational reports of this church’s work in the US and the Caribbean.
Here are a few of the key decisions from this important gathering:
• ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson was re-elected to a second, six year term as Presiding Bishop.
• A Bible study initiative, “Book of Faith: Lutherans Read the Bible” was endorsed.
• A social statement, “Our Calling in Education,” was adopted.
• A churchwide strategy for responding to HIV and AIDS was approved.
• The assembly called for more study and involvement in the situation in Darfur, Sudan, and declared its opposition to “any escalation of the war” in Iraq.
The assembly did spend time debating our standards for ordaining pastors. The specific debate was whether our church should change its current policies which do not permit homosexual persons who are not celibate to be pastors. The assembly did not approve any change in policies at this time, but asked that recommendations come to the next biennial meeting in 2009 on this subject when a full social statement on Human Sexuality is scheduled to come before the assembly. A further action asked our regional bishops to consider restraining from disciplining pastors in homosexual committed relationships until that time. You can read more of these actions and others online at www.elca.org/assembly.
Much has been written about division in our church, and many other churches, around the homosexuality issue. However, I am holding one image in my heart and mind from the assembly. It is an image that was caught by an Associated Press photographer.
Whenever there was debate during the assembly, voting members lined up at microphones to speak for or against particular items before the assembly. If you were in favor of the topic being discussed you went to a green “yes” numbered microphone and if you were against the topic being discussed, you went to a red “no” numbered microphone. 14 green and red microphones were paired so there were seven sets of microphones throughout the assembly floor.
During the homosexuality debate, the most contentious at the assembly, we paused every twenty minutes for prayer. The Associated Press photographer caught one group of voting members, clearly on opposite sides of this issue, in a prayer huddle at the debate microphones during one of these prayer breaks. I know several of the folks in this photo, pictured arm and arm, and they disagree strongly about this issue. But, there they were, praying and hugging each other.
And, that is a story so often missed in the church and homosexuality discussion. There are good Christians with strong views on all sides of this issue. We can and do live and pray together as we discern what our church’s stand on these issues should be. If we continue to pray and talk together, these do not have to be church-dividing issues.
Whatever our view on contentious issues before our churches, we continue to have our unity in Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior.
The Rev. Eric C. Shafer
Senior Pastor
Trinity Lutheran Church
Lansdale
eshafer@trinitylansdale.com
-------------
My Trinity August 18/19 sermon, "So Great A Cloud of Witnesses," includes the incident and photo mentioned in the article above. That sermon, with the photo, is online at www.trinitylansdale.com/sermons/20070818-19ecs.pdf .
Always living in God's amazing grace,
Eric Shafer
