Opening divine service sets tone for LCMS convention

For Immediate Release
Contact:    Vicki Biggs, 314-996-1236, 314-556-3829 (cell), @theLCMS

Service will focus on convention theme, “Baptized for This Moment”

ST. LOUIS, July 20, 2013—Tonight’s Divine Service at the America’s Center Convention Complex in St. Louis is the opening event of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s (LCMS) 65th Regular Convention. The service will focus on the convention theme, “Baptized for This Moment,” based on Acts 2:38-39.

“Tonight we will gather around our Lord’s words and His Sacrament,” said the Rev. William Weedon, director of Worship for the LCMS. “God gives us more forgiveness than we have sin, more life than we have death. From the fountain of the Divine Service, the waters of eternal life gush forth into this world, and the people of God taste the joys that will be theirs in the age to come.

“Renewed and refreshed, they witness to the eternal life that is ours in Jesus Christ,” Weedon went on to say. “So, the Divine Service is the heart and soul, the very center from which the Church’s mission proceeds, ‘For the Father seeks such to worship Him!’”

Christ Lutheran Church, Freeburg, Ill., is hosting the service. The Rev. Bruce Keseman will serve as presiding minister, and LCMS President Matthew C. Harrison will preach. A choir composed of vocalists from local congregations will lead the singing. Some 30 instrumentalists also representing LCMS congregations, and the hand bell choir from St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Des Peres, Mo., will provide the music. The congregation will include the convention’s voting and advisory delegates along with other pastors, teachers, other church workers, lay members, staff and guests. All told, some 3,500 are expected to attend.

The Synod convention, which runs through July 25, serves as the principal legislative assembly for the church body. Along with the consideration of some 116 resolutions, the convention includes opportunities for worship and fellowship. Convention participants include 1,175 clergy and lay voting delegates.

Tonight’s Divine Service, along with pre-service music, will be streamed live beginning at 7 p.m. at www.lcms.org/convention/live.

To learn more about worship at the Synod convention, visit www.lcms.org/convention/worship.

About The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod is a biblical, confessional, witness-oriented Christian denomination with 2.3 million members – 600,000 households – in 6,200 congregations. Through acts of witness and mercy, the church carries out its mission worldwide to make known the love of Jesus Christ. Learn more at www.lcms.org.

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