I had the privilege this week to visit with and make a presentation to the Minnesota North District Board of Directors and talk about our partnerships especially the work that we have done in Africa. From the Hibbing quilting ladies (you’ll hear about them soon) to the LWML, Minnesota North entities and individuals have partnered with many projects including the Project 24 rescue centers.
I will not presume to make an announcement of what the Board decided. I will leave that to President Fondow and hopefully he will reveal the decision on this site. I do want to share the presentation that I was able to make to him of a “Bishops Cross”. But first the story of how the Cross came to be.
When we visited Kenya in February introductions of the visitors started to get awkward. The concept of a “District President” would take too long to explain, but everyone that we visited with knew what a Bishops was. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kenya has 4 Bishops, one of which is the “Archbishop”. The duties and responsibilities of the Bishops corresponds to what the District Presidents in the LCMS do. So we started to introduce President Baneck of North Dakota and President Fondow from Minnesota North with the title, “Bishop”. At first both of the the District Presidents were reticent to use that title but after a few days they started referring to themselves as Bishops. Someone in our party asked if we could could have two Bishops crosses made for the two DP’s and when Bishop Obare heard of that he said that he wanted to have them made and have them presented. They were not ready before we left for the States and so by a circuitous route they made their way from Kenya to my home in North Dakota and I had the honor to present President Fondow with his.
Seter presenting "Bishops Cross to President Fondow
The Cross is very nice. Over the background of the globe is the map of Kenya. Superimposed over both is the Cross of Christ. Over the cross is the symbol of the Holy Trinity. Surrounding the Cross is the chalice and wafer symbolizing the Holy Supper and the wafer contains Luther’s Seal. To the left are the Holy Scriptures and the symbol for Holy Baptism. Surrounding it all is the name of the church body and at the bottom the year it became a church body – 1948.
We hope to find a proper venue to present “Bishop” Baneck his cross soon.
