Synod Assembly Report 2022
Greetings all!
Here is a brief overview of our latest St. Paul Area Synod Assembly….
Guest speakers:
Rev. Dr. Amy Marga, professor of systematic theology at Luther Seminary spoke to us with address, “Eight Things you need to know about God and Children.” Later, in the panel discussion, she said that the next generation is looking to the church for a “do no harm” theology.
Alexis Oberdorfer, Vice president an Chief officer of community engagement and partnerships for LSS, MN. Talked about her work with young children and the importance of helping young children in their first 1000 days, especially those who are living in dangerous environments.
Marcus Pope, president of Youthprise in Minneapolis talked about growing up in St Paul’s east side and his calling to serve inner-city youth. He talked about the challenges of being a young, black, male leader. Title of his talk was “Eight things you need to know about young people in the East Metro.”
Bishop Patricia Lull gave her report which highlighted the many ways our synod is reaching out with the love of God into our communities, this included an update on the Planting Hope Campaign. The Planting Hope Campaign is a synod-wide capital campaign with 4 initiatives: inviting others into life in Christ; renewing congregations on the synod; raising up new generations of leaders for the church; working with LSS to provide help for families on the East Side of St Paul.
We had reports from many ministry partners and ministry initiatives. One that especially caught my attention is the Thriving in Ministry Initiative which uses grant funding from the Lilly Endowment to train and energize leaders in our synod.
We also did the business of assembly and looked at resolutions and memorials:
Passed resolution 2022-1, Provoking to love and good deeds toward gun violence prevention.
Passed resolution 2022-2, Support the Minnesota Poor People’s Campaign and the National Poor People’s Campaign.
Passed 3 separate memorial resolutions which will be sent to the national assembly next year.
We also had some really awesome worship!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our opening worship service began with a Prayer Service for Children of Indian Boarding Schools and included native drums and chanting.
Finally: May 14 was the final day in our 225 days of prayer in honor and memory of the children of the First Nations people and of our Native children who never made it home from the residential schools. Thank you for your prayers and for your advocacy. We (at RLC) may keep our memorial up for a while and will include more information and prayers in the next few month.
Thank you for your continued support for the work of our larger church family. As the ELCA joins together with other Christians around the world we strive to bring the love and hope our Jesus’ resurrection into the reality of people’s daily struggles.