February 15, 2021
Weekly Update
announcements & events
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Synod Office Closed Today, Feb. 15 |
As we celebrate Presidents Day...
We pray for our new U.S. president, vice president and members of Congress, that they will find strength, support and unity for their difficult work of serving a diverse nation. We ask the Spirit to help us guide, shape and embolden our culture and nation so that we practice justice, care for our neighbors in need, strive for truth and support our global neighbors. (From ELCA Prayer Ventures)
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After 20 years as an Active Duty Air Force chaplain, we welcome Pastor Herb Shao back to the Northwest as a fellow with the Northwest Washington Synod. This transition program, sponsored by the Department of Defense, will run until early July and reacquaint him with the ministries of the synod, while allowing him the opportunity to assist with selected ministry projects. We are delighted to have him on board - and grateful for his willingness to share his skills with our synod. |
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Synod Assembly - Important Deadlines! |
The 2021 Synod Assembly will be May 15, 9am-4pm ONLINE.
Registration for Voting Members is now open. A "get registered" email invite was sent to the emails of all Rostered Ministers and Congregations last week. Please review that email and get your crew registered by March 31.
Nominations for various positions are now being accepted. Read about the roles and how to nominate yourself or another synod member HERE.
Submit nominations by March 31.
Resolutions you wish to have considered by the assembly are now being accepted. Learn how to write and submit a resolution HERE.
Submit resolutions by March 31.
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Grace Grants - Accepting Applications NOW!
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We are delighted to offer another round of Grace Grants .
Rostered Ministers and Congregation Offices, look for an email invitation to submit a proposal in your inbox tomorrow.
The focus areas include:
- Equity & Justice for Marginalized Communities
- Post COVID Ministry Innovation
- Community and Inclusion
- Youth & Young Adult
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Congregation Parochial Report (Form A/C) - complete by Feb. 15 |
This annual report is to be completed by February 15 by each congregation online for our churchwide partners. Please do NOT print them out and mail to the synod. Your congregation office should have received a password from churchwide in December.
If you need assistance, contact Traci in our office.
NOTE: Guidance from the ELCA for reporting PPP loans:
It would be very helpful if congregations note on the respective lines the amount of the PPP loan:
For congregations that received a PPP Loan that has NOT yet been forgiven:
· Record the amount of the loan that was received on Line 17e as a cash receipt
· Record the loan as debt on Line 19.
For congregations that received a PPP Loan that has been forgiven:
· Record the amount of the loan that was received on Line 17e as a cash receipt
NOTE: Tracking online attendance - find guidance from the ELCA here
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ELCA Youth Ministry Network - Connect Journal Available! |
The Connect Journal is published by the ELCA Youth Ministry Network. The Network exists to strengthen and empower adults who work with children, youth and families in service to Christ. The online journal is published several times a year, with issues focusing on a theme that will serve to strengthen congregational ministry throughout Christ’s church.
The latest issue was just released and the theme is Holding Loosely, which was the theme of the ELCA Youth Ministry Network Extravaganza. The main stage speakers from the conference have written articles about how they are holding loosely to things in their lives during a year of pandemic, civil unrest, grief, anxiety, and so much more.
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We give thanks for your generous financial partnership with the synod and churchwide organization. Your congregation’s Mission Support commitment helps the synod and churchwide organization plan more effectively. As your congregation makes financial plans for the coming year, please prayerfully consider your Mission Support portion of your regular offerings.
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Resources from Lutheran Peace Fellowship |
Experts tell us that the pandemic has sparked an increase in people making use of books, pamphlets, web, and social media links – a trend that will likely continue for some time. Lutheran Peace Fellowship (LPF), whose national office is based in the Seattle area, would like to share their resources with your congregation!
LPF's partnership with the Peace and Justice Resource Center, the largest center of its kind in the Pacific NW, makes available books and other resources to you. Topics include: biblical peacemaking, vibrant spirituality, addressing conflicts in families and groups, climate change, prejudice faced by minorities and women, and more!
Please connect with LPF to explore what might work in your setting. It could make a real contribution to your connecting with new members, youth, and people looking for a place to nurture their own spiritual and peace and justice interest.
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Celebrating Black Joy
2021 Black History Month at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
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February 1 – 26 • Virtual events each week
Free virtual events to touch the mind, body and spirit through worship, academic discussions, poetry, artwork, and song. All events are open to the public with registration to receive the Zoom links.
“So often, Black people are invited to teach others through the lens of their pain. This Black History Month let us explore the resilience of the Black people through the intricacy of Black joy,” said Sharei Green, a master of divinity student at LSTC, co-planner with master of divinity student Stephen Styles of this year’s celebration. Read more.
Brought to you by: LSTC Antiracism Transformation Team, Metropolitan Chicago Synod, Metro Chicago Chapter of the African Descent Lutheran Association (ADLA)
Event and registration information: Register for all events using this link Register for all or for individual events using the links below. Zoom details will be emailed the day of the event.
Black Joy through Art
Monday, Feb. 15, 10am
Black Voices of Transformation: A Virtual Spoken Word Event
Thursday, Feb. 18, 4-5:30pm
African-American artists from Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Young Chicago Authors, and other local connections perform poetry, rap, music and jokes for this interfaith, socially conscious and personally inspiring event. View event poster. Register here.
Black Joy in Community Leadership: Interview/Symposium
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 5pm
Black Joy Revival, Friday
Feb. 26, 5pm
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Tuesday, February 16 at 2pm
Rostered ministers in their first three years of call are invited to gather to share time and support with one another and Bishop Shelley Bryan Wee via Zoom.Check tomorrow's Rostered Minister email for the link!
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The LiVE Project - Leadership Team Meeting |
Tuesday, February 16 at 1pm
LiVE Leadership Team - check your inbox for the Zoom link!
Want to learn more about this project?
Check it out here on our website. Follow them on Instagram here. Check out their Thursday livestream event below!
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WELCA Racial Justice Advocacy Group
Join and participate
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Join Women of the ELCA’s Racial Justice Advocacy Network for a conversation series celebrating Black History Month. We’ll hear from four leaders in our church representing diverse specialties. They will share how being an African American woman in the United States influences their work and faith. Watch via Facebook live on Tuesdays at 4:40 (pacific time) after joining our Racial Justice Advocacy group. on Facebook.
Speakers and schedule:
Feb 16: Linda Thomas, Ph.D., professor of Theology and Anthropology, LSTC, Chicago, Ill.
Feb 23: Antoinette Butler, music director, Shekinah Chapel, Chicago Ill.
March 2: The Rev. Nicolette Marie Peñaranda, MBA, M.Div., pastor at First Lutheran Church of the Trinity, Bridgeport, Ill., and candidate for alderman, Berwyn, Ill.
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Weekly ELCA Coaching Event |
Weekly at 11am (Pacific) on Wednesdays
Next Session is Wednesday, February 17 at 11am - Growing Young: Warm Relationships
All are invited to join this weekly online gathering designed to provide encouragement and support for ELCA leaders across the church. Participants will hear topical presentations related to how we are called to be Church, as well as have an opportunity to be in small group discussions with an ELCA group coach facilitating the conversation. This is where the magic happens. All of this is designed to help us process our emotions and thus create a space where we can each name our next most faithful step forward in our unique context.
Meeting ID: 180 439 412 - Password: 648160
We understand a number of folks are unable to make this day and time each week. We record the main session and debrief time. We share each recording with supporting documents here, typically by the following day: https://www.elcacoaching.org/podcasts/media.
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Thursday, February 18 at 9am (Pacific)
Once retired, how do you serve? In the first in a series of presentations, Deaconess and RN Penny Cedel will share information geared to help you understand your gifts & talents and how they can be utilized best, plan for the complicated or emotionally heavy decisions you need to make as a gift to your family. You’ll learn how to plan while you are healthy, rather than have determinations made without your wishes in mind. Register now
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Adapting to a New Reality:
Living into a Fresh Vision for God’s Church
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Thursday, February 18 at 11am (Pacific)
Check out these monthly webinars - each third Thursday of the month - featuring well known scholars and church leaders that focus on key areas. In February the topic is Justice and the Common Good.
Please go to www.IgniteTheChurch.net to see the full line up of speakers and panel leaders and get more information on how you can join this transformational movement. Pastors and congregational lay leaders can sign up for only a $25 donation to register for the entire series. All conference proceeds are donated to the ELCA Fund for Leaders. Last year's gift to future leaders totaled $6000.
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The LiVE Project Presents - Living Forward Conversations
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This Month’s Topic: Practicing Innovation
Thursday, February 18, 12noon-1pm on Facebook
Living Forward is a NEW monthly zoom conversation via Facebook Live. The conversation intends to celebrate, encourage, and amplify the voice and perspective of lay leaders for the sake of God’s world. Join the conversation HERE.
This week our guest panelists will engage in these questions:
- How you are practicing innovation?
- What you are learning?
- What assumptions do you think are being challenged with these new forms of engagement?
- What do you see as implications for local churches, and lay leaders?
Guest Panelists:
Joey Ager, from Tacoma, serves as the lead community organizer at the Church Council of Greater Seattle. Currently, the council is undergoing an organizational shift intentionally adapting from a top-down patriarchal model of governance to a distributed multi-cultural, multi-center approach that takes seriously the challenges posed by institutions formed in white supremacy.
Dr. Kendra Rosencrans, a resident of Kirkland, has a background in how the power of narratives, amid complexity, offer a catalyst for organizational change. Kendra is currently working on two pilot projects with the ELCA – one looking at the experiences of pastors who are women, and one looking at small congregations – using the SenseMaker® story-based research method and facilitated sense-making process.
Rev. Erik Samuelson, pastor at Freeborn Lutheran Church, brings experience and passion in the areas of vocational discernment and formation in theological education through his work and consulting with The Forum for Theological Education. He is partnering with an exciting new ecumenical initiative called Cyclical, which works with judicatories to form “ecosystems” for planning new churches, and developing leaders.
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Thursday, February 18, 2pm
Deans - check your inbox for links to materials and meeting.
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Humility as Inclusive Empathy:
Theory of Mind and Imaginaries of the True Self
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Friday, February 19, at 2pm (Pacific)
Presenter Michael Spezio (associate professor of psychology, neuroscience, and data science at Scripps College and Presbyterian minister) will speak about empathy, theories about what it is and how our research with L'Arche and Homeboy Industries approaches those theories, and the implications for our understandings of self and other. This webinar is hosted by the Center for Advanced Studies in Religion and Science (CASIRAS) and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC). Register by completing this form to receive the link on February 19.
CASIRAS is a supporting organization for the Zygon Center for Religion and Science in partnership with LSTC. It also supports Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science in partnership with the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science and the International Society for Science and Religion. More at casiras.org
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Open Door Ministries Annual Board Meeting |
Sunday, February 28th at 2:00 pm via Zoom
Open Door Ministries will hold their annual meeting – all are welcome to attend. One business item will be to approve new board members, if you are interested in serving on the board, please let them know at: odm.elca@gmail.com.
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Read the Koran in Four Weeks |
Mondays, March 1, 8, 15, 22 from 7pm-9pm via Zoom
Check out this unique class taught by Pastor Marshall, First of West Seattle, four times a year since 2003. The cost is $20 - which includes mailing to you your own copy of an approved English translation of the Koran. Call or email to register or ask questions. Pr. Marshall at (206) 935-6530 or deogloria@foxinternet.com. For more information on the class (including a half hour video interview) and some student recommendations, see flcws.org, “Reading the Koran with Pastor Marshall.” |
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Sunday, March 14
PI DAY IS "PIE DAY!"
Run or walk the 3.14 mile course on the Cedar River Trail or use any 3.14 mile course of your choice.
All local participants will receive a personal pie at the end of the event.
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Listening Circle Toward Inclusion & Diversity in the NW WA Synod |
Sunday March 21, 6:30pm-8pm on Zoom
We become more fully a community when we hear one another’s stories. This Listening Circle Toward Inclusion and Diversity will offer us an opportunity to listen and respond to the stories of people color about their experiences in our Lutheran Christian community. As we listen and speak, we trust that God is gathering us more fully into God’s story of healing, reconciliation, and mutual respect.
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Bishop's Spring Convocation
Living into Authentic Diversity: Sharing Our Stories
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Monday-Wednesday, April 26-28, Online
Monday, 1-4pm | Tuesday, 9:30am-3:30pm | Wednesday: 9am-12noon
Rostered ministers, mission developers, and interns of the synod are invited to gather online over these days to explore diversity in the Church from the perspective of listening deeply to the uniqueness of our diverse journeys of faith. How do our familial/cultural/ denominational/personal identities and histories shape our experience of being Church Together? Following an introductory session with the Strategic Team For Authentic Diversity (STAD), we will be joined by keynote speaker the Rev. Lenny Duncan. We will also invite four local church leaders to share their diverse stories. We will have time to reflect together on both the gifts and the challenges these stories bring to us.
Look for registration link in the Rostered Minister email from last week - or in tomorrow's email...
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Saturday, May 15 9am-4pm ONLINE
In addition to worshiping together, hearing reports, voting on our budget, discussing resolutions that are brought forward, and electing leaders to various positions, we will be voting on constitutional and bylaw changes.
Registration information will be emailed to all Rostered Ministers AND congregation offices. If you do not find it in your inbox today, please contact Susan at the office 206-783-9292 or susan@lutheransnw.org
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Want an item included?
All items due by 2pm on the prior Thursday
Northwest Washington Synod / ELCA
5519 Phinney Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98103
206-783-9292
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