Beloved Prince of Peace Community,

With deep gratitude, I write to inform you that I have accepted a call to serve as Interim Co-Lead Pastor at Edina Community Lutheran Church. In conversation with the council and synod leadership we have determined that my last day serving at Prince of Peace will be Friday, October 11.

I joined this staff nearly twenty years ago. This is where I worked with youth and families and then discerned a call to ordained ministry. You accompanied me through seminary classes and contextual learning - and then you called me to be one of your pastors. This longevity has been a gift I treasure. I give thanks for every family and extended family I have come to know through life events, both celebrations and sorrows alike. It is and has been a blessing and a privilege to be invited into multiple milestones with people you are called to love - and do!

I have been part of this community almost as long as I have been married to Sam. This congregation has been integral to my identities as a mother, an author, a podcaster, and a pastor in many seasons and iterations of call.

Over the years, I have accepted several invitations to consider calls in other congregations or expressions of ministry. Each of these opportunities for discernment clarified something I needed to know about myself, while pointing me back to and solidifying my call at Prince of Peace. I trusted each process fully, knowing that if it was the time to leave, a path would be made for me, and each time I trusted my call remained to Prince of Peace. These various call processes also taught me that trusting the process fully meant trusting whomever was called to each of those places and roles instead of me was the best and right person.

My process with Edina Community Lutheran Church has been different, a clear and Spirit-driven call to something and somewhere new.

I am grateful for the elected leaders of this congregation and for our shared discernment about the next right thing for Prince of Peace. They have been so faithful in their care for me and for you. I know they will continue to do faithful and brave work in the face of the unknown, and I trust the Holy Spirit is already preparing the heart of a pastor for this very purpose and place - and that your courage and clarity during a season of change will make room for all that is

to come.

With big love and immense gratitude,

Pr Natalia