We are pleased to share with you the following news, information and ministry opportunities taking place within our synod and throughout the ELCA. Our e-newsletter is distributed semi-monthly in two separate issues. One issue includes Pacifica Synod and ELCA news items, along with prayer requests. The second issue contains ministry celebrations, events and opportunities, and positions within our synod and beyond.

If you have items to share about the ministries happening through your congregation, please email Terri Robertson at  [email protected]. If you know of others who aren't receiving our emails, please share this with them and encourage them to sign up here.

Dear Leaders in the Pacifica Synod,

At the direction of the Synod Council, we as a synod have entered into a time of discernment and strategic planning for the future of our life together. Your participation in the following survey, as leaders in the congregations and ministries of the synod, will help shape our future. Your feedback is important to us. Thank you for your leadership and for giving your time to this effort.

You can complete the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PacificaPlanning

The survey will remain open through November 15. All answers will be compiled by a third party and reported anonymously to the leadership of the Synod.

Thank you for participating.

Yours in Christ,

Bishop Andy Taylor"

Female Rostered Ministers are invited to join this year's meeting of Lutheran Women in Theology and Religious Studies on Friday, November 22, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., followed by dinner. We'll be meeting at the San Diego Public Library Central Branch, Mary Hollis Clark Conference Center (330 Park Blvd., San Diego, CA 92101 under the theme "Lament and Praise: Transformation Out of the Depths." 

To register, click here:

https://community.elca.org/online-registration/lutheran-women-in-theological-and-religious-studies-2019

 

In 2020 we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women in the ELCA and its predecessor bodies. This year, 2019, we mark the 40th ordination anniversary of Rev. Earlean Miller, the first African American Lutheran woman to be ordained in the Lutheran Church in America (LCA). In honor of this anniversary, we invite papers on women "on the margins" through the lens of "Lament and Praise: Transformation Out of the Depths." Two panels will address these topics.

 

For the first panel, speakers will address how have women participated in lament and praise. What are the narratives which contribute to this discussion of transformation, but may have been missed? How do we understand transformation out of the depths through our Lutheran theology-or have we become desensitized to it? 

 

Our second panel will engage with invited papers which focus more particularly upon lament, praise, and transformation through the lens of women of color, and African American women in particular. How do we offer praise for this milestone of ordination? What other moments should be marked in churches outside the United States? What transformations yet need to take place- or perhaps already are, but are being missed? What needs to be named and lamented in light of this milestone.

 

If you would just like to come to the dinner, please contact Heather Dean at [email protected]. 

 

For questions on the content of the meeting, please contact the planning committee, Beverly Wallace ([email protected]), Kristin Wendland ([email protected]), and Rachel Wrenn ([email protected]). 

Deciding whether seminary education is right for you?

Visit PLTS for Signs Along the Way, a weekend visit and discernment retreat
November 16-18, 2019

Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, CA

Please join us at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary for our weekend campus visit and retreat.

REGISTER ONLINE HERE

This event is offered at no cost to you, other than your transportation. Please speak with PLTS if you would like additional financial assistance for airfare.

Your time will include class visits, conversations with key staff and students, discernment activities, and exploration of the Bay Area.

For further questions, contact the PLTS Office of Admission at  510.559.2730 or at  [email protected].

In her November column for Living Lutheran, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton compares doubt to winter-it can seem long, cold, barren, isolating and lonely. But she reminds us that doubt is part of faith-and God will carry us through the winter. 

Read her column in English at https://bit.ly/2oDi1dX and in Spanish at https://bit.ly/328m8wj.

ELCA Presiding Bishop's Veteran's Day Message

Bishop Eaton's message for Veterans Day 2019 | ELCA

If you have any questions, the Portico Customer Care Center is ready to help. You can reach them by phone at 800.352.2876 or by email at [email protected].

Congregations are asked to submit their  2020 Intent for Mission Support to the Pacifica Synod by January 31, 2019. A fillable form may be downloaded here . The form can be mailed to the Pacifica Synod office or emailed to

The 2019 Churchwide Assembly of the ELCA adopted a number of changes to the Model Constitution for Congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The 2019 Amendments to the Model Constitution for Congregations document may be found here. The complete  2019 Model Constitution for Congregations is here.

Most changes relate to the merging of diaconal ministers, associates in ministry, and deacons into a roster of Ministers of Word and Service, and references to an ordained minister are changed to that of a Minister of Word and Sacrament. These provisions should be added even if a congregation does not currently have a person on one of the lay rosters under call.

It is recommended that ELCA congregations and synods review the adopted amendments for their constitutions as soon as possible after each churchwide assembly to incorporate the required changes and to consider the recommended changes.

If you have questions on updating your congregation's constitution, please contact Rachel Line at 714.692.2791 or by email at [email protected].

The Extravaganza is the annual gathering of children, youth and family ministry leaders from across the ELCA. It is so much more than a conference: it's space to be stretched, it's worship, it's inspiring speakers, it's learning from colleagues across the country, it's sharing your insights with others, it's informative and transformative. The Extravaganza is renewing, educational and connects you with others...then sends you home strengthened for the ministry to which you have been called.

The Extravaganza is for the professional and the volunteer. It is for the old and the young. It is for the urban, the suburban and the rural. It is for pastors, it is for lay people. It is for all adult leaders who share in the adventure we call children, youth and family ministry! The Extravaganza is hosted by the ELCA Youth Ministry Network. 

For more information or to register, please visit the event website.

Youth Ministry Leaders - let's be honest. Life in ministry can be exhausting.

If so, you are invited to join an ELCA Youth Ministry Network Discipling Cohort group.  Discipling Cohort groups, facilitated by a trained peer coach, gather about once a month (most likely online) for an intentional time of spiritual and vocational growth. Participants will support each other as each cohort member creates a three-year personal development plan.

Peer Coaches are a critical part of the Discipling Cohorts Initiative. Coaches will participate in a training during the 2020 Extravaganza and then accompany your cohort on a year-long journey of growth.

Click here for more information about the Discipling Cohort Initiative and to register as a participant or to apply to serve as a coach.

Because of a generous grant from the Domestic Mission Unit of the ELCA, there is no cost for participating in a Discipling Cohort group!  

The ELCA Youth Gathering team announces the theme of the 2021 Gathering, "boundless: God beyond measure," based on Ephesians 3:19 CEV.  "I want you to know all about Christ's love, although it is too wonderful to be measured. Then your lives will be filled with all that God is."

Every three years, 30,000 high school youth and their adult leaders from across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America gather for a week of faith formation known as the ELCA Youth Gathering. Through days spent in interactive learning, worship, Bible study, service and fellowship, young people grow in faith and are challenged and inspired to live their faith in their daily lives.

An important part of the Gathering's ministry are the two pre-events, the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE), a faith formation and leadership development event primarily for youth of color, and the tAble, a gathering that gathers, blesses and empowers youth with disabilities.

For more information about the 2021 ELCA Youth Gathering, go to https://elca.org/gathering.