We are pleased to share with you the following news, information and ministry opportunities taking place within our synod. 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.

Pacifica Synod rostered ministers and lay leaders are invited to gather on Thursday, February 7 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Hope Lutheran Church in Temecula. Bishop Andy Taylor will lead us in biblical reflection on the church's core practice of hospitality, laying the groundwork for us to more fully offer God's welcome to all.

Engaging our own diversity of identities and experiences, we will reflect on the ways our awareness and our stations in society help or hinder our welcome. These include systemic privileges, internalized bias, and patterns of organizing church and society. We will take home clarity and steps for how we intend to build awareness and equity in our ministries and communities. 

Registration, check-in and coffee begin at 9:00 a.m.

Program Times: 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Facilitators: Bishop Any Taylor, Pastor Nate Allen, Pastor Darin Johnson, Pastor Lara Martin and Rene Martin.

The $30 Registration Fee* includes lunch and program.  *For those needing financial assistance, a reduced registration fee of $20 is available during online registration only. Online Registration is open through January 31, 2019.  Online registration is open through January 31 and is strongly encouraged to help us plan for lunch. 

Registration, check-in and coffee begin at 9:00 a.m

Program Times: 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Members of the Pacifica Synod AMMPARO network, have visited the shelters for migrants in Tijuana and strive to have an on-going, supportive relationship with these organizations.

In September 2018, Pastor Nate Allen from Clairemont Lutheran Church, led a group from Pacifica Synod and the ELCA AMMPARO network to Instituto Madre Asunta, a shelter for women and children in Tijuana.  This shelter is associated with Casa de Migrantes, a ministry of the Scalibrini Order of the Catholic Church. We met with the Mother Superior and social worker and learned about a specific need for a teacher for the children in the shelter.  

We were informed that the salary for a teacher in Mexico is about $400 per month (about $4,800 per year).  We hope to raise at least one year's salary by asking each interested congregation to raise between $400 and $800.  The first installment will be sent in early 2019.

Congregations may send checks, payable to the Pacifica Synod, 1801-C Park Court Place, Santa Ana, CA 92701. Please be sure to include in the memo section "Tijuana Shelter Teacher's Salary".  For more information about Instituto Madre Asunta, please visit the following website and Facebook page:

 

https://casadelmigrantetijuana.com/en/quienes-somos/    

https://www.facebook.com/asuntatijuana/

 

Visiting the shelter : Pacifica Synod members are invited to visit the women and children's shelter on Friday, January 25 at 12 noon, gathering at Clairemont Lutheran   ( 4271 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego). Please c ontact Pastor Nate Allen at  [email protected]  if you would like to go and if you can drive.  Remember you will need your passport! 

 

Join us for a planning/networking meeting on Saturday, February 9, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at San Marcos Lutheran Church (3419 Grand Ave, San Marcos). Please RSVP and send items for discussion to  [email protected] .  Please contribute $10 per person for lunch and refreshments. 

Annual Reporting for Rostered Ministers

All rostered ministers in the ELCA are required to complete an annual report to the bishop. Follow this link to select the applicable report from the ELCA website page. This report is a fillable PDF. To ensure that your report is saved properly before sending or printing it, please follow the instructions below. 

Once completed, please return this form to the synod office by email (see below),  fax (714.692.9317), or by mail to the Pacifica Synod office at 1801C Parkcourt Place, Santa Ana, CA, 92701. 

Congregational Reporting (Parochial Reports)

In December, the ELCA mailed the 2018 Congregational Report forms to all congregations.The mailing included Form A, Form C, the instructions, and the financial worksheet. In addition, the Congregational ID number and password for online reporting were included in the mailing. You will need these items to login and file your report online. To do so, follow  this link.

The information included in these reports is vital to the ELCA's commitment to improving its efforts to spread the good news and are used in allocating the ELCA's resources to synods and congregations. Did you know that the information you submit (or do not submit) in your parochial report goes into your congregation's trend report, which is publicly available online? Seekers looking for your congregation can see not only the information you submit but also whether the congregation hasn't submitted parochial reports. 

The due date for these forms is February 15, 2019.  If you can't find your login information, please contact Carol Youngman at 714.692.2791 or by email at [email protected].

IRS 2019 Mileage Rate

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released the 2019 standard mileage rates. Beginning January 1, 2019, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

Information provided by Clergy Financial Resources - clergytaxnet.com

32nd Annual Pacifica Synod Assembly

"Oh Lord, Open My Ears:

Listening for God While Listening to Others"

Synod Assembly Invoices

The congregational registration fees for this year's assembly have been reduced by $50. An invoice was mailed on January 22 to each congregation, detailing voting member assignments for your congregation and allowing congregations to take advantage of an Early Bird Discounted Congregational Registration Fee ($495 for 3 voting members) if paid by February 28, 2019.  Please note that the discount only applies to the congregational  registration fee. After February 28, the congregational fee increases to $550. The cost for any additional voting members is $100.

Fee reductions for smaller congregations may be requested. To do so, please contact Rachel Line at  [email protected] by February 28, 2019. Please note that fee reductions are based on financial data reported with your 2017 Congregational Report.

Just a reminder - payment of this invoice does not register any individuals from your congregation! You will have the opportunity to register your voting members and visitors through the online registration registration process beginning on March 1, 2019. Watch for the link to register on our website and in our e-newsletters.

If you have questions about your Synod Assembly invoice or registration for the assembly, please contact Terri Robertson at 714.352.8732 or by email at  [email protected]

Call for Resolutions

The deadline for submitting resolutions for the 2019 Pacifica Synod Assembly is FEBRUARY 11, 2019.  If a resolution comes in after this deadline, it will be submitted to the Pacifica Synod Council Secretary and will be brought to the floor of the assembly and will require a two-thirds vote by the assembly to be considered. 

 

For detailed information on resolutions, please see this document.

Please submit all resolutions to the Pacifica Synod office by mail (1801 Park Court Place, Bldg C, Santa Ana, CA 92701) or by email ( [email protected]).

For questions about resolutions,  please contact the Rev. Laura Ziehl at 760.814.5141.

For more information about the 2019 Pacifica Synod Assembly as it becomes available, please visit the Assembly Page on our synod website.

Happy New Year! In this reprint of her January 2017 column in Living Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reflects on the new year: "Here is where the gift of grace ... helps us make sense of our lives and resolves the stress of New Year's resolutions-it acknowledges that we are broken and does away with the false hope or the intolerable burden of our being able to make ourselves right."

 

Read her column in English at  https://bit.ly/2VufMVK  and in Spanish at  https://bit.ly/2SBV3O1 .

The ELCA Fund for Leaders is a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that provides scholarships for future ELCA pastors and deacons who attend ELCA seminaries. In 2019, the Fund for Leaders is prepared to offer full-tuition scholarships to more students than ever before!

The Fund for Leaders has an open application process that allows all eligible candidates to apply online directly to Fund for Leaders to be considered for a full-tuition scholarship. These scholarships will cover the full cost of seminary tuition for the duration of coursework. Eligible candidates must apply and receive an offer of admission from one or more ELCA seminaries, must be planning to enroll full-time in the fall of 2019, and must be in good standing in the ELCA candidacy process. Recipients of Fund for Leaders scholarships may apply their full-tuition scholarship at any ELCA seminary that has offered them admission.

If you are discerning a call to rostered ministry in the ELCA, please visit ELCA.org/FundForLeaders today to learn more and to apply. The application period for this year is open now through February 11, 2019. 

Pastor Hitoshi Adachi and his wife, Satoko, are currently serving as missionaries with the Japan Evangelicial Lutheran Church in Kumamoto, Japan. To learn more about what is taking place in their ministry, please click here for their January  newsletter.

 

We encourage you to consider becoming a longer-term sponsoring congregation/individual to support Pastor Hitoshi and Satoko in their ministries, which will continue for the next four to eight years. As it is written in the attached profile, if you wish to support the Adachi's with an automatic monthly bank withdrawal or to establish a covenant of prayer, communication and support, please contact 800.638.3522, ext. 2657, or at [email protected].

WHAT: A collaboration in worship planning for our upcoming Lent 2019, organized by First Call pastors Marsha Harris from a congregation in Southwest CA Synod and Dianne Finnecy from a congregation in Pacifica Synod.

WHO: Open to Pastors and Worship Leaders who want to plan in advance.

(Note: this is NOT a synod(s) event per se, just a group of us from neighboring areas getting together for collaboration!)

WHEN: Sunday 1/27/19, arrive by 5 pm to 1/29/19 departure by 11:30 am

WHERE: Luther Glen Retreat Center, 39136 Harris Road, Oak Glen, CA 92399.  Hotel-like rooms with pillows, linens and towels; rooms will be shared, unless special request is made.

COST: $60: covers $35 to Lutheran Retreats Camps and Conferences for use of facilities, cleaning and laundry of linens, and $25 covers Sunday dinner, Monday breakfast and lunch, and Tuesday breakfast. Monday dinner will be out, bring money for this, some restaurants take cash only. Please bring snacks to share.

BRING: Worship resources to share, especially any specific to your context and/or Lent - music & hymnals, themes, a book you are reading (in advance) that will help with planning - an outline would be helpful but is not required; contextual materials for Lent are highly desired, too!

All linens are provided. Bring warm clothes and toiletries, games, snacks. Refrigerators are available for cold beverages including beer and wine.

WHY: Because we're better together, we learn from each other, and because we can have fun in the planning process amid God's creation in the hills. And it feels darn good when you've planned ahead!

TO REGISTER, CLICK HERE.

FOR AN AGENDA FOR THE WEEKEND, CLICK HERE.

Come to El Camino Pines & Luther Glen where we will be given a deeper understanding of the God that has already named and claimed each one of us, with a love too abundant to comprehend.  Our Winter Retreats at both sites feature special programming designed by our year-round staff.

Friday to Sunday retreats run from 7 p.m. on Friday evening through lunch on Sunday. 

Saturday to Monday retreats run from 4 p.m. on Saturday through brunch on Monday.

Come with your youth group, come by yourself or invite a friend and be ready for a weekend you won't forget. More information and registration can be found online at www.lrcchome.com/winterretreats