March 17, 2020
Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA Enews
Event Spotlight: Spring Ministerium
The Spring Ministerium for rostered leaders, scheduled for March 26, is postponed. Watch for updates for a rescheduled date.  
Portico and the COVID

As we feel the evolving impact of COVID-19 on our lives and communities, Portico is here to support you. The health and well-being of our members is paramount. We encourage you to use your ELCA-Primary health benefits to help you and your covered family members stay well — physically as well as emotionally. Please refer to the March 16 email to members from myPortico with links for options for care, testing costs, emotional support, and CDC guidelines. For congregations, this is the link to the ELCA Resource for guidance to our faith community: https://www.elca.org/publichealth .

You can always reach out to the Portico Customer Care Center, (800) 352-2876, or your Regional Representative, Deacon Terri Endres at tendres@porticobenefits.org.
This week ...
“I remember sitting at a retreat center the first time I went through a training on crisis communications. I remember worrying that just using the word ‘ crisis ’ would stir a whole bunch of emotions. Weeks like the last one can put a communicator on edge. How do you respond when you find yourself in a crisis situation – like our collective experience of the COVID-19 pandemic? Is your gut instinct to be highly anxious and take every precaution possible?”
ELCA World Hunger Domestic Hunger Grants
ELCA World Hunger Domestic Hunger Grants accompany congregations and their partners throughout the United States and Caribbean as they draw on the strengths of communities to address local issues such as food security, clean water, housing, job readiness, human rights, policy change, leadership development, and more. Together, these ministries are part of a comprehensive approach to breaking the cycle of poverty and hunger — for good — by addressing the root causes of hunger.

Proposals that are transformative, holistic, and integrated are especially encouraged.  

Registrations open March 18. Applications will be received April 1-May 22. Awards will be announced in November.
Ministry Imagination Grant deadline extended
The next round of Ministry Imagination Grant proposals was scheduled for a deadline of March 30. The review committee recognizes, however, that the suspension of worship and other activities at many of our synod churches due to the coronavirus is disrupting church operations at many different levels. 

This is a difficult time to be imaginative and creative when we are all wondering what the next day or the next week will hold.

In order to give congregations more time to imagine and plan for future ministry possibilities, the new deadline will be June 15, 2020 (which was the next scheduled deadline date). We hope and pray that the scope of the coronavirus pandemic will be better understood by then, and that congregational ministries will have resumed their important, life-giving presence in their communities. 

If you have any questions, please contact Craig Pederson, assistant to the bishop, at c.pederson@mpls-synod.org or (612) 703-1586.

Blessed are the Peacemakers
This event is postponed!
We live in a time of increasing division and expression of hate. How do we respond? How do we "love our enemies"? This free community event is sponsored by the Addison family in memory of the Rev. Dr. Duane Addison and features founders of Serve 2 Unite, Pardeep Singh Kaleka and Arno Michaelis. They are authors of "The Gift of Our Wounds." Come and hear the way their stories inter-connect.

Friday, March 20-Saturday, March 21
3312 Silver Lake Road, St. Anthony, Minnesota
Where is the synod staff in upcoming weeks?
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be leading a Ministry Site Profile conversation at Faith Lutheran, Isanti, on Sunday, March 22.
  • Ms. Brenda Blackhawk will be offering an adult forum at Prairie Lutheran, Plymouth, on Sunday, March 22. Cancelled
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be preaching at the Spring Ministerium at Advent Lutheran, Maple Grove, on Thursday, March 26. Postponed
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be preaching at St. Timothy Lutheran, Columbia Heights, on Sunday, March 29. Postponed
  • Pr. John Hulden will be installing soon-to-be-Pastor Sherri Lawrence at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran, Edina, on Sunday, March 29. Postponed
Upcoming Events
Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA www.mpls-synod.org