September 8, 2020
Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA Enews
Synod office update
Synod staff members continue to work remotely for the foreseeable future. Contact them using their email or cell phone. Watch this space for information about the reopening of the office.
The weather changes, think Good Gifts
With Christmas right around the corner, ELCA's Good Gifts is the perfect option to replace traditional gift-giving with something more meaningful. Each gift in honor of a loved one supports the lifesaving ministries of the ELCA and the people it serves – one goat, water well, or school uniform at a time.
Whether you organize a special event or simply promote the program with members of the congregation, everything done to share ELCA Good Gifts is deeply appreciated and impactful. And this year, with hunger and unemployment on the rise, people in need could really use help. Will the community of the faithful respond?
Feather ruffling
as a calling 
“A few years ago, a friend and I were asked to lead the Palm Sunday service. We chose the readers, wrote the prayers, and – in lieu of a traditional sermon – performed a spoken word piece we had written. In the 20ish-minute poem, we emphasized Jesus’ call for us to engage the world. We ruffled a few feathers.” 
Synod Staff Features
Join us over the next few months as we highlight different members of our staff. The Minneapolis Area Synod staff is comprised of 15 people who live in the city, suburbs, and rural areas. We are fairly racially and age diverse for an ELCA office. We hope you get to know us better through these fun interviews! This week's featured staff member is Candy Carlson, accountant.
Candy Carlson

What has been the best or most surprising part about the stay-at-home orders?
  • While our population has been at its most vulnerable, the natural world seems all the more lush and bountiful.
Do you have any pets or wish you did?
  • My family has had dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, and fish over the years. Currently, there are two grand-dogs; loved, but enough.
What book are you currently reading or show are you binge-watching?
  • I am currently reading The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.
  • Early in the stay-at-home order, my husband/bubble companion and I binge-watched American adventure movies and are now working our way through all episodes of Downton Abbey.
  • Also, a current favorite is PBS' weekly series Brokenwood Mysteries.
What is your favorite restaurant to order take-out from?
  • Amore on West Lake Street
What summer activity are you most looking forward to?
  • Spring, summer, and fall, we love to be around or on our city lakes -- biking, walking, kayaking.
What is giving you hope right now?
  • My granddaughers (pictured here) -- and children everywhere -- give me hope because of their ability to adapt to changing times and always finding joy. Also, I hear many say they are using this time to self-examine priorities and outreach possibilities for the many needs we face. To that end, the Iona Community prayer "Thank you for the waiting time" gives me hope.
Cultural healing and expression:
Tapestry's foray into theater
A Ministry Imagination Grant story

"In a backyard in Richfield, a small group of people are using their bodies to illustrate the complexities and challenges of living through a national pandemic. Each person positions themselves in the scene to depict an image of pain, confusion, resilience, and community, all by only moving and posing their body.

This tableau includes children, adults, and seniors, some of them related, though all connected to Tapestry Church, a multicultural mission-start in Richfield, Minnesota. In 2019, this small congregation applied for a Ministry Imagination Grant from the Minneapolis Area Synod to incorporate theatre, storytelling, and the arts into congregational life, to accompany congregants in a process of discovering their voice and the sacredness of play."
Being Church and a house of hospitality
When Sarah Jackson visited the U.S./Mexico border in 2012, it changed the course of her life. She spent time with people who had been deported, listened to their stories, and learned about their reasons for migrating and the dangers they had faced. When Sarah saw families being torn apart, she couldn’t look away. She returned to Colorado, but there was no going back to normal.
 
Back home, Sarah opened Casa de Paz and started Volleyball Internacional, a volleyball league that donates 100% of its profits to pay for operating expenses of the hospitality home. 

Wednesday, September 9
1:00 p.m. Central Time

Meeting ID: 180 439 412
Password: 648160
1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
Cherish All Children is available
to partner with congregations
Cherish All Children invites congregations into its vision of raising healthy generations free from sexual exploitation. With children and youth spending more time online, the work to prevent exploitation and to promote safe and healthy relationships is needed now more than ever. Predators have quickly adjusted to the pandemic, but children and youth can be kept safe through education and prevention measures.

Contact Joy McElroy to line up activities such as those listed here:

  • Zoom gatherings after worship to learn about and engage in protecting children and youth
  • Virtual gatherings and trainings with confirmation classes or youth groups about healthy relationships and online safety
  • Pre-recorded conversations or trainings to play in weekly worship, such as this recent session with St. John’s Lutheran in Shakopee
The Director of Evangelical Mission position for the
Minneapolis Area Synod is open once again
The Director of Evangelical Mission position represents the Domestic Mission (DM) unit in the territory of the Minneapolis Area Synod, and is responsible for engaging synodical leaders, structures, and strategies in the formation and development of congregational vitality: “Communities of Jesus that nurture life-changing relationships with God, one another, and the world,” and reflects the purposes, principles, and commitments of the synod, DM, and the ELCA as a whole.

This position will coordinate and staff the education of all evangelical mission, mission support, and stewardship ministries in the synod through the formation and coordination of three synodical initiatives: mission support and/or stewardship, congregational vitality, and alignment with "Future Directions 2025."
Hunger in the time of COVID-19
Rick Steves, guidebook author and travel TV host, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, and Northwest Washington Synod Bishop Shelley Bryan Wee invite interested people to an online benefit for ELCA World Hunger. This Zoom virtual event has a goal of raising $250,000 to confront hunger in the time of COVID-19.

This is an historic moment, facing a once-in-a-century pandemic and a global change in hunger unlike anything we have seen in recent generations. Domestically and internationally, hunger is increasing at alarming rates. At this event, participants will learn about the unique ways ELCA World Hunger is responding. The hosts will also discuss the ongoing root causes of hunger and poverty addressed in Rick Steves’ recent special Hunger and Hope: Lessons From Ethiopia and Guatemala. And you will hear from ELCA World Hunger partners on the front lines of the current hunger crisis, who will tell you firsthand how your gifts make a difference. 
Lutheran Disaster Response raises funds
for West Coast fires
Fueled by a heat wave and ignited by lightning strikes, some of the worst wildfires in California’s history have erupted across the state. With many deaths and tens of thousands of people are under evacuation orders, more than one million acres have burned, and more than 1,000 structures have been destroyed and thousands more are threatened. Some evacuees face the difficult decision of whether to stay in a shelter during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) is engaging with Lutheran Social Services of Southern California and Lutheran Social Services of Northern California, along with the three California synods (Sierra Pacific, Southwest California, and Pacifica), to assess the situation and determine the best ways to respond. Please consider partnering with LDR in this relief effort.
Where is the synod staff in upcoming weeks?
  • Pastor Craig Pederson will be attending a service of leave taking at Hope Lutheran, Minneapolis, on Saturday, September 12.
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be offering a video greeting and message at the final worship service at Hope Lutheran, Minneapolis, on Saturday, September 12.
  • Pastor John Hulden will be attending the decommissioning of the sanctuary for Bethany Lutheran, Minneapolis, on Sunday, September 13.
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be offering a greeting at Zion Lutheran, Anoka, on Sunday, September 13.
  • Pastor Craig Pederson will be offering a farewell to Pastor Susan Vikstrom at Christ the River of Life Lutheran, Minneapolis, on Sunday, September 13.
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be installing Pastor Dan Nelson at Vista Lutheran, St. Louis Park, on Sunday, September 13.
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be installing Pastor Alexandra Tranvik at Cross of Glory Lutheran, Brooklyn Center, and will be offering a video sermon, on Sunday, September 13.
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be ordaining Ben Cherland at Christ Church Lutheran, Minneapolis, on Saturday, September 19.
  • Ms. Meghan Olsen Biebighauser will be preaching at Christ Lutheran, Blaine, on Sunday, September 20.
  • Pastor John Hulden will be installing Pastor Maria Markman as associate pastor at Grace Lutheran, Andover, on Saturday and Sunday, September 26 and 27.
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be installing Pastor Kris Capel at Nokomis Heights Lutheran, Minneapolis, on Sunday, September 27.
Synod candidates to be ordained elsewhere
  • Bishop Jon Anderson will be ordaining Peter Keomanivong at Atonement Lutheran, St. Cloud, on Sunday, September 13.
Upcoming Events

Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA www.mpls-synod.org