NOTE:

No Weekly Update email will be sent on July 17.

Our next edition will be emailed on July 24. If you have an item to include, please email them to Susan Berg by 3pm on Thursday, July 20.

Design for Belonging: What a Holy Joining Life Looks Like

The LiVE Project Team is busy preparing for a terrific 2023-24 year. Learn more about the "why" behind what we do in this newest article from our LiVE Project Director, Rev. David Hahn here: https://www.lutheransnw.org/blog/design-for-belonging

Synod Website Maintenance

Our website provider (Tithe.ly) will be doing some maintenance work TONIGHT, Monday, July 10. Please note that our website will be offline and unavailable for approximately one hour at 8:00pm this evening.

Stories of Faith in Action

Find a recent newsletter from our Churchwide Partners HERE. We hope you find them inspirational - and perhaps you will consider sharing one of your ministry's stories...

Truth and Healing Movement Events

Find opportunities to learn the true history and current realities of our Indigenous neighbors. It is these truths, truths that have been ignored by most for hundreds of years, that will bring healing for both Indigenous people and non-Indigenous people.

Find webinars, book lists, and more HERE!

NWWA Synod Trip to the Holy Land

January 14-25, 2024

You are invited to join with others in the NWWA Synod for a life-changing trip to the Holy Land. Not only will we visit holy sites, we will also meet with, talk with, and listen to those who live, work, laugh, worship, and struggle in this land. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) is one of our partners in the Lutheran World Federation. They are excited to share their stories with us. There is also an additional post-trip to Egypt that you are invited to sign up for, as well.

We want this to be a time for people to interact with and learn with the people of this land. Therefore, we are only taking twenty-four people. We hope that you will come and be a part of this important trip. Please click the link below to find out more information or reach out to me for any questions you might have.

https://www.eliastours.com/tours/northwest-washington-synod-holy-land-trip-with-bishop-shelley-bryan-wee-dr-rod-schofield

Refugees NW – Foster Care Info Sessions

Tuesdays, July 18 and August 15 at 5:30pm



Register HERE

For over 40 years, the Refugees Northwest Foster Care program of Lutheran Community Services Northwest has partnered with a dedicated community of caregivers to welcome and support refugee and immigrant youth. These youth cannot return to their home countries, have no available adults to care for them, and are in need of stable, loving, long-term caregivers here in the U.S. Until a caregiver is available, youth remain in refugee camps overseas, or in facilities within the U.S., waiting. You can end their wait by becoming a foster parent or host home.

At these online sessions, Refugees Northwest Foster Care staff will share an overview of the youth we serve, the supports we offer foster families, and the basics of the licensing process and host home approval process. There will be time for your questions, too.

Refugees Northwest Foster Care actively seeks individuals and couples from diverse backgrounds to join our program as foster parents or host homes. We welcome adults of all sexual orientations, gender identities, marital statuses, and faiths, and we value the strengths a diverse foster parent community brings to help meet the diverse needs of our youth. Our program currently licenses households and approves host homes in King County and some south Snohomish County areas only. Due to the sensitive nature of the material shared, we ask that children do not attend this event. Teens are welcome.

Community Sing:

Songs in Your Body, on this Land.

7400 Woodlawn (Greenlake/Seattle) welcomes you to join us for song in Greenlake Park! Conie Borchardt and Liz Digitale Anderson, leaders/musicians from Music That Makes Community, will lead us!

Thursday, July 27 – 5pm Bring-Your-Own-Picnic

6pm-7:30pm Singing

Registration fee is $5-20, but no one will be turned away... Register here: https://www.facebook.com/events/112937045155351?ref=newsfeed, and use the COMMUNITY SING REGISTRATION in the drop down menu. In case of inclement weather, check back at our website www.7400woodlawn.org/events for location update. If you have questions, contact Harriet Platts at info@7400Woodlawn.org.

Save the dates for these

Events for Rostered Ministers & SALMS:

Cluster Deans Dinner

Thursday, August 17, 4pm-8pm

Save the date - more info coming soon!

(Spouses/partners/families are invited, too)

New-to-the-Synod Dinner - NOTE the DATE CHANGE!

Now scheduled for WEDNESDAY, October 4, 4pm-7:30pm

Rostered ministers and their spouses/partners who are new to the synod since Summer 2022, are invited to attend this dinner - look for more information mid summer!

Holden Village Retreat - register now!

September 10-15

A partnership with Music That Makes a Difference!

Learn more HERE.



The planning team will be posting regularly on this substack

It is a collaboration gathering for all people who are working toward wholeness, justice, and all those good things.

RECLAIM - register now!

September 14-17 in Minneapolis

RECLAIM is a gathering for people of African descent, brought to you by African Descent Ministries. Participants will build a tool kit for ministry as we move through a pandemic, climate change and an era of preserving healers' spiritual and emotional wellness.

The church needs healthy and whole preachers, teachers, professionals and young adults, all well-equipped with culturally relevant approaches to the word. Grounded in Scripture, RECLAIM will help participants feel embodied, emboldened and liberated in their identities.

Learn more HERE!