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February 23, 2021
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.
Discerning a Call: A Region 3 Event
God calls everyone to do God’s work in the world. How is God calling you? Explore that question with a series of Zoom conversations.

Session One: Public Ministry in the ELCA
Tuesday, March 9, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Learn about discernment resources and explore the call to public ministry as you hear call stories from pastors and deacons.

Session Two: So, How Do I Get There? – Seminary and Other Things You Need to Know.
Tuesday, March 16, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Learn about the ELCA candidacy process and hear from seminary partners who will share about programs that can equip you to follow God’s call in your life.

Attending both sessions is encouraged, but you are welcome to attend just one! The Zoom link will be emailed to you after submitting the online registration. For further questions please contact Deacon Krista Anderson, ELCA Region 3 Candidacy and Leadership Manager and Program Director for the Support of Ministers of Word and Service.
Just visiting?
“For a year, we’ve been stuck in place. Do you have a Theology of Place? (My favorite definition of Theology is “faith seeking understanding.”) How do you understand your place? Your township? Your neighborhood? Your town? Your city? If you took ash, or soil from a potted plant, or a burnt candlewick, or oil, or your bare-naked finger, and made the sign of the cross on your forehead, does that mean you are connected to a place? To the little spot of earth you’ve occupied these past many months?”
Synod Tool Kit for Congregations planned for Saturday, March 13
Hop on a video call with your church council, leaders from around the synod, and Bishop Ann Svennungsen to gain valuable tools to help your church in times like these. There will be workshops on preventing burnout, young adult ministry, racial justice, budgets, and more.

Saturday, March 13
9:00 a.m. – Time with Bishop Ann
10:00 a.m. – Workshops I
11:00 a.m. – Workshops II

Spotlight of two of the workshops:

Burnout: Getting through it with hope and purpose
When we care deeply about people or a cause, at some point burnout is bound to show up. In addition, marking the one-year anniversary of the pandemic's beginning makes some of us realize how long we've been running on fumes. We know we are burned out, or are experiencing compassion fatigue when we are emotionally and physically exhausted, feel detached from our work, and lack a sense of accomplishment. While burnout is very real, there are strategies and practices to help us get through it stronger and with more clarity.

Worshiping in a digital age not of our choosing
We are all encountering challenges and gifts of gathering for worship during a time of pandemic. Our rostered and lay leaders are mostly non-techy types, with insufficient training in online worship. But we all still want members to experience deep, meaningful, and challenging worship even remotely. Come to this workshop to think together about ways to engage Word and Song, Prayer and Community.
Leading with Love:
Here in the Wilderness
We’ve braved the belly of the beast.
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace …
And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.

Amanda Gorman’s words rung out on January 20, putting image and word to the challenges weathered and hopeful anticipation surrounding a new set of elected leaders on the national stage. Justice-seeking people of faith can't be partisan, but can be political. What does it look like in a new dawn to hold our elected leaders accountable?

What do we do when we are still “in the wilderness” – with a pandemic raging and injustice laid bare? To do our work, we have much to learn from the ancient community of faith whose tradition we carry. After all, they too were balancing the hope of a new future with the challenges of the long haul to arrive there.

Thursday, March 4
2:00-3:00 p.m.
Zoom

Join a panel conversation with faith leaders to ground ourselves in this current moment, the work of accountability, and the journey ahead.
Remembering that "Hope Lives"
The National Lutheran Choir will host a hymn festival on Sunday, March 14, during its Winter Virtual Program. This free program blends songs, images, hymns, and poetry around the theme “Hope Lives.”

Sunday, March 14
4:00 p.m.
Online

The choirs will sing well-known hymns that highlight the joy of an ever-growing hope, and new hymns that speak to this very time, inviting all people to sing in joy together “… as all the world in wonder echoes shalom.” Join singers of the National Lutheran Choir and guest artists, the Keith Hampton Singers & Friends.
Living Well, Leading Well
Mount Olivet Conference & Retreat Center is promoting wholeness, wellbeing, and renewal in the personal and professional lives of church leaders.
Pursuing Justice
Thursday March 11, 6:30-8:30 p.m. | $20

Join Rev. Chris Dorsey to learn about the call to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God” (Micah 6:8). Dorsey is president of Higher Education & Leadership Ministries and has worked as a university chaplain and professor of preaching. Dorsey has significant leadership experience in racial justice and equity in churches and seminaries. 
Lent: 40 Days of Giving
Some seasons of the church year remind us of God’s promises fulfilled. For example, at Christmas we bear witness to the birth of the Messiah. At Easter the long awaited hope for salvation from death and sin is fulfilled in the resurrected Christ.

But Lent is not a season of a promise fulfilled. It is a season of remembering the promise we so yearn to see realized.

As part of the Lenten 40 Days of Giving project, the ELCA is offering a downloadable study guide titled “What Will It Take to End Hunger?” Read the weekly reflections and take action – especially finding ways to diminish or eliminate hunger.
An update on the
2022 Youth Gathering
ELCA Gathering leadership continues to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic and how it may impact the 2022 ELCA Youth Gathering, the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE), and the tAble. Many of those impacts remain unknown this far in advance of the event dates.

An update on the Gathering’s viability will be announced later this summer (before registration opens) and again in late November or early December. Leadership will continue sharing updates through Gathering communication as more is known about the projected state of the virus in July 2022.

This FAQ on the Gathering and the COVID-19 situation might be of help.
FAQ
Expanding Ministry and Growing Generosity
Just think of the lives your congregation could impact if your members grew their giving by 10%-15% next year! This is exactly the goal of Stewardship for All Seasons (SAS), a two-year, comprehensive process. SAS congregations embrace an impactful annual appeal and move into other vital realms of a culture of generosity: Communications and Story-Telling, Strategic Planning, Endowments, Special Appeals, Volunteer Recruitment, and Donor Cultivation. 

The Minneapolis Area Synod invites you to a virtual informational session to meet Pete Reuss, the SAS facilitator, and learn more about the process on Tuesday, March 9, at 6:00 p.m. Contact the synod's new Director for Evangelical Mission, Rev. Norma Malfatti, to receive the Zoom link, or with any questions. Our synod has already had 16 congregations participate in SAS and their experiences tell us that this is an opportunity you won’t want to miss.

Congregations are invited to register by April 15, with the first cohort session to be held in late April or early May.
LIRS and LSA invite sign on to “U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021”
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and Lutheran Services of America invite ELCA faith leaders to sign on to a letter supporting the "U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021" by Friday, February 26.

From the letter: “The ELCA has a long legacy of welcoming and caring for newcomers. Our churches began helping immigrants and uprooted people as early as the 1860s. Today, as always, we are called by God to love our neighbor, accompany the vulnerable, and welcome the stranger. Our congregants share our concern for displaced children and families and support our sister organizations, like LIRS and Lutheran Services in America, in their work. Lutheran Services in America leads one of the largest health and human services networks in the country, made up of over 300 Lutheran social ministry organizations.”

Questions or comments can be directed to LIRS Refugee Advocacy Officer, Diana Guelespe, and ELCA Program Director for Migration Policy, Giovana Oaxaca.
Support women's leadership globally
International Women’s Day is a wonderful time for your congregation to celebrate women leaders around the world. And you can double your impact for the next generation if you take a special offering the weekend before March 8, the commemoration day.
The ELCA celebrates this day by uplifting the International Women Leaders (IWL) program. On the Sunday before International Women’s Day on Monday, March 8, your congregation can take an offering for IWL that will go twice as far. Thanks to generous IWL supporters, your congregation’s gifts will be matched dollar for dollar until we reach $50,000. Your support makes it possible for emerging women leaders from our companion churches to study at ELCA colleges and universities, ELCA seminaries, and other institutions around the world.

The ELCA provides downloadable materials for a worship service, a bulletin insert, and IWL images. A video for “Celebrating International Women Leaders” is also available. 
Where is the synod staff in upcoming weeks?
  • Ms. Emilie Bouvier will be speaking for a Lenten series on peacemaking at Atonement Lutheran, Bloomington, on Wednesday, February 24.
  • Ms. Emilie Bouvier and Ms. Madeline Troyer will be leading an adult forum on EcoFaith energy conservation at All Saints Lutheran, Norwood Young America, on Thursday, February 25.
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be conducting a Ministry Site Profile at Cross of Hope Lutheran, Ramsey, on Sunday, February 28.
  • Pastor John Hulden will be offering a farewell greeting to Deacon Glenndy Ose at Our Saviour’s Lutheran, East Bethel, on Sunday, February 28.
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be offering the opening presentation for the 2021 Annual Tool Kit for Congregations via Zoom on Saturday, March 13.
  • Bishop Ann Svennungsen will be conducting a Ministry Site Profile at Grace University Lutheran, Minneapolis, on Sunday, March 14.
Upcoming Events
Minneapolis Area Synod, ELCA www.mpls-synod.org