A Pre-Assembly Web Forum with the Reference and Counsel Committee Join us February 3 at 7:00pm on Zoom to learn: How you can create changes in the church through the Synod Assembly What’s the difference between a resolution and a memorial? Ways to write an effective resolution REGISTER NOW Download printable copy The...
Hope for Today, Strength for Tomorrow Through Community in Christ. The 2022 Synod Assembly will be held on Saturday, April 30 as an online business meeting. Conferences will participate in service projects on Saturday, April 23, and an in-person gathering will be scheduled later in the year. The theme for this year’s gatherings is Hope for...
Message from Bishop Patricia A. Davenport to the 2021 Synod Assembly Dear Synod! I greet you with deep gratitude for your faithfulness and profound partnership as we have endured together the joys and challenges of this pandemic. We have experienced a year filled with anxiety, pain, change, challenge and death, and yet there have also...
Nominations Needed for Synodical Positions The SEPA Synod’s Nominating Committee is currently looking for help as we seek to raise up new leaders from across our synod. We are looking for qualified persons, both clergy and lay, to serve as nominees for the election at the SEPA Synod Assembly on April 23-24, 2021. This year we have over...
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod’s Nominating Committee is asking for your help in identifying gifted and qualified persons, both clergy and lay, to serve as nominees for election at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod Assembly on May 1-2, 2020 Every year the Synod Assembly elects members of the Synod Council, which serves as “the board of directors...
The Synod Hunger Team, operating out of St. John Lutheran, Morrisville and assisted by St. John’s Service/Outreach/Parish Life Team and community members who assist with Aid for Friends put together meals for distribution using the leftovers from Assembly meals. Friday and Saturday lunches were delivered to the Homeless shelter in Levittown, PA and fed over...
The beloved community is like this: ‘God takes it very personally how we treat one another,” the Rev. Dr. Wyvetta Bullock said in her sermon at the Assembly’s Saturday Eucharist. “The compassion we express to others is our expression of our love for God.” As humans we struggle with love that seeks nothing in return....
Sermon by Rev. Dr. Wyvetta Bullock at SEPA Synid Assembly, May 4, 2019. The beloved community is like this: ‘God takes it very personally how we treat one another,” the Rev. Dr. Wyvetta Bullock said in her sermon at the Assembly’s Saturday Eucharist. “The compassion we express to others is our expression of our love...
“It is time for our inadequate dreams to die in order for Christ to rise in us, and our church.” This observation by one pastor to Bishop Patricia A. Davenport grounded the preaching, prayer and lament during the opening worship service of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod’s 2019 Assembly. Several preachers and prayer leaders explored the...
“Our purpose comes out of the baptismal waters, where our leadership is grounded.” The Rev. Dr. M. Wyvetta Bullock, Assistant to the Presiding Bishop/Executive for Administration and ELCA Churchwide Representative, led a lively forum – “Leadership Rooted in Baptism” – on the first day of the assembly. As she began the forum, she shared that...
The Assembly adopted a budget for fiscal 2020 that anticipates total revenues of $3.33 million and expenditures of $2.88 million. The budget takes effect Feb. 1, 2020. Finance Committee Chair Albert Glenn outlined one significant change to the 2020 budget. The synod regularly gives support to United Lutheran Seminary, including about $50,000 for tuition support...
We are church in an environment that is “volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous,” Synod Vitality Team co-chair the Rev. Bryan Penman told the 2019 Synod Assembly. But by working toward what research has shown are key marks of vital congregations, SEPA congregations can become more connected and relevant in their communities, he said. The Vitality...
Bishop Patricia Davenport, the Fifth Bishop of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the ELCA, opened the Synod’s 2019 Assembly (her first as Bishop) with a reading from Psalm 34: 1-3. “… O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt God’s name together.” From the excitement of her election at the 2018 Assembly, to...
The 2019 Synod Assembly will meet Friday and Saturday, May 3 and 4, under the theme Building Beloved Community. Registration is now open . Our keynote speaker will be the Rev. Nicole D. Diroff , associate director of Interfaith Philadelphia. A number of learning opportunities will explore various aspects of the beloved community theme,...
Pastor Patricia A. Davenport was elected the next Bishop of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Saturday, May 5, at Franconia Mennonite Church. Pastor Davenport is the first African-descent woman to be elected a bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. On the fourth ballot, Bishop-elect Davenport, currently our...
Many voices offered perspectives on racism and reconciliation at the 2017 Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod Assembly May 5-6. Bishop Claire Burkat encouraged those gathered to be “more open to engage, to explore, to repent, to be humbled, to align ourselves with this incredible and abundant new life in Christ.” She called on congregations and leaders to take...
In her address to the 2017 Assembly, Bishop Claire Burkat broke open possibilities to embody racial reconciliation in the work of congregations and the synod at large. Drawing from themes introduced in her sermon, the bishop encouraged those gathered to be “more open to engage, to explore, to repent, to be humbled, to align ourselves...
Pastor Linda Manson and Living Gospel Ministries, our newest faith community, are giving people newly returned from incarceration a sense of self-worth and help re-integrating with society. “It’s important to me that the people who come to be in ministry with us feel loved and cared for,” Pastor Manson says. Building up self-worth undergirds the work Living...
“GOD IS STILL REFORMING!…” …Bishop Burkat declared to the 2016 Synod Assembly. More than 500 Lutherans gathered from across Southeastern Pennsylvania to worship, pray, and discern in community explored how we can go outside our doors and listen to our neighbors in ways that are faithful to our 500-year Reformation heritage. Read on for...