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...
Category: 2016 Assembly
May 26, 2016
Living Gospel: A Firm Foundation
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...
May 20, 2016
Still Reforming Assembly Highlights
“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...
May 20, 2016
$22K Raised For Flint Water Crisis…So Far
_rfisher@sepa.org-sepia-150x150.jpg" class="alignleft wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" /> The offering at the 2016 Synod Assembly Communion Service of more than $5,400 was directed to the work of our domestic partner synod in Southeast Michigan in response to the Flint water crisis. This brings the total raised so far from our Synod to $22,655. Bishop Donald Kreiss called the gift “a true indicator of...
May 16, 2016
Balanced 2017 Budget Approved
The Assembly approved a balanced budget for fiscal 2017 that reflects the continuing decrease in Mission Support contributions from churches. In 2015 Mission Support totaled $1.97 million, a decrease of $180,000 from 2014, reported Treasurer Janet Neff, CPA. The Synod has been responsible managing with diminishing resources, she said. Since 2010, Mission Support has declined...
May 13, 2016
Reformation 500: ‘Explore, Empower and Be Energized’
The upcoming 500th anniversary of the Reformation is a gift to the church. It’s an opportunity to explore, empower, and be energized. It’s a chance to reconnect to our deepest tradition of freedom and to reform stale and stagnant observations of a tradition that began with Luther’s fresh reading of the scriptures and the new...
May 13, 2016
‘A New Dawn for Christ’s Church’
When Martin Luther seized the changes made possible by the printing press, he couldn’t have begun to imagine the exponential changes of our Internet age, Bishop Claire Burkat said in her address to the 2016 Synod Assembly. Despite the stresses posed by constant connectivity, racing schedules and financial pressure, “the Holy Spirit is bringing a...
May 13, 2016
Forward Together in Faith: A Doable Goal
From Bishop Burkat’s presentation to the 2016 Assembly: For a year now, we have used some start up money to begin piloting initiatives for the Forward Together in Faith Campaign. We are confident that together we will equip our clergy and lay leaders with the tools, insights, resources and navigation needed for future Lutheran witness....
May 7, 2016
Forward Together In Faith: New Ways of Being Church
In our 21st Century, post-9/11, globalized world full of “nones” and “dones,” what draws people to church? “This is a Kairos moment,” says the Rev. Bryan Penman, when God’s grace leads us to new ways of being the Church. The Forward Together in Faith campaign focuses on supporting congregations as they reform and become networkers,...
May 7, 2016
In the Midst of Fear, Love Prevails
What shapes our lives and ministry? How do we respond to the formidable forces that threaten to pull us into the whirlpool of fear that has formed around us, reflected in public debate and in how people are treating each other? In her sermon at the assembly’s opening worship, Bishop Claire Burkat pulls together threads...
