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Southeastern Synod
E-News Weekly
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Assembly 2010
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Issue: # 209
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February 2010 |
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Your Congregation Needs Your Participation Now
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 As of February 17, 37 of our ELCA-primary plan members and their eligible spouses have taken the Mayo Clinic Health Assessment. We need 123 more people to do so to reach 65%.
While it's true the health assessment is open until September 30, it's also true that your congregation or organization and our synod needs you to take it by April 30 - because April 30 is the deadline for earning the discount on ELCA health contributions for all of 2010.
Remember, this discount effectively cancels out the 2% contribution rate increase this year. Receiving the discount, our synod will collectively save $38,723. Think of what we could do with this money!
If you have ELCA- primary health coverage, take the assessment today, earn your $150 personal wellness account credit and use your personal health summary to begin making small changes to improve your health.
Take the assessment at https://www.elcaforwellness.org.
View our progress toward 2% at https://www.elcabop.org/BenefitsAdmin/2_percent_progress.aspx
Learn more about the health assessment at https://www.elcabop.org/UnderstandMyBenefits/Health/ELCAPrimary/HealthAssessment/WhatsNew.aspx
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Lutheran Men in Mission
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 You are invited to attend "One Year to Live" at Camp Kinard this spring! This will be a truly spiritual experience that is not for the faint of heart. Come and be spiritually uplifted at Camp Kinard in South Carolina.
For more information contact Tim Crout at 803-261-7011 or btcrout@yahoo.com.
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Attention Rostered Leaders
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Reports to the Bishop are due by March 1. Access the forms by clicking here.
Under the "leaders" column, find "Report to the Bishop" then go to the
appropriate form for your status. NOTE: You must save the form in
your computer before opening and using it. The form can be e-mailed to
synod.office@elca-ses.org.
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Southeastern Synod Blog
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My favorite part of the newspaper, after the comics, was always the OP-ED page. News is all right, but I like opinion. Opinions I can learn from, or agree with; or just as often disagree and argue with.
In recent years the "blogosphere" has become the place for such "op-ed" pieces. So the staff of the Southeastern Synod is bravely stepping into that sphere with our new blog. It will be written by members of the staff and will focus on what we hope are thought provoking and helpful meditations and reflections on the life of the church and the synod in the 21st century. You are invited to enter the dialogue by sending in comments. It is a "moderated blog," so your comments will not appear immediately and perhaps not in their entirety. Read us and pray for us. Thanks.
You can access the blog at www.elca-ses.blogspot.com
Pr. Delmer Chilton
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Lutherans Work to Build Shelters in Haiti
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 With the rainy season expected to begin at the end of March, it is critical that the people of Haiti have some shelter to help preserve health, sanitation and dignity, according to a February 17 report from a Lutheran World Relief (LWR) assessment team in Haiti. To help "beat the clock," Lutherans are working quickly to set up shelters for Haitians displaced from their homes since the January 12 earthquake.
Click here for entire article.
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Lutheran Services of Georgia Haiti Efforts
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 In the past week, Metro Atlanta has received 38 humanitarians parolees*. Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta (RRISA) is providing case management services to the Haitian parolees. Lutheran Services of Georgia (LSG) works in partnership with RRISA to provide emotional, psychological and spiritual aid to parolees to help them deal with the effects of the traumatic experiences from the January earthquake.
Background information:
Mental illness is not well accepted in the Haitian culture and they don't often use the mental health system. Because of the stigma surrounding mental illness, many are reluctant to discuss or admit to mental health problems. The experience of the recent earthquake is expected to make a great impact on many individuals. Symptoms of mental illness will begin to manifest themselves in conditions such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, anxiety, adjustment disorder and others.
*Haitian Nationals granted Humanitarian Parole may be referred to the Cuban/Haitian Entrant Program (CHEP). This is a federal program administered by the Department of Homeland Security. The individual who is paroled into the US is known as a parolee. Humanitarian paroles are granted for a maximum of one year. Humanitarian Parole is an immigrantion status that allows the recipient to be treated the same as refugees and to receive public benefits including Temporary Aid for Needy Families and Medicaid. Some of the benefits Haitian parolees can receive are food or food allowance, clothing, housing, furnishings, and other basic necessities. Other services include community, employment, and health orientation, and referrals, and assistance in obtaining necessary documentation.
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Embracing Our Diverse Gifts
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I pulled my alb over my head, and adjusted the stole around my neck and stood beside Pastor Scott Peterson in the narthex of Messiah Lutheran Church in Madison, AL. While listening to the final strains of the prelude I glanced at the bulletin and saw listed there Instrumental Ensemble. I wonder what that is, I thought to myself.
"That" is a wonderful group of folk playing oboes, French horns, saxophones, trombone and guitar. They played How Firm a Foundation and it was lovely.
As I sat listening to them play again at the late service, I realized that they were mostly teenagers, 8 or 9 out of 12 by my count. And I began to ponder this small example of embracing people's diverse gifts, of including young people as full participants in what we do together as the Community of Christ.
All too often, we lose young people from the church because we have never asked or allowed them to be full participants. We program a lot of activities for them but we do not fully include them. We lead and teach them, but how often do we allow them to lead and teach us so that they will experience church as a place where they can make a difference?
There are no rules or guidelines for how to do this; just begin looking at your young people who are ready to serve and ask them, individually and collectively, what they are interested in, how they would like to participate. You might be pleasantly surprised by what they say and by what they are able to do.
Pastor Delmer Chilton, Assistant to the Bishop
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An Ecumenical Conference
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The Morally Divided Body:
Ethical Disagreement and the Disunity of the Church
An ecumenical conference for clergy and laity
Sponsored by the Center for
Catholic and Evangelical Theology
Monday evening, June 14 - Wednesday noon, June 16
at the Loyola University, Baltimore, MD
While doctrinal issues have often in the past been the most ecumenically neuralgic tropics, increasingly today ethical issues - abortion and homeosexuality most prominently - have become a focus of difference between the churches and of potentially splintering debate within churches. These issues are more laden with emotion than many traditional droctrinal disputes, but ecumenical discussions have yet to address them in detail. We have little sense of just when and how ethical disputes rightly impact communion within and among the churches. When can we live together with difference over such matters and when does unity in Christ require common teaching? These quesitons will be addressed from a variety of perspectives.
Accommodations: available on the Loyola Campus
Conference Cost: $210 (including banquet) - reduced price for early registrations, retired clergy ($175), and students ($95)
For more information - contact Michael Root 803-735-1178 or mroot1@sc.rr.com. Online registration at www.acteva.com/go/ccet. More information and mail-in registration at www.e-ccet.org.
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Save The Date
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Mark your calendars for a Pre-Retirement Seminar. The dates are May 18-19 at the Windham Garden Atlanta Airport South. Space is limited to 20 rostered people and their spouses.
Watch for more information as the event gets closer.
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Southeastern Synod Represented in the Winter Olympics
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 Elana Meyers, a member of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Douglasville, GA is also a member of the U.S. Olympic Bobsled Team. She will compete in the Vancouver Winter Olympics as the only Olympian from Georgia. Cheer her to victory by watching the event on NBC, February 23 and 24. You can see the full bobsled schedule and photos on the web. You can also click on the member page to learn more about Elana and the Bobsled Team's many accomplishments.
Congratulations, Elana!
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Upcoming Events
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March
5 Dance of Haiti
6 Dance of Haiti
7 Dance of Haiti
14 Atlanta Hunger Walk
12-14 All-Georgia Youth Gathering
April
8 Stewardship Luncheon
14-16 Project Connect Annual Gathering
20 Formula of Agreement Luncheon
22-24 Candidacy Meeting
For more information on these and other events visit our synod calendar.
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If you know someone who might enjoy receiving the e-news from the Southeastern Synod, please send them your copy and invite them to join the group.
Mobley Hope
Director of Communications
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