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Southeastern Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
God's work. Our hands. 
 
 
E-News Weekly
Issue: # 230
July 15, 2010
In This Issue
Time for Immigration Reform is Now
The Old Guard, Blood and Water
A Close of a Season in Coastal Recovery
Partners in Evangelical Worship
Book of Faith Brief
Trip to Lutheran Church in Guatemala
Grant Writing Workshops
Around the Synod
Quick Links
ELCA Presiding Bishop Says Time for Immigration Reform is Now

HansonThe time has come for immigration reform in the United States, according to the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Although issues surrounding immigration are "complex and not easily resolved," the biblical witness for reform is clear, Hanson wrote in a July 13 pastoral letter to the 4.6 million-member ELCA.

"The distinctions that so often divide humankind are overcome in Christ," wrote Hanson. "By grace through faith on account of Christ we are joined together in a radically inclusive community."
 
The Old Guard, Blood and Water
by the Rev John W Beckman
Epiphany Lutheran Church, Conyers, GA

Dear Friends in Christ:

I recently returned from my annual trip to the Midwest to visit my aging parents, as well as a beloved 90-year-old aunt who lives alone in a 110-year-old farmhouse in rural Wisconsin. The trip is counted as part of my vacation but I am hard pressed to know how to answer when folks ask me about it.

My sister Sara comes from California to meet up with me. We coordinate this in order to make the most of the time and share the cost of travel. We also know that we cannot make this trip alone. We need each other. It is a time of re-union....(Read this entire meditation on the synod blog.)
Katrina's Fifth Anniversary Marks the Close of a Season in Coast Recovery
Greetings, travelers, pilgrims and all who have served and supported the mission and ministries of Camp Victor Ministries.
 
The time has come and our season in post-Katrina recovery and rebuilding is drawing to a close.  Thus, I am writing to let you know that as of last Thursday, the leadership of Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi has announced that the remaining Coast recovery camps - Mission on the Bay in Bay St. Louis and Camp Victor Ministries in Ocean Springs - will be closing at the end of August, marked by the Fifth Anniversary of Katrina.  
 
Indeed Camp Victor's journey has been quite the extraordinary adventure; our beginnings began immediately after Katrina on the floors of Christus Victor Lutheran Church. First, the recovery efforts focused on pastoral care, distribution of much needed goods, a Red Cross Shelter and provision of medical care.  We then expanded into the realm of debris removal, demolition and the beginnings of rehabilitation on the remnants of the Coast communities. 
 
In June 2006, Camp Victor moved its volunteer housing and distribution center into the old Swingster building in downtown Ocean Springs.
 
Camp VictorBut, that is all about locations and facilities, the real story of the camp is told by the extraordinary stream of volunteers who have passed through the doors of the camps, including our sister camps on the west end of the Coast.  To date, our camps combined have housed, fed and deployed over 60,000 volunteers.  It was YOU, the volunteers, who under the guidance of our capable staff and volunteer leadership have mucked/gutted 3500 homes, rehabbed/built anew 550 homes, case managed 2200 individuals/families, consumed 1,250,00 meals, input $15 Million cash into the Coast economies and worked in the realm of 2.5 Million hours amounting to a value of $45 Million in services.  Now, that is creative and holy response to an otherwise horrific and dark moment in our history and indeed a job well done in the name of collaborative, servant-ministry; participation in the ways of God, the transformation of lives, one family and one home at a time, day in and day out for five years. If it were not for the kindness of complete strangers (now friends), the Coast would not be where it is today --- well on the road to recovery and wholeness.
 
 
And, although the work on the Coast is not complete, quite a feat has been accomplished, even surviving as a volunteer organization long past any date that was imagined when we first set out on this mission nearly five years ago.  And, my-oh-my the good that has been done and the difference that has been made by each and all of you who have extended your love, support, energy, prayers, resources and presence on behalf of the people of the MS Gulf Coast.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  And, remember:  While our season in post-Katrina recovery and rebuilding may be drawing to a close, the time to build, to serve, to console and to love is always before us in the faces of those in need and the challenge of MISSION remains strong.  Take it and run with it, my friends --- the torch is being passed to YOU!
 
We extend an invitation to each and to all who might be able to join in a Celebration of Thanksgiving for Recovery and Rebuilding ministries on the Coast on Thursday, August 26th at Camp Victor Ministries, 1515 Government St, Ocean Springs, MS 39564.  Please, notify us if you plan to join us by contacting me, at [email protected] or (228) 369-0275.  For those unable to join us, know that these ministries could not have happened without many hands, many hearts and many lives working together.  Thank you to each and to all and thanks be to God!
 
Take care and blessings all around!!!
 
Suzie Harvey
Director
Camp Victor Ministries
Partners in Evangelical Worship
by the Rev Nancy Christensen, Southeastern Synod Director for Evangelical Mission
 
"Liturgy is not a book, or a prescribed and legalistic set of rules.  It is a pattern of God's own action. It is what happens when God's people gather."   Robert Schaefer, Executive for Worship, ELCA
 
Several of us from the Southeastern Synod attended an event in Houston, Texas, recently, called Partners in Evangelical Worship.  The purpose of this gathering was to help make the connection between worship and mission and to encourage synods and congregations to think about the ways we are called to be an evangelizing church centered in the means of grace.
 
We were challenged at this event to step out of our boxes so that the practice of worship might be renewed in our various contexts.  As I listened to the various speakers and experienced a wide range of worship styles, I reflected on how often we seem to get "stuck" in our comfort zones or lazy in our worship practice.
 
It's not that our liturgy is dead!  It is beautiful and rich - filled with relevance and meaning.  But do we mean what we say when we proclaim, "Glory to God in the highest, and peace to God's people on earth"?  Are we truly penitent when we plead, "Lord, have mercy"?  And are we genuinely mindful of our brothers and sisters of different cultures, and different generations, who might be lifted and inspired in worship, too, if we will but pay attention and offer real opportunities for diversity to be expressed and celebrated?
 
We came back with resources to share (see www.elca.org/worship/partners for a few congregation-ready modules, and keep looking on the E-News and at synod events for more information and support).  And we came back with a willingness to commit ourselves anew to word and sacrament ministry. 
 
So what would happen if we really embraced and fully lived out what we have claimed to be true?  That is, that:
 
candleJesus Christ is the living and abiding Word of God.  By the power of the Spirit, this very Word of God, which is Jesus Christ, is read in the Scriptures, proclaimed in preaching, announced in the forgiveness of sins, eaten and drunk in the Holy Communion, and encountered in the bodily presence of the Christian community.  By the power of the Spirit active in Holy Baptism, this Word washes a people to be Christ's own Body in the world. We have called this gift of Word and Sacrament by the name "the means of grace."  
 
(Principle 1 of The Use of the Means of Grace, ELCA)
 
Book of Faith Brief

Book of Faith

www.bookoffaith.org
 
Have you visited the Book of Faith website yet?  The link is above and is now also found on the Southeastern Synod home page, under the Resources tab.  Take a minute to see what it's all about!
 
Looking for a new Bible study resource for the Fall?  How about God's Standard of Gold Standard - Studies in Proverbs from the Book of Faith "Together in Faith" Bible study series?   Rather than a study of the proverbial statements found within this wisdom book, this study focuses on the context in which those statements are found.  "Proverbs is more about how to best invest one's whole self in ways that make for a blessed future.  This holistic idea of getting the most out of life by making good on God's significant investment in us is the golden thread that ties this Book of Faith unit together.  We are called to live according to the God standard." (from the Leader Guide Introduction).  You can find this resource using this link to Augsburg Fortress - www.augsburgfortress.org/
 
Blessings,
 
Pastor John Rossing                          
Christ the King, Dalton, GA           
[email protected]               
706-278-3979                           
 
Michelle Angalet, Associate in Ministry
Good Shepherd, Woodstock, GA
[email protected]
770-924-7286
Southeastern Synod trip to the
Lutheran Church in Guatemala (Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala)

A report by Bill Emerson, Messiah Lutheran Church, Madison, AL
 
On June 18, 2010, four members of the Southeastern Synod set out to visit Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala (ILAG).  Setting their sites on Guatemala were Bill Emerson, Dennis Fry, and Christina Daniel, all from Messiah Lutheran Church, Madison, AL, and Glenna Mason, from Christ Lutheran Church, Prattville, AL.  
 
New Wing ILAGThe ILAG is headquartered in Guatemala City.  The Lutheran Center consists of three buildings, two of which have been built in the last three years and are used by visitors and for classes and church services.  One of the new buildings has four dormitory style rooms on the first floor, each having space for six people.  Above these rooms are the new chapel and a storage area.  The second new building has a kitchen and dining area and, above that, a large class room.  This was the center for the synod representatives while they were in Guatemala City.
 
On Saturday, June 19, the visitors assisted with sprucing up the ILAG center, then worked with native women and their children, teaching sewing to the women and entertaining the children with crafts and Bible stories.
 
Sunday morning the group attended La Resurrecci�n Church, which has been supported by ILAG for the last several years.  Missionary Amanda Olson de Castillo helped conduct the church service.  While it is in a poor neighborhood, the building itself has greatly improved over the last four years and now has a real floor, a roof, good pews, and is painted.  This is quite an improvement from 2007 when it had a dirt floor and the cinderblock walls were unpainted.  
 
boatOn Monday, June 21, the group left Guatemala City and traveled north over the mountains and through the highlands to visit two villages of about 12 families each.  The last part of the two-day trip included a lengthy ride over rough roads, followed by a half-hour hike through muddy trails and streams.  They reached Bella Vista village and attended a two-hour church service, then met with village leaders.
 
The next day they took a boat ride to another village, Porvenir de los Martires, where they helped dedicate a new church building and participated in the first service in the building.  After spending the night in Porvenir de los Martires, they took a boat upstream to a van returning to Guatemala City.  The group then toured Guatemala City and visited a school sponsored by ILAG where they taught more stories and crafts to the children before heading back home.
 
A note about Bishop Horacio Castillo:  Padre Castillo had been hospitalized with a hand injury. He was at the ILAG center during the visit of the Southeastern Synod delegation and is recovering well.  
Grant Writing Workshops
Our Area Lutherans in Missions (ALMS) group, in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Coalition for Mission in Appalachia (ELCMA), are offering two grant writing workshops: 

"A Grant Writing Workshop for Beginners in the Non-Profit World" will be held on Monday, July 26, 2010 at Redeemer Lutheran Church, 672 Island Road, Bristol, Virginia. The workshop will be presented by Ms. Dory Campbell,  who successfully completed intensive training at the Grantsmanship Center in Florence, SC and has continued her training through courses offered in local venues such as the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Choose from a morning session (9:00 AM - 12:30 PM) or an evening session (5:30 - 9:00 PM.)  Pre-registration is required and you may pay the $15.00 fee at the door.  Sign up by calling Chris Bowie at (276) 466-2950 or email her at [email protected].
 
An "Advanced Grant Writing Workshop" will be offered Monday, August 23, 2010, also at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bristol, VA.  Taught by Mr. Ed Redmon, an experienced grant writer,
this is a hands-on course that will allow you to select a specific recipient for a grant.  The requirements for the "Advanced Grant Writing Workshop" are completion of "Grant Writing for Beginners" and a specific project for which you will write a grant.
 
Your $15.00 tax deductable donation will go to HELP House, a supervised visitation program for non-custodial parents and children, and to the Evangelical Lutheran Coalition for Mission in Appalachia (ELCMA).  HELP House is a Social Ministry of Lutheran Services in Tennessee.
Around the Synod
AIDS Quilt Workshop
The Georgia African American Lutheran Association and the Women of Emmanuel Lutheran Church are hosting an AIDS Quilt workshop on August 8, 2010 at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 2950 Cascade Road SW, Atlanta, GA 30311 at 2:30PM. They would like to extend an invitation to all in Metro Atlanta to attend and make a quilt panel at the workshop. Those outside Metro Atlanta may submit their panels to be included in the Southeastern Synod Lutheran Block of the National Quilt.
 
QuiltYou don't have to be an artist or sewing expert to create a moving personal tribute remembering a life lost to AIDS, but you do have to make a panel. (It's not as complicated as many people think!)

For infomation or to register, email [email protected] or call Jacqui El Torro at 404.452.5354. There is no cost to participate and the workshop materials will be provided.
Synod Calendar
July 30-31  Alassippi Youth Gathering
August 2    Ventures Stewardship Event
August 6-8  SESYALL Service Retreat
 
View the entire Synod Calendar
 
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