News from the New England Synod

NES News

The Season of Lent

March 14, 2012

In This Issue

Congregation Saves Green By Going Green

Four Ordained As Pastors

Worship Suggestions for 'Doing What Matters' Sunday

Register Now for 'Welcome One Another Fellowship Retreat'

Around the Synod

New Natural Gas Boiler System Helps Congregation Cut Fuel Costs, Reduce Carbon Footprint

Thanks in part to an investment in a new natural gas boiler system, Grace Lutheran Church, Hartford, Conn., has saved more than $4,000 in fuel costs this winter, as well as significantly reducing its carbon footprint. The new heating system helps fulfill an objective adopted by the Congregation Council at the suggestion of Grace's Care of Creation Task Force following a resolution adopted at the 2007 annual assembly of the New England Synod. Read more.

Four Ordained as Pastors

Four new pastors have been ordained in the New England Synod.

Pr. Verhulst (left), Pr. Heisen, Bishop Margaret G. Payne and Pr. Rohrs

In December, ordained were the Rev. Andrew C. Heisen as pastor of Mount Olivet Lutheran Church, Shrewsbury, Mass.; the Rev. Cathy Stinson Rohrs as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Stratford, Conn., and the Rev. Kari Jo Verhulst, who has been called as campus pastor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.

Pr. Heisen formerly worked as a computer research analyst at Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey. In 2011, he received a Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School, Newton Centre, Mass., complemented by classes at Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.

Pr. Rohrs, a former manager/trainer and franchise consultant for Domino's Pizza in New England and upstate New York, entered the candidacy process through Triumphant Cross Lutheran Church, Salem, N.H.. She received her Master of Divinity degree from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa. She has three children.

Pr. Johnston and her father, CH (COL) Mike Lembke.

Pr. Verhulst, who worked for more than eight years at "Sojourners" magazine in Washington, D.C., received her Master of Divinity degree in 2003 from Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Cambridge, Mass. She did an additional year of Lutheran studies at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago She also serves as a part-time chaplain/spiritual care coordinator for Hospice of the Good Shepherd, Newton, Mass.

In January, the Rev. Heidi Marie Lembke Johnston, daughter of an ELCA Army chaplain, CH (COL) Mike Lembke, Forces Command Chaplain at Ft. Bragg, N.C., was ordained as pastor of Faith Lutheran Church, Quincy, Mass. In 2007, she left her job as an executive assistant at an Estee Lauder company in New York City to enter Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, later transferring to Union Theological Seminary in NYC, where she graduated with a Master of Divinity degree in 2011.

Doing What Matters

Doing What Matters Sunday

Worship Suggestions for May 13

Hopefully, by now you have chosen a time to have a "Doing What Matters Sunday" at your church -- either on May 13, or on another date (before June) that works for your congregation. In the last two issues of NES News, we've provided planning ideas and a "to do" list. The focus of this final article in the series is on worship suggestions.

Litany