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Encourage your congregation to elect youth and young adults as voting members to the June 5 - 7, 2016 Upstate New York Synod Assembly. Please mark the appropriate places on the registration forms so we can keep accurate records. Our synod constitution states that it is the goal of this synod that at least 10% of the voting members of the Synod Assembly, Synod Council, committees, and organizational units of this synod be youth and young adults.
Any high school youth who is staying overnight must room with the other high school aged youth, no matter what their age. This is in keeping with our synod's Safe Church Policy.
Teens will be under the direct supervision of Youth @ Synod Assembly staff throughout the assembly. They may sit with their congregation or at the youth table as they choose, but they will be required to check in with Youth @ Synod Assembly staff at certain times. Youth may participate as pages, sing in the choir, or do any other scheduled activity, as long as we know where they are. Teens will arrive and leave Synod Assembly at the same time as voting members and other visitors.
There is no separate registration form for youth. BUT rooms are handled differently.
When registering High School youth for Synod Assembly: -
Register youth at the same time you register other members of your congregation
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Use the same registration form
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Sign teens up for the same meals your congregation is taking
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Use the same rates (except for rooms - see below)
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As with all participants, mark whether the teen is a voting member or visitor
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Check the box and add $27.25 per night to the registration cost to cover room expense. Youth will be notified of their room assignment.
- Please be sure to choose 'yes' on the registration form to the question, "Is this person in High School?" This is important so we can arrange rooms and contact youth prior to Synod Assembly.
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 TIE DYE and PEACE SYMBOLS are back! Your Upstate NY Synod World Hunger Team invites you to participate in the 17th annual appeal June 5-7, 2016, at the Synod Assembly in Rochester. The theme of this year's campaign is GOD'S PEACE, YOUR PIECE. We long for world peace, yet daily we hear news of escalating conflict and violence. What can we do? Some say a world without hunger would be a world at peace. True or not, a world without hunger is a goal worth pursuing. ELCA World Hunger provides help and hope for millions of people in the U.S. and worldwide. You are a vital part of that effort. Still, many of our neighbors around the world and in our local communities lack the basic necessities of life - nutritious food, clean water, adequate shelter, access to health care, and opportunities for quality education and employment. We hope you will participate in this special synod-wide appeal to raise $45,000 to address these needs. In order to accomplish the goal, each congregation is challenged to bring at least $450. The instructions are simple - collect donations from members of your congregation and bring one check along with the attached tally sheet to the hunger table at the Synod Assembly. (Make checks payable to Upstate NY Synod.)
Materials to support your fundraising efforts are available -
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REFLECTION on JUSTICE
Robert Roger Lebel, Synod Assembly Planning Team member
The theme of synod assembly this year is racial justice. The first installation in this "column" explored the foundational philosophical notion of "justice" and how that notion can be represented by several species: interpersonal, rectificatory, punitive, and distributive justice. Here I will reflect on theological notions of justice.
In the "axial age" (800-300 BC) people in disparate societies came to an insight: the axis of responsibility is not vertical (us trying to please someone above the clouds) but horizontal (us living creatively among the other humans visible around us).
Among the earliest voices to which we turn for insights into how the One True God is inviting us to stand uprightly would be those of the Hebrew prophets who may be reliably placed in the 8th century before Christ: Isaiah, Amos, Hosea and Micah.
Perhaps the oldest text dealing with these notions, placing comments in God's mouth, is Isaiah 1:16-17. We are enjoined to search for justice in particular on behalf of the disenfranchised: the widow, the orphan. Among the most profound such comments anywhere is the injunction (Micah 6:8) that God is not as pleased by extravagant sacrifices as by our acting justly, loving tenderly and walking humbly.
From the New Testament canon, among the earliest texts addressing these matters would be "Never repay evil with evil, but let everyone see that you are interested only in the highest ideals. Do all you can to live at peace with everyone" (Rom 12:17f) from around 58 AD. Of course, the ultimate and iconic statement is "Love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12) from around 100 AD. Watch for yet more upcoming reflections on justice (and injustice) in future Assembly Updates.
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"Informing, Engaging, and Equipping the Upstate New York Synod to pursue racial justice."
by The Rev. John Saraka, Racial Justice Task Force Chair
Following the 2015 Synod Assembly, Bishop John Macholz gathered a work team to think about how to address the racial justice resolution passed at the assembly. Their work was guided by several assumptions.
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The ELCA's 1993 Social Statement on Racial and Social Justice states, "Racism --- a mix of power, privilege, and prejudice is sin, a violation of God's intention for humanity. The resulting racial, ethnic, or cultural barriers deny the truth that all people are God's creatures and, therefore, persons of dignity. Racism fractures and fragments both church and society."
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Conversation on racial justice and white privilege must become a priority for us as a synod.
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These conversations must permeate all levels of the synod.
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These are not one time conversations but discussions that will evolve over months and years.
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Inaction and silence are no longer options.
In the fall 2015 Synod Council adopted a number of recommendations from the Racial Justice Task Force including that the 2016 Synod Assembly focus on racial justice and that resources be made available for congregations to talk about racial justice and white privilege.
 The Task Force then worked to identify a Synod-wide book read, The New Jim Crow Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander and to create a Congregational Resource Packet (CRP). This CRP is a process for congregations to engage in a dialogue surrounding racial justice. This packet is provided to faith communities who are willing to get comfortable with the uncomfortable and carry on conversations surrounding race relations in America. This is not easy work. This is not comfortable work. But this is important work that rises out of the mission that Jesus calls us into loving our neighbor.
This packet, which will be shared in depth at Synod Assembly, is intended to be a faithful response to the embedded and structural racism found in our churches and communities. We hope this process will be grounded in prayer, worship, sacred listening, and a collaboration that moves us towards a more beloved community we are called to become.
It is only together through God's love enacted that we can learn from our histories, and begin to transform the discomforts and divisions between people. The CRP is structured to move between different seasons set within the Church year, to be a time of shedding light, repentance, and transformation. It begins in Epiphany and runs through Easter.
This packet is a guide for dialogue and the work of racial justice, but it is meant to be adaptable for each community as needed. One size does not fit all, and therefore if a community needed more time in a particular season or resource for discussion, please use that time as each community designates as necessary. This work is a process that will hopefully continue and become part of who we are and how we express Christ to the world. The seasons of the packet are: -
The Epiphany Season - a time of self-reflection and assessment for a community. You will be provided with tools to help facilitate talking about difficult content and to look for signs to deal with change in healthy ways.
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Season of Lent - is a time of study, dialogue, listening and learning. There will be material including bible studies, books, and resources to facilitate discussions of racial justice.
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Season of Easter - time of discernment for communities to put down in a covenant concrete way that you will walk together towards a more just community and begin to transform the way your churches express Jesus' love for our neighbor.
We enter this process with humility, as we know this process will not end racism, we also know these conversations will be difficult for many of us to have, but we trust that the Spirit of God will renew us and bring us to a new day living as resurrected people. |
Save your can tabs! Bring your can tabs to Synod Assembly and add them to others at the table in the Registration area at the Convention Center.
Calling All Musicians - Synod Assembly Music Director, Thatcher Lyman,  invites vocalists and instrumentalists to be in touch with him to participate in music for this year's assembly. In addition to Monday evening's Eucharist worship there will be opportunities throughout assembly for music to enrich our time together. Please email Thatcher at incarnatewordmusic@gmail.com with your interest, instrument of choice and/or your interest in joining the choir. Assembly rehearsal times will Sunday, June 5, 6 - 6:45pm and Monday, June 6, 3 - 3:45pm. Worship is scheduled for 7:00pm.
SERRV and Alpha & Omega Parable Christian Store Return in 2016. We are excited to have both of these vendors join us again this year at Synod Assembly to meet your shopping needs. Please be sure to stop by Highland A and B and see what Alpha and Omega and SERRV have to offer while you are at Synod Assembly.
Arriving Early on Sunday for Assembly?? Join us for one of two opportunities beginning at 4:00pm.
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Global Mission Clean and Not-so-clean water: interactive games and displays including things like carrying jugs of water from one place to another to earn raffle tickets to purchase snacks that are priced according to how much water they take to grow. Free snacks such as gummy worms labeled with pictures of parasitic worms, entertainment and more. Riverside court.
- The New Jim Crow book discussion: Didn't have an opportunity to be a part of a book discussion or Bible study around racial justice. Join Racial Justice Task Force facilitators for discussion around racial justice and the book. Highland C.
 Early Morning Prayer - Begin your day with one of our chaplains on Monday and Tuesday morning at 7:15am in the Lilac Room at the Radisson (at the top of the escalators on the 2nd floor) for morning prayer.
Don't Miss Mission Expo!! Our vendors have been invited to especially share ways that their programs and resources link to justice and advocacy. There are two dedicated opportunities this year to explore Mission Expo in the Galleria - Monday afternoon beginning at 2:30pm and Monday evening at 9:30 when our evening Fellowship, hosted by the Women of the ELCA will be held in the Galleria amidst the Mission Expo.
CHILD CARE will again be offered at Synod Assembly. Our licenses and very gifted child care providers will return again this year to care for your children. Please let us know you will need child care during assembly in the "Special Requests" box on the synod assembly registration form including the ages of your children.
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Don't miss out on any important 2016 Synod Assembly Information - sign up today for the Upstate Update.
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