Summer Blessings
July 27, 2016
In This Issue
We Remember in Prayer
Bishop Mark Holmerud as he is on sabbatical.

Continued healing for Revs. Brie, Grochau, Theiss and Fey.

The safety of those who are affected by and helping to put out the wild fires. 

Places and people living in areas of violence and uncertainty, both locally and globally.

Those around the world who are fleeing terror and violence; that they find compassion and welcome as they seek refuge.

Second Mile Giving
Congregations in Transition
Upcoming Events
Upcoming Workshops
July 28, 2016
August 25, 2016
September 15, 2016
Sacramento Area

August 11-13, 2016
Santa Rosa, CA 

November 4 - 5, 2016
Good Shepherd, Salinas

December 5-7, 2016
March 13-15, 2017
May 22-24, 2017
Hope United Methodist Church
San Diego, CA

Reformation 500
These are not official Synod events, we hope you'll find this information useful as you plan for the 500th anniversary.

May 17-24, 2017

Synod Calendar 
Events and Meetings

August 26-27, 2016
Candidacy Committee Meeting
PLTS, Berkeley

September 17, 2016
Fall Online Synod and Conference Gatherings
Ascension Lutheran, Citrus Heights
Our Savior's Lutheran, Lafayette
Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran, Merced
Grace Lutheran, Palo Alto

September 23 - 24, 2016
Synod Council Meeting
Sacramento Office of the Bishop

October 14 - 16, 2106
SPSYC Elementary School Retreat
Mt. Cross

October 17 - 18, 2016
Rostered Women's Retreat
Dean's Gathering
October 18 - 20
Professional Leaders Conference
The Village at Squaw Valley

November 11 - 13, 2016
SPSYC Middle School Retreat
Mt. Cross

January 27 - 28, 2017
Synod Council Meeting
Sacramento Office of the Bishop

January 31 - February 1, 2017
Dean's Retreat
Christ the King Center, Citrus Heights

February 2017
Synod Council Meeting
Sacramento Office of the Bishop

February 24 - 26, 2107
SPSYC High School Retreat 
Mt. Cross

March 11, 2017
Rwanda Connections Meeting
Lutheran Church of the Master, Sacramento

May 3, 2017
Synod Council Meeting
Fresno

May 4 - 6, 2017
Synod Assembly
Fresno

June 23 - 24, 2017
Synod Council Meeting
Sacramento Office of the Bishop

June 28 - July 2, 2017
Western States Youth Gathering
California Lutheran University

CANDIDACY COMMITTEE MEETINGS:
PLTS, Berkeley
August 26-27, 2016
October 14-15, 2016
January 20-21, 2017  

Please take note of our office schedule:
All Synod offices are open Monday-Thursday and closed every Friday.
Stewardship Discipling Team July Council Devotions
Generous People Living God's Love "by" Trusting God

Trusting God allows us to live in abundance. When we trust God, we are able to relinquish control of our lives to Her. When we are trusting God, we don't have to be afraid. We can make mistakes. We can fail and know that we are forgiven and loved. We can take risks. We can be attuned to the needs of those around us.
 
Trusting that God forgives us, we more easily forgive each other and are freed from the tyranny of resentment. Trusting that God loves us, we more blessedly love each other, delighting in the joy of sharing our lives with each other. Trusting that God provides for us, we more generously care for each other, helping each of us meet our daily needs.
             
And yet some days, we struggle to allow God to love us. To find that courage, we pray:
 
Dear Loving God,
 
We yearn for the abundance you offer us, and still we sometimes resist trusting you. Give us the courage to trust you and your love so that we might obey your great commandment to love one another with gratitude and joy. Amen.

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We Are a Reconciling in Christ Synod

A message from Ruth Cruddas & Mary Ritter, Global Missions Advocacy Team

AMMPARO:
Accompanying Migrant Minors with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities.
 
Violence, poverty, and economic hardship are every day issues for our brothers and sisters in El Salvador and elsewhere in Central America and Mexico. In 2012 and 2013, we heard heart-wrenching stories about migrants, including unaccompanied children and families, making the dangerous trip north to escape the violence, only to be held in miserable detention centers and often deported to the danger they had just left. Many of those immigrants were brought to detention centers in California.
 
In 2012, Bishops of the ELCA, especially those with companion relationships with Central American Lutheran churches, were asked by Bishop Medardo Gomez from the Salvadoran Lutheran Church to do what we can to help these immigrants when they arrive. The ELCA responded by introducing the AMMPARO Initiative - Accompanying Migrant Minors with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities.  In June, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton brought supportive news to the Synod Assembly about how this initiative was working with immigrants in Southern California and Chicago.  50 people attended an AMMPARO workshop at Synod Assembly and enthusiastically responded to the presentation by Mary Campbell from ELCA Global Missions and members of the Synod Global Mission Advocacy Team (GMAT) about migrant minors and families. The Sierra Pacific Synod GMAT is now working with other Bay Area organizations to establish a network of Welcoming Congregations - congregations which make a commitment to welcome and minister to migrant guests in the community.
 
Becoming a Welcoming Congregation does not require a commitment by the whole congregation but rather a commitment by the pastor and a small team of members. Welcoming Congregations are not necessarily offering shelter or employment but merely are willing to be a church home for migrant children and families in the same way that congregations of several generations ago welcomed Lutheran migrants from Europe and helped them navigate life in their new home. An accompaniment team might be five people including at least one Spanish speaker who make a 6-12 month commitment to meet a migrant child or family, and support them in a variety of ways, including having dinner with them once a month, and phoning or texting them weekly.
 
We want you to consider joining the AMMPARO Initiative and help in any of the following ways:
  1. Become a Welcoming Congregation.
  2. Seek housing for migrants, including transitional housing for newly arrived immigrants.
  3. Provide courtroom accompaniment at Immigration Court in San Francisco for the day. Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity in Oakland does this with volunteers. In the ELCA Southwest California Synod, the "Guardian Angel" program does this work with "Dreamers", students who are immigrants meeting qualifications for U.S. residence and are very aware of the issues faced by their migrant clients. Stories abound about the positive response in the courtroom when there is an advocate for the immigrant, even if they are not a lawyer or even a Spanish speaker!
  4. Coordinate the "post-release from detention".  A coordinator is notified when a person will be released from a local detention center, and then works with the detainee's family to pick up the newly released migrant, feed them, and possibly give them what they might need, such as a backpack of supplies if they must travel out of the area to family.
  5. Advocate for public policy that will positively impact the current immigration crisis.
 
The Global Missions Advocacy Team (GMAT) of the Sierra Pacific Synod invites you to prayerfully consider participating in this effort. For further information, contact Ruth Cruddas, [email protected] or Mary Ritter, [email protected].
 
Ruth Cruddas and Mary Ritter
SPS Global Missions Advocacy Team


Our PO Box is no longer active. 
Please send all correspondence to the Sacramento Office of the Bishop at:
Sierra Pacific Synod
9985 Folsom Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95827

News from the ELCA
ELCA presiding bishop issues statement on police shootings

The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), has released a statement in response to the shootings in Baton Rouge, La., and Dallas that killed eight police officers.

Eaton's statement follows:
     
My soul is bereft of peace: I have forgotten what happiness is. (Lamentations 3:17)

Too often in the past months we have been stunned by violence. Last Sunday in Baton Rouge, La., and earlier this month in Dallas, police were the target. Many in our congregations serve in law enforcement. These are our brothers and sisters, children of God who dedicate their lives to keeping our communities safe, who risk their lives for strangers.

Acts of violence, at home and abroad, are all too frequent. Each is evidence of a broken world. Lutherans understand this and believe that the state has the authority and obligation to protect its citizens. Good government and peace are among the things we ask for when we pray "Give us today our daily bread."

Not all citizens have the same experience with law enforcement. We are working on that as a nation and a church. But the targeting and assassination of police officers is a threat to all of us. Nothing is solved by this violence.

Working in law enforcement is an honorable way to live one's baptismal vocation. Many of us know police who are members of our congregations. They serve with dedication to the common good even at the risk of their lives. Police and other first responders see the best and the worst of human nature, and they do that on your behalf and mine.

Officers killed in the line of duty leave behind families, comrades and friends. We continue to hold those who mourn in our prayers. But a little bit of us has died too. "If one member suffers, all suffer together" (I Corinthians 12:26). 

Although broken, our world is also a redeemed one. God's answer to hatred and violence is the love and life revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus. In Christ, God reconciles the world to God's self. We are called to that ministry of healing and reconciliation in our hearts, in our homes and in our communities. God is ever faithful. We are held as one people in God's love and that love will never let us go.   

But this I call to mind, and therefore have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning ... .  (Lamentations 3:21-23)

In Christ's peace, 

Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The statement is available at http://bit.ly/29MGMeU.

Luther's Small Catechism is now available as a free mobile app from Augsburg Fortress!

At the Churchwide Assembly and Grace Gathering this August, ELCA members and congregations will be invited to engage Martin Luther's catechisms in renewed study and conversation during the months leading up to October 31, 2017.

The English Small Catechism and Spanish El Catecismo Menor de Lutero are both included in a free mobile app. Content from the Study Edition is available as an in-app purchase. 

Available on the App Store and on Google Play.

August 8 - 13, 2016

Check out info about the upcoming Assembly in New Orleans. You will be able to watch the Livestream! Check out the Social Media Box at the bottom of the page during assembly.

In this edition, we are pleased to introduce to you another 2016 ELCA World Hunger summer intern, bring you information on the ELCA World Hunger Leadership Gathering, ELCA World Hunger social media, lift up "God's Work. Our Hands." Sunday 2016 and more.


Topics include: Livestream the ELCA Churchwide Assembly, Join the ELCA Federal Credit Union, 12 steps for being safer online, How to care for stained glass and more!

The ELCA Task Force on Women and Justice: One in Christ is preparing a comprehensive study for use in congregations and across the church. The task force invites individuals, adult forums and other study groups to join a churchwide conversation about issues related to women and justice in church and society and then to share responses. 

All participant responses will be reviewed by the task force as it works toward bringing out a first draft of a social statement in late 2017. Study response forms will be available in the printed version and online. 

The response period runs through August 2017. 


News from around the Synod and Beyond

The Village at Squaw Valley, Olympic Valley, CA

2016 Rostered Women's Retreat
Dean's Gathering
October 17 - 18, 2016

2016 Professional Leaders Conference 
October 18 - 20, 2016

Reformation: Past, Present and Future



ROSTERED LEADER CELEBRATIONS 

Installation:
Pr. Ben Colahan - August 13, 201, 11:00 am at Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, CA

This is the 20th Anniversary of Pastor Peggy White at St John Lutheran, Sunnyvale. A newly minted PLTS graduate, she came to work on July 1, 1996, was ordained July 28th and officially installed August 11th as our Pastor. We will celebrate her many talents and blessings following worship on August 14th. 
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Do you have other Celebrations (installations, ordinations, book publishings, etc.) that you'd like listed in this column? Feel free to submit them to our enewsletter editor, Kathye Hamm.

November Ballot Recommendations from the Lutheran Office of Public Policy - California

The Policy Council of the Lutheran Office of Public Policy - California made additional recommendations on Nov. ballot measures at its meeting July 16, at the Southwest California Synod Office in Glendale.  The Policy Council had previously decided to support the elimination of the death penalty (YES on 62), oppose the acceleration of the death penalty (NO on 66), and support the ban on most retail plastic bags adopted by the Legislature and Governor (YES on 67). It was decided that these measures are high priority for LOPP-CA, along with support for the extension of the personal income tax rates on wealthy taxpayers (YES on 55), and support for Governor Brown's criminal justice sentencing reform initiative (YES on 57). Information on support, opposition, or no position on others in the list of 17 propositions will be provided later.  
 
Please schedule ballot proposition education events now.  LOPP-CA Director Mark  Carlson is available on some Sundays, as well as other times, through the election.  LOPP-CA Summer Ballot Measure/ELCAvotes! Associate, Ben Hogue, is available on Sundays in August, except for 8/14.  Lutheran social statements on the Death Penalty, Criminal Justice, Health Care, Education, and Care for Creation are available at www.elca.org. 

 For more information:  Mark Carlson, [email protected], 916-447-6666.

SPS Bulletin Board


If you have a change of address please notify the ELCA AND the Sierra Pacific Synod.

"God's Work. Our Hands."
September 11, 2016
Plan now to enter the contest!

It is time to start planning your congregation's projects for"God's Work. Our Hands." Day . 

There are two categories: video and narrative. The winning congregation in each category will have the honor of having a $100.00 gift made to ELCA Good Gifts in their name.

1.Your congregation submits either a written narrative or a video of its "God's Work. Our Hands." Project, along with an entry form, which will be available in late August, as well as instructions for submitting your video. Each congregation is limited to one submission, either a video or a narrative. Deadline: October 15, 2016.
 
2. The narratives and videos are posted on the Sierra Pacific Synod website, where you will vote for your favorite. Deadline: December 15, 2016.

3. We tally the votes and announce a winner, sometime in early 2017.

If you have questions, please send them to: [email protected].

News from Mt. Cross Ministries

Summer camp registration is now open! Check out all of the life-changing summer camp programs we have to offer this year!  

Committed to being re-formed...
The Sierra Pacific Synod
9985 Folsom Blvd, Sacramento, CA  95827-6628
 916-756-1665  �  800-275-3522  �  888-789-6434 (Fax)