Special Edition: The 2015 South Carolina Synod Assembly Registration is Now Open.
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The South Carolina Lutheran eNews
Synod Assembly Registration is Up and Running
Spartanburg Marriott
299 North Church Street Spartanburg, SC 29306
864-596-1211
Registration is now open for the 2015 South Carolina Synod Assembly which will be held at the Spartanburg Marriott. The Assembly starts on Thursday, May 28 at 1:15 p.m. and runs through Saturday, May 30 at Noon.
  
Download the Proposed Assembly Agenda and Program!
  
Download the Approved Budget Proposal from Synod Council 2016/2017.
  
Download the Biographical Information for the 2015 South Carolina Synod Assembly.
  
The 2015 South Carolina Synod Assembly Bulletin of Reports will be available by May 1, 2015.
Living Lutheran in a Changing World
"Glory to God throughout all Generations "Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."" Ephesians 3:20-21
  
2015 is the Twenty-eighth Assembly of the South Carolina Synod - ELCA and the 190th meeting of the Lutheran Church in South Carolina. Over the course of these two and a half days opportunities will abound for us to dwell in the Word, Worship, Pray, Serve & Learn together as well as deepen our discipleship and carry out the business matters of the Synod. We look forward to being together with you.
  
Presenters:
  
Keynote Presenter: The Rev. Dr. Nate Fambach
The Rev. Dr. Nate Fambach Born on a farm in rural Medina County, Ohio, Nathan Frambach presently lives in Dubuque, Iowa, with his wife, Diane, and their two boys, Garrett Andrew and Andres Thomas. Nate is a pastor presently called to teach at Wartburg Theological Seminary in the area of Youth, Culture & Mission. Nate has a prized collection of letters from Frederick Buechner, frequents One Mean Bean & Moondog Music, plays basketball at the Y, and makes numerous trips each year with his family to see the St. Louis Cardinals play baseball.
  
A pastor by public vocation, Nate served three congregations previously--two in Illinois and one in Minnesota. He also served as Associate Director of the Youth Ministries/Gathering team for the ELCA and, prior to that, as an Instructor on the faculty of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota for two years while he finished a Ph.D. in Practical Theology (congregational studies and leadership).
  
Mostly, however, Nate loves being Diane's husband and father to two great boys. He and Diane don't need much for entertainment. They like to sit and talk, remembering their own things past and leaning into the future together. And as for the two boys, there isn't much that beats sitting in the middle of the living room floor with your children-playing cards, telling stories, and eating cereal out of the box.
  
ELCA Representative: The Rev. Eric Wester
The Rev. Eric Wester, Assistant to the Presiding Bishop for Federal Chaplaincy Ministries is a retired Army colonel and a Lutheran clergyman. Chaplain Wester currently serves as Assistant to the Presiding Bishop and Director, Federal Chaplaincy Ministries for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, based in Washington DC. He works directly for the presiding bishop of Lutherans in the United States. His pastoral work supports more than 220 chaplains and chaplain candidates in the military, VA medical centers, and federal prisons.
  
Chaplain Wester completed 32 years in the Army chaplaincy in 2011 culminating as the Senior Military Fellow at the National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington DC. At NDU for four years he taught ethics, religion, and security. He continues teaching at NDU addressing religion in the US for the International Fellows program. He also serves as an adjunct instructor at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, South Carolina and is a senior instructor for the Leader Development Education for Sustained Peace (LDESP), Naval Post-graduate School, Monterey, California.
  
He has three masters degrees from Trinity Lutheran Seminary (Master of Divinity), Columbus, Ohio, the New Brunswick Theological Seminary (Master of Theology), New Jersey, and the Army War College (Master of Strategic Studies), Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
  
A principle voluntary activity is serving as a strategic planner for the board of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, Baltimore, Maryland. He and his wife Paula live in Arlington, Virginia, and she serves as a medical social worker assisting severely wounded military personnel transition from Department of Defense health care into VA health care.
  
Musicians: LOST AND FOUND - Michael Bridges and George Baum
George plays piano, and Michael plays guitar. Stylistically, the music of LOST AND FOUND is not easy to describe. Some have simply labeled it "speedwood" or "acoustic thrash." Others, upon hearing the unique blend of folk and screaming, played without drums or stacks of keyboards, and including the occasional ballad, have just said, "I've never heard anything like that before." One person said the music is, "the intersection of the Ramones and John Denver." This is, as you might imagine, a relatively deserted intersection.
  
LOST AND FOUND concerts involve the audiences. Michael and George developed an interactive style as they introduced themselves to audiences throughout the United States and, in turn, made hundreds of friends on their first concert tour. On this first tour, LOST AND FOUND traveled from New York to St. Louis, to Miami, to San Diego, to Seattle and back to New York on BICYCLES. During those 340 days, they sang more than 260 times at schools, camps, churches, and colleges. With no support vehicle and no particular training regimen, the year truly proved to be a journey of faith. To this day, their concerts include stories of their lives and their travels along with their songs. The concerts are a bit like having Michael and George over to your living room for conversation and music that's more like a dialogue than a presentation.
  
Michael and George fell into playing music full time pretty much by accident. One concert simply led to another and people heard them and asked them to come back and sing again. Now, they have been at it for over ten years during and after college and graduate school. It has never been the mission of LOST AND FOUND to sell out arenas, or to become staples of the radio. It has always been their mission to be honest and natural in concerts, to model a way of being an independent band, and to meet lots of people--communicating with them about faith and life.
  
Michael and George grew up a few blocks from each other in Niagara Falls, New York. Currently, George lives in New York City, and Michael lives in Los Angeles, California.
  
Chaplain: The Rev. Emily Edenfield
Pastor Emily Edenfield is the associate pastor at St. John's Lutheran Church in Spartanburg, where she has served since her ordination in March of 2011. She is an almost-lifelong Lutheran and spent her early life in Indiana and New Jersey. Emily's undergraduate degree is from Rutgers University, where she majored in English and Linguistics. While earning her degree at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, she met her husband, Pastor David Edenfield. When she's not at St. John's, Emily can usually be found behind the stroller of her one-year-old twins Ben and Olivia.
  
Assembly Necrologist: The Rev. Chris Heavner
Rev. Chris Heavner has served the South Carolina Synod as our Campus Pastor at Clemson University for twenty-one years. A native of Vale, NC, he has served parishes in Salisbury, NC, and Houghton, MI. He has also served as Young Adult Intern for the church-wide expression, and had an interim call as Dean of Students at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. He is married to Laura Hunter Heavner.
Lodging
Spartanburg Marriott
299 North Church Street Spartanburg, SC 29306
864-596-1211
You are responsible for making your own hotel reservation. We are recommending the Spartanburg Marriott for our assembly guests. Please refer to our guest room block name, "South Carolina Lutheran Synod 2015," when making your reservations. Make your reservations here.
  
The deadline for obtaining the $125 per night (+ tax) reduced rate is May 1, 2015. Space is limited. Make your reservations today! In-room wireless internet and parking are included.
  
Parking at the Marriott:
There are 350 parking spots in the underground parking deck available for complimentary parking.
  
Payments:
Please note that due to changes in our national credit card payment laws, which would cost every participant additional fees, we are unable to use the credit card option as a form of payment. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause but hope you will understand that we are attempting to be the best stewards possible and to look out for all of our participants.
  
Please make checks payable to the South Carolina Synod, mark them "Synod Assembly" and mail to:
  
South Carolina Synod, ELCA
Attention: Julie Koon
1003 Richland Street
Columbia, SC 29201
  
Please submit your payment within 15 days of registering.
  
No refunds will be made after Monday, May 18, 2015.
  
If you have questions related to the assembly, please call Julie Koon at 803-509-8323 or email [email protected]
South Carolina Synod Assembly Going Paperless
New to the 2015 South Carolina Synod Assembly is the introduction of the Synod Assembly Guidebook App. The Guidebook will be a free download available once the pre-assembly all the documents are available in early May. As part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's commitment to care for all creation, assembly materials will be available electronically to all people participating in the assembly, saving thousands of pages of paper and much of the printing costs. This app will take the place of packets. The app will waste less paper while increasing interactivity and accessibility. There will be an option to opt out of this paperless option during the registration process.
  
Devices will not be provided. However, all those attending are encouraged to download the app to your iPad/iPhone/iPod, Android phone/tablet, and Kindle Fire. You will also be able to access the app via the web on your computer, Windows tablet or Blackberry device.
  
The app features:
  • an electronic binder of documents;
  • the current agenda;
  • maps of the facility;
  • workshop information;
  • ministry displays;
  • faith practices opportunities;
  • nearby restaurants;
  • directions to events;
  • communications tools including Twitter feed, the South Carolina Synod Facebook page, the South Carolina Synod YouTube Channel, Assembly announcements, Assembly related news, and more.
  • An additional piece of good news is that the Spartanburg Marriott will be providing wireless access throughout the assembly space.
Our use of the Guidebook app, the same one used at the last Churchwide Assembly, is made possible through an agreement our Churchwide Office has reached with Guidebook.
  
We will be providing two charging stations in the Heritage Hall. Please remember to bring your charging cord.
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