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Synod & Congregational News

Lutheran Summer Music invites you to livestream over 30 inspiring concerts, recitals, and worship services throughout the entire month of July. Performances and services are shared by over 250 students, faculty, fellows, worship staff, and guest artists who come together to create a vibrant community of music-makers. Visit LSMacademy.org/2024 to explore the schedule and access the livestream and video archive. You won't want to miss this! 

As Pride Month comes to a close, the Sierra Pacific Synod would love to collect photos from congregations who observed Pride by celebrating, educating, and affirming. Faith Lutheran Church in Chico attends the downtown festival each and every year. This year, they were featured in their local newspaper.

"We want the [community] to know we love them and God loves them,” said Chico Faith Lutheran member Kate Ory. Overall, Ory said things in Chico are moving in a positive direction." "Faith Lutheran member Joy Schmidt said she “wanted a church that didn’t make my LGBT friends feel hated, and Faith Lutheran provided that." -Reporter Molly Myers.

Let us know how your congregation observed Pride Month by sending photos and stories to communications@spselca.org.

Upcoming Events

"Love One Another:" Courageous Conversations

Register Today for Workshops Starting Tomorrow!

Join us for Courageous Conversations and to learn how Saint Andrew's Lutheran Church in Cairo, Egypt built STARS (Saint Andrew's Refugee Services). Walk away with a deeper understanding of the Middle East with special guest speaker Reverend Bekah Davis, Chaplin for StARS. 

In January, 2025, Rev. Ron Rude and Sharon Reinbott will be hosting a retreat called "Living Into a New Story," in which we’ll wonder about our Christian beliefs, stated and unstated, in the light of our present scientific knowledge and the earth-based wisdom which is making its way back into our consciousness. Sharon (M.A.) is a hymnist and lay theologian, and Rev. Ron Rude is the author of Amending the Christian Story: The Natural Sciences as a Window into Grounded Faith and Sustainable Living.

Some of the questions we’ll explore are:



• Where might our current scientific knowledge challenge our Christian worldview?
• How do certain images in prayer and song keep us stuck in destructive worldviews?
• How does our anthropocentrism get in the way of full participation in the earth community?
• What does it mean for our faith that we are part of an alive and communicating ecosystem?

There will be ample time for experiential learning, discussing, singing and time on the land. Above all, we want to create a safe space where questions, doubts, speculation, and the creativity that arises from them is welcomed and celebrated. We hope that participants return with insight and excitement to advance a new, life-giving story in their own lives, and in the lives of their communities.

This retreat will take place January 23 – 26, 2025 at Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center, Carefree, AZ, 35 miles NE of Phoenix, AZ.

"Pr. Al Starr Jr’s book Late Night Offerings & Morning Prayers is a gem in the midst of our Lutheran heritage. Flipping through pages firmly held together in the tension of brand-new binding, one set of words caught my eye right away: The Elder’s Lament (in memory of Mr. Joseph Wallestein “Wally” Pegram). I knew Wally. I did not know Wally was somehow in this book. Yet now here Wally was, sitting with me in my kitchen via the power of Pr. Starr’s well-crafted words.

At another point in US Christian history, Fr. Edward Braxton proclaimed the need for “a classic expression of faith [that will] so profoundly penetrate the particular that it illuminates the universal.” Pr. Starr’s poetry and prayers are that classic expression of faith—

—standing firmly among the nuance and realities of life, profoundly expanding into the universality of particularity that we only find within God.

Late Night Offerings & Morning Prayers has only been a part of my life for two weeks, and it’s already starting to show wear, living on the “frequently used” part of my bookshelves between Carvalhaes’ and Harjo’s work. Truth comes bursting forth from the in-betweens of pages printed with words of life in this book. You’ll find your heart cracking open a little further with each read— the ultimate gift any poet could give us."

-Sam R. LaDue, M. Div.

Jobs

Pianist/Organist, Faith Lutheran Church of Marysville

Faith Lutheran Church in Marysville is looking for a piano/organ player to play each Sunday, plus an occasional evening service. If they only play piano that is fine also. Pay is $75 per service. Music is prepared for them prior to the month, and the position opens on July 1st, 2024.

faith100d@gmail.com | (530) 743-1539 office

Director of Children & Youth Ministries, Faith Lutheran Church of Chico

Faith Lutheran Church is located in Chico, the City of Trees, less than a mile away from Bidwell Park. This church is seeking a full time professional to oversee age-specific ministries for children and teenagers. The Director of Children and Youth Ministry ensures that our young people have a meaningful and intentional community in which to be loved, to learn, and to use their unique spiritual gifts to serve others.

Sierra Pacific Synod Communications Coordinator

The Sierra Pacific Synod is hiring a Communications Coordinator. In this position, the Coordinator will work closely with the Administrative Director, the Bishop, and the Bishop’s Team, and will be responsible for directing communications to the staff, conference deans, and others affiliated with the Sierra Pacific Synod/ELCA, as well as managing social media, newsletters, and content. If you or somebody you know is interested in applying, click the link below and check out the full description.

Advent Lutheran Church in Citrus Heights is looking for a part-time secretary who will manage the day-to-day operations of the church office and serve as the first point of contact for phone calls, emails, and office visitors.

Synod Staff & Conference Deans

***** SPS STAFF *****

Bishop Jeff R. Johnson, Sierra Pacific Synod

bishopjeff@spselca.org

Debbie Cook, Finance Assistant Contractor

debbie@spselca.org

Rev. Brandon Peck, Administrative Director

brandon@spselca.org

Michael N-D, Communications Coordinator

communications@spselca.org

Megan Macpherson, M. Div., Assistant to the Bishop

Rev. Dr. Charlane Lines, Assistant to the Bishop

charlane@spselca.org

Rev. Amy Keinzle, Director of Evangelical Mission (DEM)

amy@spselca.org

Rev. Manda Truchinski, Assistant to the Bishop for Leadership & Strategic Organization

manda@spselca.org

***** SPS CONFERENCE DEANS *****

Rev. Janet Blair, Redwood Mountain Conference 1

conference1@spselca.org

Rev. Jill Ross, Bridges Conference 2

conference2@spselca.org

Rev. Dr. Gabriele Schroeder, Capitol Valley Conference 3

conference3@spselca.org

Rev. Christian Schweter, Sierra Nevada Foothills Conference 4

conference4@spselca.org

Rev. John Kuehner, S.F. Peninsula Conference 5

conference5@spselca.org

Rev. Cristina Beauchemin, El Camino Real Conference 6

conference6@spselca.org

Rev. Dr. John Valentine, Mt. Diablo Conference 7

conference7@spselca.org

Rev. Karen Johnson, Sierra Central Valley Conference 8

conference8@spselca.org

Rev. Jodi Golden-Lund, Central San Joaquin Conference 9

conference9@spselca.org

Rev. Cindy Beck, Interim Ministry

interims@spselca.org

The Sierra Pacific Synod Office resides on the unceded land of the Ohlone, Muwekma, Confederated Villages of Lisjan, and Miwok people.

To learn more about their tribal history, we encourage you to click the links provided.