Synod Assembly Wrap Up
By JohnGriffin | May 28, 2014
This year’s Synod Assembly was held on May 16 & 17. Trinity delegates attending included Pastor Diana, Susan Grazier, Sam Nielsen (youth delegate), and John Griffin.
One of the main themes of this year’s assembly was exploring the various forms of worship and faith gatherings being created by ELCA churches across the U.S. Our synod is considered a strong leader in developing different forms of worship to meet the needs of our diverse
population. Holy Spirit Lutheran in Kirkland is helping the former Trinity Lutheran in
Kirkland create a congregation format specific to young church goer interests. Gethsemane
Lutheran Church in Seattle has built a five story modern building attached to their church,
consisting of 50 affordable housing apartments and a center for social services. St. Mathews Lutheran in Renton joined hands with the now closed Renton Lutheran to create Luther’s Table, a coffee shop type atmosphere that provides a meeting place for individuals that would not
otherwise attend a formal church setting. There are multiple other emergent type church settings ongoing in our own area.
The key note speaker for our Assembly was Tony Jones, a founder of an emergent church
congregation called Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis. This emergent congregation meets in a previously abandoned church sanctuary and has created a very informal form of worship and interaction among pastor and congregants.
Another emphasis of the assembly was a review of the broader church outreach. An example was over $220,000 that has been gathered this past year to provide mosquito netting and
hospital care to fight malaria in Africa. Our own youth contributed to this cause. Overall 94.2% of congregational giving typically stays with each congregation, 3% goes to support synods and 2.8% goes to support church wide organizations and mission.
Bishop Unti’s theme for the assembly was “Joining God’s Parade.” The emphasis was that God is calling us to move in creative ways that we may not have experienced before. We are being called to trust God in our walk of faith and to be loving and caring to our neighbors. God’s grace is what matters most. It was a good assembly and enjoyable to be part of a large
gathering of God’s people.
