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Celebrating Twenty-Five Years Together In Christ
have added to and or have replaced insufficient fellowship areas/buildings. In Garrett County, the two three-point congregations have had separate conversations about growth to the point that the Bittinger Parish is no longer and is now three separate congregations. Of the three, Zion, Saint John’s and Emmanuel, Emmanuel is the only one seeking to call a pastor. Within the Accident Parish a Call Process has begun to call a leader to lead worship in two of the three congregations with discussions that center on merging Saint Paul’s and Saint John’s. If all of Shepherd of the Hills’ work is completed this spring, they will become our newest congregation in this synod with their constitutional meeting taking place on Sunday, April 7. Shepherd of the Hills will be received as a new congregation during our 2013 Synod Assembly. In the Ohio-Kanawha Valley Conference, Saint Paul and Trinity have begun discussions of merging. In the Mason-Jackson Lutheran Shared Ministry discussions have taken place to realign the shared minister to provide Pastor Cadle more time for Saint Paul, New Haven, and to have a part-time assistant with the rest of the parish. Saint Luke’s, Beckley, has quadrupled the size of their kitchen and added classrooms and showers as they continue to grow. In Wheeling, an invitation was presented to all of the Lutheran congregations noting the possibility of creating something new as these eight (8) congregations have an abundance of gifts but a lack of people to fill all eight (8) congregations. Six (6) of these congregations have voted to enter into discussions concerning the future of the Lutheran witness in Wheeling and are sending representatives to monthly meetings. A portion of the catalyst for change was the move of a clergy couple and the retirement of another pastor. This left four (4) full-time pastors and two (2) interim pastors serving the eight (8) Wheeling churches. The above transitions may become transformative and can be seen as normal, scary, and at times exciting. It is transitional events like these that reflect our Assembly theme of “always being made new.” This is the hope that we have as we hear the Word of God and receive the gift of God’s sacraments. Our sincere hope is that we will be transformed by God’s gift of grace. In the fifth (5th) Chapter of II Corinthians the emphasis is upon “God in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding our faults against us, and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled. So we are ambassadors for Christ.” There are three other events that are of the transition/transformative nature. The first that I want to comment upon took place over the weekend of March 15-16, 2013. During the Team Meeting on Friday night, March 15th, I invited all of the current synod committee chairs to resign effective August 30, 2013. This cadre of faithful servants has in most cases served since the ELCA was created in the position of chair in one or more committees. The constitution of the Synod states that no one is to serve more than three three-year terms on any one committee. I also indicated that our other responsibility is to raise up new leaders and using the same folks as chairs does not achieve this purpose. I thanked the following for their lengthy and faithful service: Peggy Blatt (Global Missions), Marcie Woloshan (Youth Ministry), Norma Bowyer (Church and Society), Dorcas and George Friedline (Small Congregations and Appalachian Ministry and Stewardship), and Clem Pemberton (Bishop’s Lay Worship Leaders). On Saturday, March 16th, I stated that this would be the last All Committee Day as well.