Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Member church of the Lutheran World Federation
It’s been a year.
It has been a year, and what has changed?
A year since a man begged for his life from an officer of the law. A year since a woman was shot in her bed. A year since national sports leagues boycotted games. A year since we saw #saytheirnames trending on social media.
It has been a year since George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Regis Korchinski-Paquet.
What has changed?
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Stella Bowles, M.S.M., O.N.S.
When she was just eleven years old, Stella Bowles wanted to go swimming in the LaHave River, but her mother explained that the water was contaminated. Many homes still have illegal straight pipes that allow sewage from the toilet to flush directly into the river. Stella was appalled and wondered if she could change this somehow.
With guidance from her mentor, Dr. David Maxwell, Stella’s testing verified that bacteria levels in the river exceeded permitted guidelines. After posting her results on social media, Stella drew national attention and support for the removal of illegal straight pipes from the LaHave River. Stella’s project helped influence the development of a $15.7 million project, funded by Federal, Provincial, and Municipal governments, to have straight pipes replaced with compliant septic systems by 2023. Author Anne Laurel-Carter’s book “My River” tells the story of Stella’s journey. Stella’s story is now part of Nova Scotia’s grade seven social studies curriculum on empowerment.
Stella is also a published researcher in the Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science Journal. Along with mentor Professor Brent Wilson, she studied and had published Intertidal foraminifera in the Spartina patens floral zone of the LaHave Estuary, Canada: A baseline for assessing organic pollution remediation.
Stella presents at conferences and in schools working with youth around the world addressing environmental issues in their own communities. She also works for Nova Action as a youth leader. This program has ten youth from across Nova Scotia tackling their own environmental issues in their own communities. She has won many awards including the Meritorious Service Medal 2018 and the Order of Nova Scotia in 2020. Stella hopes to demonstrate that science combined with social media, can influence positive environmental transformation. At just seventeen years old, Stella has become one of Nova Scotia’s leading environmental advocates.
Dear Siblings in Christ,
We, the Eastern Synod, acknowledge and denounce the continued and increasing hateful, racist and targeted acts against the Asian-Canadian and Pacific Islander (ACPI) community. Specifically and especially, we denounce those actions that are perpetuated due to poisonous misinformation and anti-Asian rhetoric in relation to the COVID-19 virus, and its origin in China. Importantly, it is a matter of justice.
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Dear friends in Christ,
Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Risen Savior Jesus Christ!
The Lord is Risen! He is Risen, indeed! Alleluia!
I am so grateful for this opportunity to offer an Easter greeting to you! And I do so with a heart that is bursting with gratitude.
I am so very thankful for our rostered ministers, musicians and videographers for all that they have done to proclaim God’s word and strengthen the bonds that unite us over these long months of isolation.
I am so thankful for congregational leaders who have faced the challenges of this pandemic with great courage, creativity and generosity.
And I am so grateful to you, dear disciples, for your faithfulness in ensuring that the vital work of Christ’s church has continued and in many ways grown over the course of what has felt like a year-long season of lent.
Dear church, God has blessed and equipped us to be God’s faithful people in ways none of us would have thought imaginable and I have never been prouder to be counted among your number!
May God grant you, and those dear to you, a full and rich experience of the story of Easter, not a story that we Christians explain, so much as it is a story that explains we Christians!
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again!
Music is “Alleluia” by PianoDay on Audio Jungle.
Video recorded in the Schultz Chapel at the Eastern Synod Office. #myELCIC#easter2021
Dear friends in Christ,
Grace and peace be to you from God our father and from our Lord and savior Jesus Christ!
In recent weeks many of us have been contemplating how and when our congregations might return to in-person worship. Some of us have already begun to physically gather. Others are contemplating a return during Holy Week. And many of us are, as yet, unsure as to when we might be able to return to our sanctuaries.
It seems timely, therefore, to reiterate some of the basic principles that I have shared with you in previous communications.
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Dear Friends,
I am absolutely delighted to announce that The Rev. Dr. Kristine Lund has been chosen to lead Martin Luther University College as our Principal-Dean; the first ever woman to serve in this position! While fulfilling this role in an interim capacity for the past year, she has shown herself to be an extremely perceptive and adaptive leader! These gifts will be much needed as Luther transitions into a post-pandemic future and I have every confidence that the Luther Board of Governors has chosen the right leader for this time in the life of our beloved school!
Please join me in welcoming Dr. Lund into this new role, and carrying the entire Luther community in prayer as they continue their outstanding ministry.
Bishop Michael Pryse