Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada
Member church of the Lutheran World Federation
In 2024, congregations and partners from across the Eastern Synod were invited to send an ornament to help decorate a new Christmas Tree in the Synod Office. The response was overwhelming! We are so grateful for your enthusiastic embrace of this invitation. Thank you!
In her Christmas Greeting, Bishop Carla Blakley reflects on the diversity of our new Christmas ornament collection, and how such a beautiful diversity is mirrored in our synodical family. Merry Christmas!
The Bishops’ Company for Mission was established in 2003 as a gathering of lay people whose financial generosity helps to support mission and ministry activities of the Eastern Synod, above and beyond the regular budget. Join us this year in welcoming our new Bishop Carla Blakley to the Eastern Synod. Information and tickets will be made available soon.
We are pleased to offer a series of resources to encourage your observation and celebration of Pride Month.
Resources have been divided into four different sets aimed at helping congregations develop ways in which they can appreciate the 2SLGBTQIA+ community during Pride month, which takes place in June of each year. These resources are far from exhaustive, but offer a survey of possibilities for engaging conversation. Here is an outline of what is on offer.
VIEW THE FULL PRIDE MONTH RESOURCE LIBRARY
Introduction
In the Introduction Folder you will find a document called “Terminology” which offers some help with the 2SLGBTQIA+ acronym and its meanings. In addition, “A Brief History” provides a short overview of the history of Pride in the United States and Canada. Both of these documents are short and are essential: it is advisable to take time with them before proceeding. In addition, you will find “Arts and Media Conversation Starters,” a short curated list of reading and/or viewing that might serve to start conversation in congregational settings around Pride identity.
Ready to Start
These resources are for congregations who have never done this work before and/or may need significant refresher. Here and in the other folders, you will find some documents prepared by Reconciling Works, an American community working for full inclusion of 2SLGBTQIA+ in faith communities. These resources focus on specific strategies for communities to increase their welcome and become actively supportive of the 2SLGBTQIA+ people in their own community and the wider communities around them.
Ready to Engage Further
This folder contains resources for those congregations who have already done some work and are looking to explore further. Again, some Reconciling Works initiatives offer a deeper reach in creating inclusive environments.
Ready to Celebrate
This folder offers worship resources and some support for those looking to be advocates and allies. Here, you will find worship devotional and worship resources including a sermon. The folder also includes a litany, created for a specific moment, but adaptable as a means by which to offer apology and accountability for past harm. Mostly, this folder offers ways to celebrate allyship and to live fully into being visibly affirming (beyond having a Pride flag).
Ready to Go Deeper
Although you will find some theological reflection in any of the folders, this fourth folder offers some resources for thinking and reflecting on identity. Included throughout these folders are essays from the July 2022 Issue of Consensus, a journal published jointly twice a year by Martin Luther University College and Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon. This particular issue was given over to voices of lived experience. It shares the work of rostered ministers and lay leaders, including those who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ and those who are allies. Here you will find two theological reflections on Queer experience. In addition, there is “2SLGBTQIA+- Sexuality in Changing Canadian Lutheran Contexts and Identities” by Rev. Karen Kuhnert, a helpful article for providing some important contextual history within our church.
Note also that the Government of Canada offers a webpage that provides “Information and resources related to the Government of Canada’s work to improve equality for 2SLGBTQI+ communities”. Some of the answers to questions that may arise from community conversation may be found here, with regard to legal and political rights and realities.
Wherever you find yourselves, we hope that you will be informed and enriched by your exploration. Thank you for wanting to spend some time in Pride month helping to create a more fully-inclusive church. God’s peace to you as you journey!
The Bishops’ Company for Mission was established in 2003 as a gathering of lay people whose financial generosity helps to support mission and ministry activities of the Eastern Synod, above and beyond the regular budget. This year’s gathering will see us celebrate 20 years of generous giving in the Synod! Come join us as I reflect on my time in ministry as Bishop, and the ways in which, together, we have been in Mission for Others. This year, the Bishops’ Company for Mission is being sponsored by the Evangelical Lutheran Foundation of Eastern Canada (ELFEC) – https://elfec.ca/. We are grateful to our friends at ELFEC for their gracious gift in support of this special event!
To register for this event sign up here: Bishops’ Company Event 2023 (jotform.com)
June is National Indigenous History Month with National Indigenous Peoples Day falling on June 21st. The Circle for Reconciliation and Justice has put together a series of book reviews which will be published in the Synod Mailer every Friday throughout June. Please consider these resources as you do your own learning and further your own journey of reconciliation. If your congregation has yet to book some time to host the Red Dress Journey, please reach out to Liz Zehr at the Synod Office who can help you book your time. The Red Dress Journey is an interactive learning opportunity that will be making its way around the Synod over the coming year. For more information, please visit the Synod website.
Daughters of the Deer by Danielle Daniel
Reviewed by Michele Altermann
Marie is an Algonkin woman and healer of the Deer Clan who has lost her husband and daughters to Iroquois raids. Her parents were pushed further and further north from the Ottawa River area because of raiding by the Iroquois and their English allies, and this is where they ended up. Now her small village, on a site near Trois-Rivières, is the location of a small but growing French settlement and church. Most of the warriors and hunters of the village have been lost to raids and the Sachem is worried about the survival of the remaining 100 or so people. To ensure their survival he convinces Marie to marry a French settler. The People need the protection of the French soldiers against the ongoing Iroquois raids. Marie dutifully takes off her deerskin tunic and dons a blue cloth dress to marry Pierre.
Danielle Daniel is a descendant of Marie, her twelfth generation grandmother. It is a fictional story based on family history and explores the challenges faced by an Indigenous woman and her half settler children in Quebec of the mid to late 1600s. It tells the story of children who try to fit into two different worlds and the prejudices that existed even after conversion to Catholicism and living in a mostly European fashion. When it turns out their daughter, Jeanne, is Two-Spirited it creates more problems for Jeanne, her family and the community. We see highlighted the long history or violence against Indigenous women and the struggles to maintain an identity that the growing newcomer society sees as primitive and disdainful. Written with care and respect, this wonderfully engaging and powerful story (I couldn’t put it down and finished it in two days!) pulls on your emotions even when you can anticipate where the story inevitably goes.
| KAIROS Regina invites you on a journey of faith, one that challenges our comfortable lives and changes the very buildings we worship in. On October 15, KAIROS Regina will host a one-day hybrid conference called, “Creation Care in our Places of Prayer: Energy Retrofits and other Faith-based Climate Action.” In the leadup to that session, they offer these articles to prepare our hearts and minds for the deep transformation that is needed: Our Call to Care for Creation How Much Shall We Give Take Courage Yeast to Raise the Ambition Cast the Net Wide Join us next weekend to learn and share and begin to plan a path forward together. |
