Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

Member church of the Lutheran World Federation

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The Eastern Synod Weekly

The Eastern Synod Weekly is a convenient source for information, updates, announcements and resources to support the life of our Synod. It is our hope that The Eastern Synod Weekly will replace most of our individual mailers.

You can expect these weekly communications each Friday by noon.

We encourage you to share, tweet, and forward these updates as necessary.

Register To Receive The Eastern Synod Weekly

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Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 170Feb 21, 2025
Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 169Feb 14, 2025
Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 168Feb 7, 2025
Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 167Jan 31, 2025
Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 166Jan 24, 2025
Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 165Jan 17, 2025
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 163Dec 20, 2024
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 126February 23, 2024
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 122January 26, 2024
Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 121January 19, 2024
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 118December 22, 2023
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 114November 24, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 113November 17, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Week 112November 10, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 111November 3, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 110October 27, 2023
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 108October 13, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 107October 6, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 106September 29, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 105September 22, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 104September 15, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 103September 8, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 102September 1, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 101August 25, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 100August 18, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 99August 11, 2023
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 97July 28, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 96July 21, 2023
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 93June 30, 2023
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 80March 31, 2023
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 75February 24, 2023
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 74February 17, 2023
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 71January 27, 2023
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 69January 13, 2023
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 67December 23, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 66December 16, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 65December 9, 2022
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 63November 25, 2022
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 47July 29, 2022
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 42June 30, 2022
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 38June 3, 2022
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Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 33April 29, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 32April 22, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 31April 14, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 30April 8, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 29April 1, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 27March 25,2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 26March 18, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 25March 11, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 24March 4, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 23February 25, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 22February 18, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 21February 11, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 20February 4, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 19January 28, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 18January 21, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 17January 14, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 16January 7, 2022
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 15December 17, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 14December 10, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 13December 3, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 12November 26, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 11November 19, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 10November 12, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 9November 5, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 8October 29, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 7October 22, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 6October 15, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 5October 8, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 4October 1, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 3September 24, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 2September 17, 2021
Eastern Synod Weekly – Issue 1September 10, 2021

Synod Staff

Executive

Bishop Carla Blakley (x. 218)
cblakley@elcic.ca

Sara Whynot, Vice Chairperson
swhynot@elcic.ca

Chris Hulan, Secretary (x. 214)
chulan@elcic.ca

Fred Mertz, Treasurer (x. 224)
fmertz@elcic.ca

Assistants to the Bishop

Rev. Adam Snook (x. 216)
Communication, Mission, Lay Ministry, 2SLGBTQIA+, Congregational Support
asnook@elcic.ca

Rev. Christie Morrow-Wolfe (x. 212)
Call Process & Interim Ministry, Stewardship, Youth & Young Adult, Candidacy
cmorrow-wolfe@elcic.ca

Ministry Directors

Rafael Rodriguez, Public Policy and Service Ministries
rrodriguez@elcic.ca

Rev. Jennifer Hoover, Congregational Redevelopment
jhoover@elcic.ca

Staff

Rev. Douglas Reble, Part Time Contract Position, Call Process (x. 215)

dreble@elcic.ca

Liz Zehr, Administrative Assistant to the Bishop/Communications (x. 211)
ezehr@elcic.ca

Cindy Stubbs, Administrative Assistant/Communications (x. 213)
cstubbs@elcic.ca

Danielle Arsenault, Accounting Assistant (x. 217)
darsenault@elcic.ca

Archivist

Rev. Karen Kuhnert, Archivist

Ministry Area Deans

Rev. Bart Coleman, 
Niagara

Rev. Moses Prashad,
Seaway

TBD,
Huronia

Rev. David Tin,
Central Toronto

Rev. Kimber McNabb,
Atlantic

Rev. Thomas Mertz,
The Bay

Rev. Brad Mittleholtz,
Northern

Rev. Martin Malina,
Ottawa

Rev. Ronnie Smith,
GTA East

Rev. David Tin,
GTA West

Rev. Heike Toeller,
Grand River

Rev. Heather Spencer-Stoltz,
Georgian

Rev. David Malina,
Two Rivers

Rev. Sylvia Swiatoschik,
Thames

Rev. Tanya Varner,
Nith Valley

TBD,
Montreal

Rev. Bruce Thompson,
Ottawa Valley

An Invitation to Mark Black History Month

Black History Month is a time for all of us to both celebrate and uplift the achievements and contributions of African Canadians, as well as recognizing and learning more about the historic and systemic challenges people of African descent were and are still faced with in Canada. To that end, the Racial Justice Committee of the Eastern Synod will be releasing a series of videos over the next three weeks to provide you with opportunities to learn more about Black History Month and listen to racialized perspectives from across the Synod. Finally, the Racial Justice Committee and Mt. Zion Lutheran Church, Waterloo, invite you to conclude the month by joining Mt. Zion’s Black History Month Service, either in person or by live stream, on Sunday, February 23rd at 11am.

Download Resources

Invitational Video

Week 1

Black History Month is the annual celebration to commemorate the achievements of Black Peoples and their contributions throughout history to make Canada and the world a more culturally diverse place in which to live.

In December 1995, the House of Commons officially recognized February as Black History Month in Canada following a motion introduced by Dr. Augustine. The House of Commons carried the motion unanimously.

As we welcome Black History Month throughout the month of February, it is another opportunity to learn and reflect on some of the important contributions and events by our Black sisters and brothers throughout the world and within our own churches as well.

For many, this month is also a reminder that we live in a diverse world, and that the contributions to this world and to our church are made not only by our Black brothers and sisters, but also by our Asian and Indigenous families as well. These contributions are not often fully captured in the annals of history or taught in our schools.

Two key factors in learning how we can all do our part to become a more effective and fully inclusive church include:

  • continuous learning about the history and lives of our Black sisters and brothers. This includes listening with empathy and actually ‘seeing’ each other as people with shared interests. 
  • using one’s own influence to promote inclusion, equity and fairness; it is an ongoing commitment to fostering an environment where everyone feels valued, respected and empowered to succeed.

It has been nearly 57 years since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK), one of the most influential voices of the Civil Rights Movement, in Memphis, Tennessee. Yet, his words endure: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Even just those four words alone—“I have a dream”—invoke his legacy.

This year, in our ELCIC-Eastern Synod Weekly Newsletter, we celebrate the achievements of some of our own ELCIC members. We hope you will join us in celebrating these featured leaders.

On behalf of the Racial Justice Committee, we wish you all abundant blessings this month as we learn and celebrate Black History Month. May we all have the audacity to believe we have the power to make the world better for all of God’s children!

Canadian Noteworthy Figures

Week 2: Introducing James Suknundun

Week 3: Isla Miller

Week 4: Carmen Ramirez & Bishop Ali Tote

https://easternsynod.org/bhm2025/

2024 Season of Creation

Posted: | Filed Under: Climate Justice, News

Eastern Synod Climate Justice Task Force

Offers Resources for Celebrating the 2024 Season of Creation.

The Climate Justice Task Force has met three times since its formation at the Synod Assembly this past June. Today we offer some resources for marking the Season of Creation (1 September – 4 October) during worship. For the next Synod e-news the Task Force will offer some suggestions for climate advocacy activities for your congregation. 

What is the Season of Creation?

The Season of Creation is a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together. During the Season of Creation, we join our siblings in the ecumenical family in prayer and action for our common home.

Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios proclaimed 1 September as a day of prayer for creation for the Orthodox in 1989. In fact, the Orthodox church year starts on that day with a commemoration of how God created the world.

The World Council of Churches was instrumental in making the special time a season, extending the celebration from 1 September until 4 October. Following the leadership of Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios, the WCC, Christians worldwide have embraced the season as part of their annual calendar. Pope Francis made the Roman Catholic Church’s warm welcoming of the season official in 2015.

In recent years, statements from religious leaders around the world have also encouraged the faithful to take time to recommit to care for creation not just during the month-long celebration but everyday especially as we face head on the climate crisis. 

The season starts 1 September, the Day of Prayer for Creation, and ends 4 October, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology beloved by many Christian denominations.

Throughout the month-long celebration, the world’s 2.2 billion Christians come together to care for our common home.

RESOURCES

The Season of Creation Steering and Advisory Committees annually establish a theme and offer some resources. This year’s theme is “To Hope and Act with Creation” with the symbol “First Fruits of Hope,” based on Romans 8:19-25. You can read more about the theme on page 13 of the document, “Celebration Guide for the Season of Creation.”

Season of Creation GuideDownload

Liturgical Resources

Below are some resources that we hope will be helpful in your congregation’s observance of the season. We along with these resources we suggest incorporating experiences within worship that help us remember our connection with creation: worshiping outside, bringing elements of creation inside, inviting people to recall times of interaction with creation, and many more ideas. Last year at St Mark’s each week we gave a different item, based upon a weekly theme, for the people to hold: sea shell, stone, leaf, pine cone, etcetera while providing a time of remembrance of encounters with a specific element of creation as part of the confession. 

Creation Liturgy – A Creation Inclusive Liturgy for Holy Communion in an ecumenical setting.

Creation liturgyDownload

Weekly Supplemental Liturgical Material

These resources offer prayers, liturgical exchanges, scriptural commentary, sermon ideas based upon the Revised Common Lectionary, RCL, for each Sunday during the Season of Creation.

Eco Congregation, Church of Scottland – 

This link from the JPIT, Joint Public Issues Team is the most user friendly way to these resources form Eco Congregation, Church of Scottland. 

Season of Creation 2024

Anglican Season of Creation Manual

Anglican Season of Creation Manual-2024Download


Other resources

From the Laudato Si’ Movement

“Via Creationis” – a service based on the Creation Story in Genesis chapter 1. It is mostly a praise of the glories of creation. 

Via Creationis – Long version (Facilitator) – 13.9.2023Download


LSM Prayer Book – A great collection of prayers and devotions around creation and its care.

LSM PRAYER BOOKDownload

Picture Something You Cannot See

Posted: | Filed Under: Spotlight

Over 85 years ago, Finnish immigrants to Timmins and first generation families gathered to formalize St. John’s Lutheran as a faith community.  Over the decades, the church was a bustling center of activity as each Sunday they gathered for worship, taught the children about their faith, held language classes in both English and Finnish, hosted many suppers, provided pulla bread for the community and were involved in outreach to the local hospital and other areas of need. They were energetic in sharing their culture with the wider community around them and were willing to be part of cultural events in the city of Timmins.

The list of Finnish Pastors who served that community were many and they all brought their own character and vocational commitment. They led the congregation faithfully and with true zeal for Christ. However, following the trend of many church congregations, attendance eventually started to decline. Families got older, some moved away and other members reached the fullness of their time on earth. An amalgamation with St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Timmins brought new energy to the community in South Porcupine and for a period, the congregation was once again busy with community ministry.

In 2013, the congregation discerned that a full time pastor was no longer financially viable for them and so in 2014 they moved to part-time ministry as provided by an Anglican priest, the Rev. Patricia Dorland. They continued to meet and worship weekly and Finnish Pastors sponsored by the Suomi Conference and the Eastern Synod came throughout the year, offering Finnish language worship services and pastoral visiting as possible. This was greatly appreciated by the congregation, as worshipping in their language of the heart was very important.

Finally in 2019 it was decided that maintaining the building was no longer possible for the congregation and the process began to put the building up for sale. In June of 2020, the building was sold to Access Better Living (ABL). Since taking possession of the property, ABL has worked very hard to repurpose the space in order to provide three programs for their clients; The Respite Care program, the Adult Summit program, and the recently renamed Jr. Summit program (formerly Extend-A-Family). The two stained glass windows that were given in memory of congregational members were kept in place and are a beautiful focus for spiritual calm. A large mural, painted by the Porcupine Art Club, is a pastoral scene of mountains.  This image is a visual affirming of the Center’s programming goal for their clients. This is ABL’s explanation for calling the new Centre, the Summit. “Life is all about learning. We are always learning new things, and facing new challenges. Here at The Summit, we encourage you to be a mountain climber, to set a goal and work hard to achieve it!  You are unique and can do great things!” The opening of the Centre was on April 30th and in attending that celebration, it is very clear that The Summit is a wonderful re-imagining of the use of the building. Sometimes it is difficult to picture what we cannot see; to envision how God works in the community where we live. Change is difficult if we are afraid, if we do not trust God’s plan for his people and if our faith falters. We give thanks for The Summit  and pray that all who enter will continue to receive the peace of Christ. God can do infinitely more than we could image. We could not have pictured this vision, but we believe God was at work!

At our recent congregational meeting it was decided that to be good stewards of the legacy left to us in the form of proceeds from the sale of the building, some funds could be used to support other ministries doing God’s work in the world.  Therefore, the congregation approved donations to the local hospital children’s healthcare, the local food bank, a group that provides hot meals to those needing nourishment, The Eastern Synod general ministry fund, and a donation to Lutheran World Relief.  We are very thankful to all the saints of St. John’s Lutheran who have gone before us and who had entrusted to our care their time, skills and resources.  We hope that we have been faithful to God and to them.

St. John’s Lutheran Church congregation continues and is worshipping each Sunday at  Kulta Koti, a senior’s residence,  in a space that proves easy access and a whole new community to reach out to. We continue to be a faithful people who follow Christ. We continue to gather to praise, pray and listen to Holy Scripture. We come to Christ’s Table as people who have been saved by grace! Thanks be to God.

What a journey we have been on!

Posted: | Filed Under: Local, News

St James Lutheran Church, Renfrew ON is a small congregation in the Upper Ottawa Valley. We have been watching our membership decline and our 60-year-old building age and need expensive repairs.  Just the cost of heat and electricity was straining our budget.

How do we keep going?

Years ago, we realized we could not afford full-time ministry and were very fortunate to work out a Shared Ministry agreement with our sister congregation, St John’s Lutheran Church in Arnprior.  We are now blessed to be able to share their minister, Pastor Norine Gullons.
   This arrangement helped us survive years longer than we would have otherwise, but still we seemed to be running a deficit budget each year.  This made it extremely difficult to keep our commitment to be a congregation “In Mission for Others”. 
   We still have a strong core group of members in our congregation and after many meetings, we realized that we all want to continue worshiping together in Renfrew, so closing and going elsewhere wasn’t a viable solution – we wanted to stay together.  So now what?
   We sold our building and property in June 2021 and have arranged to rent the small chapel at Trinity-St Andrew’s United Church in Renfrew.  This is one of the first joint agreements with a United Church congregation in Eastern Synod.
   Trinity-St Andrew’s has been very welcoming.  We have been able to bring our altar, our lectern, baptismal font, holy hardware and so many other things from our old church, that the chapel looks like “home”.  One of our members even used parts from our pulpit to create a beautiful wooden, wall mounted hanger for our eternal flame.


   We now have “money in the bank” and can focus on being a congregation “In Mission for Others”.
   We have donated our cross and bell tower to Camp Lutherlyn.  Our two cornerstones are going to Rosebank Cemetery, where the majority of our departed family are at rest.  And we are now working on an Outreach ministry plan.
   To date we have sent donations to CLWR, ELCIC Praise Appeal, ELCIC Synod Benevolence, Renfrew Hospice, The Dementia Society and we always have supported the Renfrew Food Bank.

We have moved before………

St James Lutheran Church was originally organized in 1889 in the small community of Northcote, 10 miles outside of Renfrew.  The interesting thing is that St James and St John’s Lutheran Church, Arnprior were united together as one parish back at that time.  How things come around!
   Occasional services were held in the town of Renfrew in the late 1940s.  When St John’s Church in Arnprior became capable of becoming a stand-alone parish, the Canada Synod conducted a survey & decided in 1956 that there was a need for a Lutheran congregation in Renfrew.  In December of that same year, St James, Northcote voted to disband and become the nucleus of the Lutheran congregation in Renfrew.  Weekly services were first held at the Standard Church in Renfrew and later at the Christian Reformed Church.
   On January 12, 1958, St James Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized.  On October 16, 1960, the ground was broken for our church building.  The dedication service was May 14, 1961.
   And here we are, 60 years later, taking another big step, like those faithful members did in Northcote back in the 1950s. 
   Together with God’s help, we will continue to both worship together and help others in need.

Submitted by Marilyn Kropp