Dear Edgeboro Friends & Family,

This is the first newsletter article I’m writing after the Synod of the Northern Province, which took place June 22-25 on Moravian University campus. I’ve been asked multiple times, “How did it go?” and “What did you do?” Besides from quickly responding with, “it was rewarding, exhausting, and we got a lot done in four days,” I wanted to try to give you some extra details as space allows in this newsletter.

By the Numbers
This was the 44th synod of the Northern Province. At this synod, there were 219 delegates (Me, Tom Pheiffer, Jane Martin, Betsy Miller, and Dave Bennett from Edgeboro). Each delegate was assigned to one of 13 committees, each covering a different area of ministry. 75 resolutions were passed by the synod, each one calling the church to action (simple actions like thanking a person or a board for their work, administrative actions like approving a budget, or future actions like developing resources for ministry).

Elections
Synod elects a number of different people to various ministries. For most elections, nominees are gathered pre-synod, and we cast a ballot accordingly. For the President of the Provincial Elders Conference and for Bishops, an ecclesial ballot is cast, meaning there are no nominees. Instead, everyone is given a list of all the eligible clergy and the voting begins, round by round until someone has 2/3rds of the vote. The PEC president is a four-year term, max of three terms. Since Betsy Miller had served all 12 years (plus an additional “Covid year”), a new president (Dave Bennett) was elected after a few rounds of voting.

As far as the bishop elections go, synod was not required to elect new bishops (at least two bishops must be actively serving in a ministry setting, which we have), however the synod decided to do so in order to provide more care for our congregations and clergy. In the same method used to elect the president, the synod elected two new bishops (Amy Ghodes-Luhman and Michael Johnson) for the first time since 2010 (when Pastor Chris was elected) – the longest span of time in between bishop elections in this province since the world wars.

Justice Work
The mission statement of our province is: “The Northern Province of the Moravian Church in America equips people and congregations to be agents of God’s transforming love in the world.” With the theme of synod being “For the Healing of the World,” our focus naturally landed on the “God’s transforming love” piece of that statement. That was evident in another statement that originated in Moravian Church circles previously, but seemed to gain traction at synod: “No matter who you are or how you identify, you are embraced and affirmed by God’s expansive love.” While all this underlined the work of all 13 synod committees, it was prominent in the work of the Church & Society Committee, who put forth resolutions and statements that the entire synod approved. Through this synod, the Moravian Church Northern Province voiced its commitments to racial justice, the justice and healing for indigenous people, the LGBTQIA+ community, refugees, and communities struggling with mental health crisis, and it’s stance against (and support for the victims of) antisemitism, mass incarceration, gun violence, white supremacy, and Christian nationalism.