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Staff Bishop Richard E. Jaech Rev. Kim Latterell bishop’s associate Rev. Melanie Wallschlaeger director for evangelical mission (ELCA staff) Allison Ramsey office manager Phone (253) 535-8300 Address 420 121st St. S Tacoma, WA 98444 E-mail swwsynod@plu.edu Blog http://swwsynodelca.blogspot.com Websites www.lutheranssw.org www.elca.org Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Southwestern-Washington-Synod/1290477871337786 Twitter @SWWASynod

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Why is Easter so Late this Year? by Bishop Richard Jaech

Moments for Mission Southwestern Washington Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ by empowering congregations and church leaders to grow in worship, education, outreach, stewardship and other ministries. February 2019

Dear Friends in Christ, I have said it to myself, and I have heard it said from many other people lately, “Lent and Easter are so late this year! What’s going on?!” Often Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, arrives by mid-February. This year Ash Wednesday doesn’t come until March 6. Three years ago, we celebrated Easter on March 27. This year Easter will be on April 21. Why is it so early some years and so late this year? Most Christian festival days are fixed on specific dates, so we know exactly when

they are going to happen each year. Christmas is on December 25. Reformation Day is on October 31. There’s no guessing and no surprises (at least not about the date.) Easter, however, changes from year to year. This is because the Christian church, from its earliest years, decided to set the date of Easter according to a lunar calendar, which measures time by the movement of the moon rather than the sun. When the four Gospels tell us the story of Good Friday and Easter, they describe how Easter happened right after the Jewish festival of Passover. The Christian church decided to continue the calendar relationship between Passover and Easter. However, the traditional Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar and, therefore, the dates of Passover and Easter vary each year according to the phases of the moon.

The rule for setting the date of Easter is this: Easter is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox (the first day of Spring.) The vernal equinox, according to astronomers, actually slides between March 20 and March 22. However, in the traditional Christian church calendar, March 21 was picked as the yearly date of the vernal equinox. Therefore, Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21. That means that March 22 is the absolute earliest possible date for Easter in any year. The latest possible date is April 25. So, our date of Easter this year, April 21, is quite late in this range of possibilities. (It will fall on the very latest date possible, April 25, in 2038.)

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Late Easter, continued from page 1 Those are all calendar-keeping facts that I find interesting, but are there any spiritual truths that might come to us out of this? As I find myself meditating on our late-blooming, off-in-the-distance Easter this year, here are a few thoughts that come to mind. God’s gift of Easter (new life!) sometimes comes suddenly and sometimes must

develop slowly in the hidden corners of our lives. Being forced to wait for a crucial event can help us to receive and open ourselves to it

all the more. The full, springtime bloom that will be around us by April 21, will also be a sign of the

life that God will help to “flower” in us through Easter. No matter where Easter is on the calendar, it will still surprise and disrupt our normal

schedule! Easter is God’s lunar gift to us lunatic people! Thank goodness that, whether early or late, Easter’s resurrection power can never be

stopped. We are racing ahead of ourselves, of course. We are still in the light-filled days of Epiphany. Lent is a number of weeks off. Yet we are given strength for this journeying by trusting that we are headed toward the Easter moment when our lives and our world are turned upside down.

Yours in Christ, Bishop Rick Jaech

Congregations in Transition – February 2019 Lord, we pray for your wisdom, insight and peace for the congregations and the leaders in our synod who are working through a time of pastoral transition. Amen. Congregations Position Status Pastoral Care

Agnus Dei, Gig Harbor AP TR Pr. Seth Novak and Pr. Maria Kim

Beautiful Savior, Vancouver P TR Pr. Scott Dunfee Celebration, Puyallup P I Pr. Kyle Merkle Creator, Bonney Lake P TR Pr. Nina Body Emanuel, Yelm P TR Pr Linda Milks Galilean, Ocean Shores P I Pulpit Supply Gloria Dei, Kelso P I Pr. Elten Zerby Key Peninsula, Lakebay P TR Pr. Dan Wilson &

Jesse McKenzie Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Olympia

P TR Pr. Duane Fister & Pr. Michael Greenwalt

Shepherd of the Hills, Stevenson

P NV Pr. Rob Sachs

Spirit of Life, Port Orchard P TR Bradley Hayward St. Andrew, Vancouver AP C Pr. Jim Stender St. Paul, Castle Rock P TR Pulpit supply St. Paul, Vancouver P TR Pr. Joe Aalbue Trinity, Enumclaw P NV Pulpit Supply

Synod Call Rev. Sara Schier-Hanson was called by their Synod Council as Associate Chaplain at Tacoma Lutheran Retirement Community. She serves with Pastor Randy Olson, Chaplain.

Mobility position key P – Pastor AP – Associate Pastor D- Deacon Mobility status key: NV – New Vacancy TR – Transition I – Interviewing C – Calling

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Page Three By Pastor Kim Latterell, Bishop’s Associate

In introductory comments to the biblical letter 1 Timothy, the Lutheran Study Bible offers these words of encouragement: …believers are to set an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. This faith is more than theory and discussions. Jesus Christ lived in this world and deeply cared for it. Christianity starts with this story of Jesus Christ, and it leads to action in the world. The church is to be a place where Christ’s

love becomes visible. For this task, the church needs competent leaders who engage people to lead lives of love and godliness. One of the key ways we work to raise up, support, and hold accountable such leaders is by prayer. Paul’s words of encouragement are found in chapter 2:1-3. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior… (bold is mine.) We need such leaders in our congregations, synods, churchwide and world. We also need such leaders who exhibit these traits in our governmental leadership. Good government and faithful leaders are called, by Luther, a true gift of God. Good leaders deserve our prayers and support. Leaders who fail to lead in a worthy manner deserve to be held accountable. We are to obey our leaders up to the point where they fail God’s test of compassion and service on behalf of the common good of all, especially the most vulnerable among us. God’s will and ways for the world trump every other loyalty and call for our primary obedience. Some leadership concerns must rise above partisan politics and loyalties. God’s will and way with the world will not (for long) be mocked. When leaders can be caught in over 8000 fact-checked lies and falsehoods; when leaders surround themselves with corrupt support (6 office holders indicted for lies and corruption): when more than 100 suspect contacts are made a with foreign nation acknowledged to have interfered with our election process; when the weak and vulnerable are labelled enemy instead of neighbor-in-need; when theft (emolument violations), adultery (hush payments), false witness (name-calling and reputation assaults) become standard operating procedure; when calling friends enemies and enemies friends and when walls replace welcome (no matter their construction), more is needed than prayer and supplication alone. Change and challenge is needed. Truthfulness, transparency and accountability must be the tools of change. If faith communities are silent, or worse, supportive of such leadership failures, then in Jesus’ name we are no longer faithful. In our Book of Concord, Smalcald 4th Article on the pope’s excesses (Luther attacks false, offensive, blasphemous, arrogant power), one small hope is held out when leadership fails so miserably. Luther writes: The only exception concerns the area of political government where God sometimes allows much good to come to a people through a tyrant or a scoundrel. Pray that it may be so.

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On The Road with the Bishop

January 2-7 Joining with all the Bishops and Spouse of the ELCA at The Bishop’s Academy, our time for continuing education, fellowship and spiritual support. This year it was held in San Antonio and we focused on care for the planet in this time of critical climate change. Pictured above are the bishops and spouses attending from Region I. January 12 Gathering with members of the Tacoma and Seattle chapters of the American Guild of Organists to visit the organ-building workplace in Parkland WA of Paul Fritts, one of the foremost tracker organ builders in the United States, shown right. The organ pictured in the photo, once entirely created and assembled, will be taken apart and shipped to a church in Ohio, where it will be re-assembled. The AGO Tacoma chapter is very active and includes many Lutheran organists from our Synod, as well as Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian and Catholic musicians. Continued next page

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On the Road, continued from page 4 January 21-23 At the Seabeck Conference Center, for the 45 and Under Ministers gathering and then for the Bishop’s Convocation, a learning retreat for all pastors and deacons in our synod. The meeting house , shown below

January 25-26 Holding a Retreat with our Synod Council at the Dumas Bay Center in Federal Way, shown below. We envisioned and planned for the next five years of ministry in our Synod.

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On the Road, continued from page 5 January 27 Preaching at St. Mark’s by the Narrows, Tacoma, and speaking at their Annual Meeting. The photo shown below is a small segmant of their beautiful stained glass window in their sanctuary.

January 15, 30 and 31 Dir for Evangelical Mission (DEM), Melanie Wallschlaeger and I, shown left, met with women pastors and deacons at three churches around our Synod (Saron Lutheran, Hoquiam; Bethany Lutheran, Longview; and Calvary Lutheran, Federal Way) to learn from their experiences in church settings where women leaders are often not respected and supported equally to men.

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Happy New Year! By ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton

Ah, a new year! It opens up before us with infinite possibilities like brand new notebooks at the beginning of the school year or the beginning of football season in Cleveland—everyone has a 4.0, everyone is undefeated!

At the turn of the new year it seems possible to slough off the failures and disappointments of the past, leave one’s old self behind and start a new life. In this glow we begin to make all kinds of resolutions, not just for the amendment of our lives but for the perfection of our future. It’s a wonderful space of hope and potential. It’s also ephemeral—morning dawns on Jan. 2.

We are strange creatures—bounded and finite, yet aware of the infinite; marked by brokenness, yet with the memory of Eden. I think this tension becomes more acute at nodal times: the beginning of a new year, venture or relationship, the move to a new place or a new stage in life. We know, as the psalmist wrote: “Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5).

And we know that we are not quite right “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

This is a very Lutheran understanding of the human condition. We know we are simultaneously saint and sinner. It’s when we deny this truth or when we believe that we can fix the sinner and become the saint all by ourselves that we get into trouble. Our efforts for perfection bring frustration and real pain to ourselves and to others. The demands we place on ourselves to get our lives together, especially when can’t quite bring it off, lead to despair or at least to fatalism. Or, believing that we have got it all together, we can fall into the trap of self-righteousness. Here is where the great gift of grace, especially as it comes to us in baptism, helps us make sense of our lives and resolves the stress of New Year’s resolutions—it acknowledges that we are broken and does away with the false hope or the intolerable burden of our being able to make ourselves right. “It brings about forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all those who believe it, as the words and promise of God declare” (Small Catechism).

And it joins us to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).

We have already died the only death that really matters—we have died to sin and its consequence, death. We are a kind of walking dead—with all of popular culture’s fascination with zombies, we may have found ourselves a niche!

New Year’s resolutions can be a burden because, except for the most disciplined among us, Continued next page

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Happy New Year, continued from page 7 it’s a good bet we will make the same resolutions next year. The old creature is to be drowned daily but, as theologian Karl Barth once wrote, “the old creature is drowned in baptism but is a good underwater swimmer.”

Here is where it is necessary to hear Paul’s letter to the Romans—“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”—not as final, nor as a bludgeon to get people to fall into line, but as the truth.

The very next thing Paul wrote is: “They are now justified by his grace as a gift” (Romans 3:24).

Now we have the possibility of daily repentance because we have been given the gift of new life. Now resolutions can be made and attempted, not because our life depends upon them, but because we are free. Happy New Year!

A monthly message from the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Her email address is: bishop@elca.org. This column originally appeared in the January 2019 issue of Living Lutheran. Reprinted with permission.

Lutheran World Relief, IMA World Health Join Forces BALTIMORE, Jan 14, 2019—International humanitarian organizations Lutheran World Relief and IMA World Health today announced they are combining operations to dramatically increase their impact on breaking the cycle of poverty and promoting healthier families and communities throughout the world. Lutheran World Relief, based in Baltimore, and IMA World Health, a faith-based public health agency headquartered in Washington, D.C., integrated January 1 with a single CEO, leadership team and staff, and identical boards of directors. The combined organization mobilizes a joint staff of 550 people in 21 countries around the world. Ambassador Daniel V. Speckhard, president and CEO of Lutheran World Relief, will lead the unified organization. Rick Santos, who served as CEO at IMA World Health for the past nine years, will serve as a senior advisor for the transition. The move is a natural evolution for Lutheran World Relief and IMA World Health, which have worked together for more than half a century. IMA World Health was founded in 1960 by a coalition of faith-based organizations, including Lutheran World Relief, to provide medical supplies to the world’s poorest populations. Over the years, IMA World Health has provided $75 million in medical-related materials to Lutheran programs and has evolved to become a comprehensive public health agency. Continued next page

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Lutheran World Relief continued from page 8

In addition to our ongoing work serving more than 35 million people around the world, the combined agency is expanding programs to improve water and sanitation and thwart cholera in Haiti, prevent the spread of Ebola along the Ugandan-Congolese border, and provide treatment for pediatric and cervical cancer in Tanzania.

The two organizations’ financial strength and complementary work in public health, rural livelihoods and emergency relief greatly extends the unified agency’s reach throughout the world, Speckhard said.

“We’re making this historic move to better serve the world’s most vulnerable communities,” he said. “We will have a much greater impact together than we ever could have apart in the goal of ending extreme poverty and hunger and building healthy communities.”

Worshipping Community

St. Valentine’s Celebration Saturday, February 9

6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

St. Mark’s by the Narrows 6730 N. 17th Street, Tacoma

Jekesa Marimba Band Concert

Plus, elegant desserts, a silent auction and chance to learn more about how our new worshipping community is helping women incarcerated at the Washington Correction Center for Woman (Purdy) and Mission Creek Correction Center for Women in Belfair… and their families. $15.00 - suggested donation. Auction item donations are appreciated. For reservations, contact Joan Nelson at joan2nelson@comcast.net or 253-208-3307. Or, send your check to Empowering Life, PO Box 1803, Gig Harbor, WA 98335 with number in your party.

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2019 Synod Assembly June 7-8, 2019 at the Hilton hotel in Vancouver, WA

Theme: "See, I am doing a new thing!" Isaiah 43:19 Learn how to do NEW things and what you can do that is NEW in your congregation and in your life. This year, we will be electing a bishop, plus many other elected positions throughout the Synod. Bishop pre-identification forms will be sent to all rostered leaders, congregations and our newsletter lists. This will allow our voting members to learn about those ELCA pastors that

are willing to have their name put forward for nomination as synod bishop. This does NOT automatically put them on the ballot that is voted on. They must be NOMINATED on the first ballot by at least one of the voting members at our Synod Assembly in Vancouver, WA this June. The biographies of those interested in being pre-identified will be posted on the Synod website at www.lutheranssw.org. Nominations are taken on the floor of the assembly. An ELCA synod bishop’s term is for 6 years and in this synod they can only serve for two consecutive terms. Bishop Jaech is completing his first term and is eligible for nomination for another term. The registration will be coming out shortly. Please elect or appoint your congregational voting members soon. The congregations may elect or appoint lay voting members based on your constitution and the number of lay voting members is based on your congregation’s baptized voting members in your 2018 parochial report to the ELCA. Resolutions are due to the Synod Office by March 2nd in order to be guaranteed time on the assembly agenda. Information on how to write them is online at http://www.lutheranssw.org/wp-content/uploads/2019-How-To-Write-A-Resolution.pdf Information is on the synod website as it becomes available at http://www.lutheranssw.org/events/assembly_ed-gatherings. Registration will open this month.

One person of color or one person whose primary language is other than English is invited to serve as a voting member in addition to your congregation’s other lay voting members. The cost of the Vancouver Hilton hotel will be $159/night and the Synod Assembly registration will be less than $250 per person. Registration will be open later this month.

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PLU Pledge: A Lute Loan Safety Net

PLU believes in the value of a PLU education and that students pursuing higher education are making an investment in themselves and in their future “for lives of thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership and care.” The costs of college and the idea of student debt, however – especially at a private university like PLU – can be concerning and even overwhelming to students and their families. That’s why PLU is now offering the PLU Pledge: A Lute Loan Safety Net.

There are a lot of concerns about the cost of college and student debt. The PLU Pledge is yet another way PLU is addressing college access and affordability, and a further investment they are making in the success of their students and their ability to fully pursue their vocation after graduation.

The PLU Pledge is a loan repayment assistance program, a safety net, offered for incoming first-year students* for the 2019-20 academic year. Once they are employed after graduation, if they earn less than $43,000 per year, PLU Pledge will help them repay their student (and parent PLUS) loans until they do. The PLU Pledge will cover up to $17,000 in any academic year and an aggregated total of $70,000.

*This does not include incoming first-year students intending to major in Nursing or international students

The PLU Pledge covers all federal direct and private alternative student loans, as well as parent PLUS loans.

PLU Pledge Eligibility • Must sign up for the PLU Pledge at mylrap.org/PLU • Must graduate with a Bachelor’s degree from PLU • After graduation:

o Must be employed an average of 30 hours/week and earn less than $43,000/year

o Must work in the U.S. and cannot be self-employed or working for family The percent of reimbursement can be found online at https://www.plu.edu/admission-first-year/financial-aid/plu-pledge/?utm_source=print&utm_medium=lrap&utm_campaign=summer-2018#1506644813243-d729bc8b-d71a

Loans at PLU: Average PLU student loan debt: $31,350 Average national student loan debt: $27,975 Average national private school student loan debt: $30,281 Percentage of PLU students who take out loans: 69% National percentage of students who take out loans: 60% Average PLU parent debt: $12,419 Percentage of PLU parents who take out loans: 25% PLU statistics from the 2016-17 graduating year National statistics from lendedu.com “Student Loan Debt Statistics 2017”

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New Synod ALYE Board Co-Advisor We welcome Kirsten Larsen to the SWWA Synod ALYVE Board. The ALYVE board is a group of High School students who meet monthly while representing the 91 congregations and mission starts of the Southwestern Washington Synod of the ELCA. Kirsten will serve as co-advisor to the board alongside Terri Heckroth from Creator Lutheran Church in Bonney Lake.

Kirsten grew up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest and was active in music and youth group at her home church. She currently serves as the Director fo Youth and Family Ministry at Beautiful Savior Lutehran Church in Vancouver, WA. Prior to this, she attended a Lutheran college in Minnesota, worked at Camp Lutherwood Oregon near Eugene, and sere with the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global

Mission (YAGM) program. She’s happiest when spending time outside, and enjoys playng music and conversations over coffee. She’s excited to work with the ALYVE Board and accompany and equip them in the leadership and faith.

Executive Skills for Church Leaders course California Lutheran University has a course on Executive Skills for Church Leaders July 15-19,

2019. Info at www.CalLutheran.edu/ExecSkills

CONGREGATION NEWS St Andrew Lutheran, Vancouver has a children’s musical during their March 3rd worship services entitled, “The Rock Slinger and His Greatest Hit” Gloria Dei Lutheran, Olympia will be hosting two different classes for the 9 week Financial Peace University- starting Sunday, February 17th at 12:30pm and starting Wednesday, March 13th at 7pm lead by Pastor Doug Knutzen-Keller. Registration is at daveramsey.com.

JOB POSTINGS Online at http://www.lutheranssw.org/congregations-2/jobopportunities

• Pastor of Caring Ministries and Adult Faith Formation, Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn

• Associate Director of Faith Formation and Partnerships, Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn

• Director of Youth Ministry, Vinland Lutheran Church, Poulsbo

CALENDAR 2019 Synod Assembly- June 7-8. 2019 at Vancouver Hilton. Registration begins online this month. Resolutions due to Synod Office swwsynod@plu.edu by March 2nd. //