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Author: Alice Lebow
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St. Philip Invitation – August 2018
From Pastor David
We have returned safe and sound from Houston and the ELCA National Youth Gathering. It was a fabulous week that combined great fun, wonderful fellowship, and growing faith. The theme “This Changes Everything” constantly focused our attention on how God’s call, grace, and hope shapes everything we do.
Please take time over the next several weeks to ask our youth (Jacob Schult, Griffin Horacek, Bradley Craig, Clara Johnston, Reece Derrick, Justin Craig, Nick Muir, and Drew Derrick) about their experience. We will try to have a presentation for the congregation later in the summer.
For me just a few of the nuggets from a fantastic week:
- I was reminded over and over that it is by God’s grace that we are saved and that changes us. It was worth being reminded of this absolute truth.
- Youth are inspiring. They think clearly. They love openly. They believe deeply. St. Philip’s youth were all of these things.
- Many of our event speakers shared stories that were eye opening and direct. I hope that we can continue to have helpful conversation about things often avoided. And I hope that those conversations will always be shaped by our identity formed by relationship with Christ Jesus.
Thank you St. Philip for your support, your prayers, and for our shared proclamation of Jesus promises.
From Reece Derrick, Justin Craig, and Chas Downs
Today was our service we served at the Houston food bank, which serves thousands of meals every day. We worked with many people from around the country mostly from Minnesota to package food that would amount to over 21000 meals for the Houston community. At the mass gathering we learned how good keeps us moving forward no matter what. We also learned that G od will always be there for us in the darkest of times. Just the presence of 30,000 Lutherans gave hope to Houston, and filled the locals with joy and thanksgiving for the work and energy we brought to the city.
From Clara Johnston
Yesterday was an awesome day at the youth gathering! The first thing we did was went to lunch under our hotel in tunnels that have access to the whole city. When we went, I was in a small group, and we went to lunch at a Mexican place. When we were eating, a man showed up, and he asked for someone to buy him food. Pastor David immediately got up without hesitation and let the man get whatever he wanted to get. There was definitely some God in him yesterday!
After lunch, we had Synod Day, when we get to see people from all across Virginia, and from all of our other youth events. During Synod Day, we did lots of team building activities, listened to many stories, and of course sang lots of songs about God! It was a lot of fun and it was really nice to see friends from our state!
Afterward, we stayed in the hotel for a few hours and just hung out. Then, we went to an early dinner of Tex-Mex food, which was really good! Next, we headed toward the trains so that we could go to the Mass Gathering of over 31,000 people! It’s really crazy how many people have come to this life-changing event!
Mass Gathering yesterday was life-changing! Our speakers yesterday talked about many topics that most people would probably not expect to hear at a youth event. We listened to someone who is dealing with Mitochondrial disease, someone who did self-harm at some point in his life, and someone who was even a bully at some point in their life. Some of these stories were really sad, but they were healing, because God was with them. Overall, Friday was a really awesome, and life-changing day.
Oh and I would like to give a special thanks to the whole congregation and anyone who has helped us on our journey! Without all of you, we would not be here, but because of all of the support the church continues to give, we are able to do really cool things like this! Thank you so much, and I can’t wait to tell more about the trip when we get back!
From Jacob Schult, Griffin Horacek, and Bradley Craig
Today we learned that God will help us through tough times but God won’t make them disappear. Overall it was a great experience and we got to meet wonderful people. We also caught lots of Pokemon. We loved having a chance learn, worship, and talk to God with 30,000 youth. Today we also got to experience what it is like to be in a wheelchair. It is very very hard.
A message from Drew Derrick and Nick Muir. Be sure to follow live streaming of the ELCA Youth Gathering at http://elca.org/Gathering
Today has been a very fun and eventful day. This morning was full of sleep and conversation of the week ahead. In the afternoon, for lunch, our group went into the tunnels underneath the city. Most buildings in downtown Houston are connected to these tunnels, so no matter where we are, even if we got lost, we could use the tunnel. Luckily, this tunnel was connected to our hotel, so there was easy access. After eating, we took a train to the NRG arena for games and activities. After these fun few hours, we went to the NRG Stadium for our main gathering. We heard from speakers Tuhina Rasche and Bryan Stevenson, who both spoke about Gods acceptance of everyone and the justice God brings to those oppressed. We also sang songs like This Little Light of Mine in several languages and I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2. Finally, we returned to our hotel and talked about our lows and highs of the day, then headed off to sleep to prepare for another wonderful day at the ELCA National Youth Gathering!
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St. Philip Supports Forwarding Faith
Virginia Synod Office
The Virginia Synod is known for its youth and faith formation ministry. We do this year round through our youth events, our Ambassadors Community for Theological Study (ACTS) program, and July’s Power in the Spirit annual gathering. Because of youth and other faith formation events, generations of leaders in the Synod and across the Church have been brought up to know and love God in Jesus Christ. We are a synod declaring faith from generation to generation.
ForwardingFaith is intended to provide permanent funding for these important ministries. As the landscape of being Church in America continues to change, we want to make certain that the work of providing youth ministry and faith formation to our members continues with excellence into the long-term future.
St. Philip has a strong history of participation in synod sponsored events and participated in the campaign in February. With joy and thanksgiving, we celebrate the results of ForwardingFaith at St. Philip. Our campaign chair Sarah Parker shared the following quotation with the Virginia Synod:
“We were fortunate to have two large donations that helped us hit our mark, but we also had an incredible engagement across our congregation with monthly donations ranging from $3 to $100. Amazing….We actually almost doubled our goal. Our original goal was $25,000 and our final number was $43,452.00″
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2018 Virginia Synod Assembly Update
Synod Assembly is our annual opportunity for the 150 congregations of the Virginia Synod to come together and be reminded what it means to be a part of the wider church. Our theme during our June 8-10, 2018 gathering was “Only by Grace Can We Stand”.
During the weekend, Bishop Humphrey, helped explore the theme for the Assembly based off of Ephesians 2:19-21, with three keynote presentations that led into small group time. During small groups participants at Assembly were encouraged to get to know Lutherans and congregations from around the state and to share their experiences as church together. They also discussed and shared their opinions on the current format for the Assembly, and shared ideas for how future Assemblies could take shape.
The Rev. Ron Glusenkamp, the director of Always Being Made New: The Campaign for the ELCA, was present at this year’s Assembly to represent the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, bringing good news from the wider church.
The Rev. John Wertz Jr. was joined by The Rev. Stephen Bohannon, acting as the Roving Reporter to deliver a report for the ongoing ForwardingFaith campaign. It was announced that to date we have reached our $2.5 million goal which was set not by the need, but rather what the synod could raise. We are continuing to encourage more congregations join in holding their own appeals as part of the campaign, seeking to stretch our total as high as $4 million. Future campaign training events are being planned now. Thank you to all the congregations and members who have helped us exceed our basic goal for ForwardingFaith.
Elections also took place over the weekend with Dan Kahill, of Christ in Roanoke was elected as the Virginia Synod Council Treasurer. The Rev. Lauren Miller of Peace in Charlottesville was elected to serve as clergy member following her appointment to the Synod Council earlier this year. Tyler Wertman of Grace in Waynesboro, The Rev. Jonathan Boynton of Grace in Winchester, and The Rev. Leslie Scanlon of Grace in Chesapeake are the newly elected members joining Synod Council.
Elections for the 2019 Churchwide Assembly also took place with The Rev. Kathryn Pocalyko of Our Saviour in Richmond, The Rev. Phyllis Milton of Gloria Dei in Hampton, Hunter Simpkins of Grace in Chesapeake, Mycha McNett of Muhlenberg in Harrisonburg, Deacon Christine Van O’Linda Huffman of St. Michael in Virginia Beach, Megan Crummitt of St. Paul’s in Hampton, Todd Recupero of Trinity in Newport News, The Rev. Martha Miller Sims of Grace in Winchester, and The Rev. Tim Crummitt St. Paul’s in Hampton all being elected to serve.
One resolution was passed over the weekend, memorializing the 50th anniversary of women’s ordination in the Lutheran Church.
Lutheran Family Services of Virginia Hearts & Hands award winners were recognized during this year’s Synod Assembly. Kim Begnaud of Trinity in Stephens City received the silver award, Jane Perry of Zion in Edinburg received the Gold award, and Karen Murphy of Bethlehem in Lynchburg was presented with the Diamond award.
The Rev. Kelly Bayer Derrick, Assistant to the Bishop, and Deacon Lisa Geiger, Candidacy Process Administrator, were installed into their new positions in the Synod Office during the Friday afternoon worship service.
Isaac Wilson of Christ in Fredericksburg, president of the Lutheran Youth Organization, presented the Youth Assembly report, centered on the Youth Assembly theme of “Who Stands by Me?”. He shared a summary of this year’s Youth Assembly, and raised up aspects of the current Assembly format the youth feel are important as the format is reviewed for future assemblies. The incoming LYO Board president will be Turner Barger of Epiphany in Richmond.
Opportunity for Fellowship
Fun Variety Show coming Sunday, August 19. It’s going to be a “Really big show!”
ALL ages and ALL acts are welcome. Do you play an instrument, talk to puppets, sing, write poetry, sketch, dance, or tell jokes, perform magic? Maybe you’d like to do a little skit with your friends or family? The more acts the merrier the show will be!
More details later but register with Cathy Dudley or Sarah Melendy now. Deadline for act registration is August 12.
Congregational Picnic
The date for the annual church picnic this year is Sunday, September 9 beginning at 4:00p.m. Hamburgers and hotdogs with all the fixin’s and a fun bouncy house for kids of all ages provided by the church. Bring you’re a lawn chair, a friend, and your favorite side dish to share.
St. Philip Youth 17th Annual Golf Tournament
September 29, 2018 at Botetourt Golf and Swim Club. Plan now to get a group of golfers together or speak to your favorite local business about sponsoring a hole or a tee.