Today's Top Stories:

National Council of Churches 
Laments Opening of US Embassy in Jerusalem, Deaths of Palestinians

WASHINGTON: The National Council of Churches laments the move of the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. We have previously warned that such an unwise and prejudicial action would make a peace settlement even more difficult to achieve and would indeed lead to violence. Today’s deadly violence bears out the truth of this warning.

At the time of this writing, at the border between Israel and Gaza, at least 61 Palestinians who were protesting the opening of the embassy have been killed by Israeli forces and 2,700 more have been injured. This is in addition to dozens already killed and thousands more wounded in recent weeks leading up to this move. The National Council of Churches condemns this violent and disproportionate response by Israeli forces. We consider it an illustration of the failure of Israel, the United States, and the international community to address the injustice of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and the inability to conclude a two-state solution.
Moreover, we are deeply chagrined that Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist minister who has condemned Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Mormons, and others to hell led prayers at the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem. We are further disappointed by the presence of evangelical pastor John Hagee, a proponent of the misguided theology of Christian Zionism, among the invited speakers. Their unfortunate participation in today’s ceremony reflects the reality that yesterday’s event in Jerusalem represents pandering to a segment of evangelical Christianity here in the US rather than an affirmation of the hopes, dreams, aspirations, and prayers of Christians who live in the Holy Land.
Finally, the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem illustrates the increasing isolation of our country within the international community when it comes to policy in the region. In failing to help constructively address the prolonged crisis in Syria, and after unilaterally withdrawing from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, today’s event in Jerusalem reflects the United States’ apparent abdication of its role as an honest proponent, broker, and partner for peace.

ELCA presiding bishop's pastoral message on situation in Gaza
5/15/2018 2:45:00 PM
May 15, 2018
Like so many here in our country and around the world, I am appalled and saddened by yesterday's escalation of Israeli military action against protestors in Gaza. Many reports indicate that at least 60 Palestinians, including six children, have died and more than 2,000 have been injured as a result of Israel's disproportionate use of force. Our church will support a planned medical mission from The Lutheran World Federation's Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem to Gaza to assist the wounded.
I join Bishop Sani-Ibrahim Azar of our partner church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), who today said:
We mourn with the families of the dead and dying and pray for the recovery of the injured. We believe that violent actions against the Palestinian civilians will hinder the potential for peace and reconciliation efforts between Israel and Palestine and will only lead to more violence and bloodshed.
I endorse his call "upon the Israeli government to show restraint and to pursue negotiations with Palestinian leaders rather than choosing violent action against unarmed protestors."
Yesterday's events should also be seen in the context of the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem. When that decision was announced late last year, I said:
This unilateral action would not support the cause of peace and a two-state solution but rather would unnecessarily create further tensions and possible violence that would make efforts to bring them back together for talks much more difficult.
I also support the ELCJHL's long-standing position, affirmed by Bishop Azar today, that "any final status agreement will include Jerusalem as a shared city for Jews, Christians and Muslims with free access to holy sites for all and that it must serve as capital of both Palestine and Israel."
Always, but especially in this time of deep distress, I urge us all to join his call to "continue to pray, advocate and faithfully work towards a peaceful and just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
God's peace,

The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Bishop Aitken's Online  May 7, 2018

A sincere thanks to all the Synod assembly planners, my Staff, the musicians,  speakers, pages , Synod council,  our vice president and secretary and all those who helped make  the assembly a success! I just received a video from  Pastor Konstatin from Cheboksary, Russia (one of our Companion Partners), please watch it!   

Current for Curran....

Dear Friends
As you know the solar project at Phebe Hospital is successfully generating power. In November 11 of us traveled to Phebe to celebration the formal dedication dedication of the system. It was an awesome event. As part of the trip we traveled to Curran Hospital in ZorZor, which is about 45 miles north of Phebe, but takes about 3 hours to travel to.That gives you some idea of the condition of the road. ZorZor is about a 30 minute drive from the Guinea border so many of the patients Curran treats come from there. 

Curran will be the next recipient of a solar array similar to the one at Phebe. The solar panels for the array have been donated by First Solar, over $40,000 has been received from Women of the ELCA through the generous donations at the Triennial events in Minneapolis and just this week a donation of $2,000 was given that required a match before it would be received. Generous folks came forward and donated over $3,400. 

We need to raise an additional $200,000 hopefully by Easter (86 days) Attached is a simple fundraising idea I got when I gave a presentation for the East Central Wisconsin Synod Women of the ELCA in November. I hope you will consider using it in your church or organization. Perhaps you can even find donor(s) who will match a portion of the donations collected. 

Blessings on your day
Mary Jo Mettler

Current for Curran Fundraising Idea


This idea came from the East Central Wisconsin Synod women. The object is to “sell” each rectangle for $20. A filled board generates $500. To generate additional funds “sell” the rectangles more than once and/or get someone to provide matching dollars.

• Purchase a 20”x30” sheet of black poster board.
• Use narrow gray duct tape to divide it into 25 rectangles and also wrap the edges with the duct tape.
• Use a gray Sharpie pen to make the vertical broken lines.
• Create a description sheet, a cute sun and purchase some stickers of the sun. The stickers can be used to show that a panel has been purchased. If you have enough donors to fill the board more than once just put more stickers on each panel. Have fun with it.
• Contact Mary Jo Mettler at djmjmettler@gmail.com and she will send you an electronic copy of her description and sun plus a vendor for stickers.

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Bishop Aitken's Response to President Trump's words and actions

I have not been able to ignore nor abide our president's recent remarks about people from other lands: Africa, Haiti etc... 
When Christians recognize that our life in Christ calls us to joyful and ultimate loyalty to our Lord Jesus Christ, and his alternate life-style of unconditional love and courage, we cannot but stand against bigoted statements and the systemic racism we live in. Our God-given faith calls us to engage the very underlying assumptions of the cultures of vulgarity, supremacy and bigotry. Jesus would be surprised by followers of his who do not see in every person someone that God loves whether near or far away from us. We who live "in Christ" as the New Testament declares over and over have been given the good and holy task of loving each person and coming to the aid of the marginalized. We are empowered already by the Spirit of God to boldly live into God's dream for the world which doesn't include demeaning others but as St. Paul says, lives joyfully into the reconciling work of Jesus.
Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord.
And open our lives to the courage of Jesus.

A Prayer of Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471)
Grant to me, O God, 
to know what I ought to know,
to love what I ought to love, 
to pray what delights you most, 
to value what is precious in your sight,
to hate what is offensive to you. 
Do not allow me to judge according to the sight of my eyes,
Nor to pass sentence according to the hearing of the ears of the foolish;
But to discern with true judgment between things visible and spiritual,
And above all things to pursue what is the good pleasure of your holy will, 
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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+Bishop Thomas M.Aitken

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East Jerusalem Hospital Advocacy Update
The Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem has faced periodic financial challenges due to lack of payments from the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the treatment of patients referred to the hospital by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. To learn more about the background of the issues facing this Lutheran World Federation (LWF) run hospital see this Peace Not Walls blog.Earlier this year, the situation reached a critical level when the hospital had to turn patients away because it was running out of vital medication to treat those who were critically ill. While the PA at that time made promises to resolve the situation, in effect it has failed to do so. For further details see the latest LWF Advocacy Update.

Having been alerted to this crisis situation, on October 13 ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton wrote a letter to the PLO Ambassador in Washington, Dr. Husam Zomlot, appealing to him to bring the situation “to an immediate, positive conclusion.” You can read her letter here.

Contact your elected officials today at the ELCA Action Center, and ask them to convey these concerns to Ambassador Zomlot as well. 

Bishop Aitken's Message for:
Lutheran Social Service
Center for Changing Lives

“...As the Father has sent me, so I send you”
          (From John 20, the Gospel Lesson last week for Pentecost)
 
I'm proud of the 67 ELCA congregations all over our synod, for other congregations and church groups, for the city of Duluth, for assistance through grants and individual donors who helped to build this 3-story building to house life-giving services to homeless youth. We did it together because just as the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus has sent us out to love others.  Serving 800 youth each year in Duluth, we are pledging to put an end to youth homelessness through the programs that will operate out of this Center for Changing Lives because no child or teenager should be without a bed and roof over their head or hope for their future -   ever.

Common characteristics of the young people who end up in Duluth from all over the State and who will be served through this Center:
100% of them are our youth, our brothers and sisters, loved by God!
100% of them scared, not scary
90% come from low income/poverty
80% come from abuse, including sexual abuse
85% have parents with chemical dependency
85% are disconnected from their primary caregiver during their formative years.
 (Read:  Kicked out of the house because of lack of proper parenting skills)
 
A quote I like:
“I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security”
  -Pope Francis, Evangeli Gaudium:  The Joy of the Gospel (p. 49)
 
What these life-giving Services are:
 1st Floor:

• Teen Health Center: care to low-income, at-risk, and homeless youth ages 13-24, walk in health care
•  Truancy Action Office: LSS works with 300 plus kids in three local school to catch truancy problems early
•  LSS Together for Youth: Supportive and safe place for LGBTQ youth
• Oh No Eighteen:  Supports youth ages 16-21, so they can live on their own after the age-out of foster care;  life skills, job searching, budgeting and renting as well as the Leadership Council which is comprised of former foster youth who promote and educate others about foster care.

 2nd Floor:

• 10 low-income apartments for you 18-23 who meet MN guidelines for homelessness.
• Youth receive life skills, employment, mental health care, addictions and trama help

 3rd Floor:

• 10 Transitional Housing bedrooms - not apartments.  For youth ages 16-21 for up to 18 months with support in education and employment goals.  2 of these beds are emergency Self-Referral beds for youth in immediate danger.

Contact Us:

Follow @NEMNSynod

Northeastern Minnesota Synod, ELCA
1105 E. Superior St., Upper Suite
Duluth, MN 55802
Office Hours:
M-F: 8:30am-4:30 pm
Telephone: 218.724.4424
Email: info@nemnsynod.org
Fax: 218.724.4393

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Resources
from
Bishop Aitken

Bishop Aitken always has an abundance of good information to be shared. Now, instead of finding it at the bottom of the home page, he has an entire page dedicated to sharing these resources. it will be found under the home drop down list or by clicking this link.

One of Bishop Aitken's greatest joys as a Bishop, is the Bishop Visitations to Confirmation Students and parents in our Synod.  He takes the Teaching Office of Bishop both seriously and joyfully and loves to be part of youth faith formation in this way and has been able to personally connect with so many across our Synod.    If you would like, you may supply the names of those being Confirmed to the Synod Office and he will send a pastoral letter to each one, reminding them that they are joined to Christ forever, and encouraging them in their continued journey into the gift of faith.  
You may send names and addresses to tammy.segelcrilly@nemnsynod.org

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STATEMENT IN SOLIDARITY WITH OUR CHILDREN AND YOUTH

March 5, 2018

As part of our work together , the bishops of the ELCA , this past week at the Conference of Bishops, discussed our precious young people, and the relentless violence that happens to them in this country, and the peaceful Kingdom God has called us to create in our personal and corporate lives together. Please read our Statement and share it widely, for we are called to be light to the world.
-Bishop Thomas Aitken, Northeastern Minnesota Synod, ELCA                  
CLICK HERE FOR FULL STATEMENT

My Neighbor is Not for Sale

We are pleased to present our sixth congregational discussion guide, “My Neighbor is Not for Sale.”Joining our previous studies – “My Neighbor is Muslim”, “My Neighbor is on Medicaid”, etc. – “My Neighbor is Not for Sale” brings congregations the facts, figures, and stories of the insidious world of sex trafficking of children and youth in our country. It also represents our first collaboration with Cherish All Children, a 10-year-old Lutheran social ministry, which has recently become a service of LSS of Minnesota.
It has been a shock to so many of us to learn that, what we used to call prostitution, has been quietly and quite creepily replaced by an Internet-driven industry of luring kids into phony relationships, controlling them, and selling them in the sex trade right under our noses in communities everywhere.
The images we grew up with of adult women on the corners of the “red light district” soliciting men has been replaced with an invisible web of adults preying on children and youth. Our new awareness has also made us question whether those women in the “red light district” ever really had many choices in life themselves.
Over the past couple of years, the State of Minnesota has contracted with LSS and others to offer “Safe Harbor” services in several communities that reach out to youth trapped in trafficking, help them escape the life, and support them in getting back into strong and healthy lives, utilizing our years of experience working with homeless youth.
Our new affiliation with Cherish All Children adds a rich dimension of congregational outreach and education and a focus on helping our children and youth protect themselves from trafficking by teaching them to beware of the signals that they are being lured into the danger zone.
I wish you blessings on your journey of awareness and enlightenment.
Jodi Harpstead, CEO
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota
MY NEIGHBOR IS NOT FOR SALE download pdf

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2017-2018 Young Adults in Global Mission
from the Northeastern Minnesota Synod

Lars Anderson:Concordia Lutheran Church in Duluth, VLM and Zion Lutheran, Cloquet.  Lars will be  Serving in Jerusalem/West Bank
to email, click here             

Lauren Elwell: First Lutheran,Duluth. She will serve in Madagascar.
to email, click here

Hannah Sackett: Worked at Wilderness Canoe Base, located north of Grand Marais on the Gunflint Trail. She will be serving in Rwanda.               to email, click  here

+Bishop’s Visitation to Confirmation Students
Bishop’s Visitation to Confirmation Students and their parents
Bishop Aitken invites you to request him for a Bishop’s Visitation to your Confirmation Class.  What works best for his schedule is to schedule so these visitations are to clusters of congregations.  He encourages parents to come that night as well so he can meet them and include them in the teaching time.  He will teach the gospel, talk about Christian Vocation, the role of the Christian in our world, our call in Christ and end with Communion and Commissioning for service with Anointing oil from Palestine. 

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Bible and Brew Study Retreats

Believing and Having Faith
Bishop Aitken is open to leading a Bible and Faith Study for men’s, women’s or mixed men and women’s Retreats around the theme Belief and Faith. He uses the Gospels as well as other Biblical texts around the meanings of trust, fidelity, faith and believing. You could arrange with one of our Camps (where he has done these already) or at a location of your choosing.  He presents a Biblical understanding of what faith and belief really are, and in particular, as a Lutheran Christian.
 You may contact the synod office to make arrangements with him.

Minnesota Council of Churches Response to Executive Order on Refugees ..click here

"Evangelicals join Letter denouncing President Trumps order on Refugees" click HERE

ELCA on Gender Identity Discrimination
Click Here

Star Tribune feature: Crosslake Lutheran!
Click here to read the article!

2018 Compensation & Benefit Guidelines

Just what are Your Congregation's Intentions?

Ever wonder where your gifts to the church go?
see the following video.....and think about how you would like to give to mission support.
Get your intent form by clicking HERE.

DISCLAIMER: The following video is hosted on a third party service. Other videos that may come up as suggested do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of the Northeastern Minnesota Synod or the ELCA. Some videos may be considered inappropriate, viewed discretion advised.

Lutheran Disaster Relief:
How you can help!  click HERE

Click to go to ELCA.org

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