Messages from Bishop
Meggan Manlove
No one is going to prescribe exactly how to be a cluster. I have told the deans that I expect them to pull together the active rostered leaders every other month online or in person to check in on one another. Many rostered leaders do meet weekly or monthly in person for text study. Lay and rostered people should come together before regular synod assemblies, as our constitution states, though I celebrate those clusters that come together more often for business or recreation or worship.
We are called to be the church, the Christian community gathered and sent week after week. We gather around Word and Sacraments and that is unique. When I say that we would do well to get back to basics I mean we need to read scripture well, create worship experiences that are faithful to the tradition and our local contexts, and love and care for our neighbors.
In early December, Cathy, Liv, Phil, and I had a two-day retreat facilitated by two staff from Gonzaga University. We had several pieces of pre-work to do in advance of the retreat: identifying our personal values (the things that motivate us or give us direction) and social styles. You can imagine already that the facilitators accelerated our getting to know one another on a deeper level. They also facilitated conversations in which we identified the work we must do as the synod staff and who should be doing what. They helped us create our staff purpose and our goals for at least a few years. For this work, they lifted up our synod mission and vision statements and the ELCA’s Future Directions work. They also guided us as we talked about the gifts and needs in our synod.