Sloppy Joes tonight and meet the new Pastoral Candidate
Beth
First, tonight at 6pm we will gather to eat Dorothy's wonderful sloppy joes made from scratch, and to discuss vocation. Where are you headed? Hope to see you there!
Second, and very important, we will be interviewing a new pastoral candidate this weekend, and this is your chance to meet him. Here's a summary of what the letter below details. You are invited to all of these events, but we ask that you RSVP if you plan to attend the dinner. Just email Charlie - ChasW...@comcast.net
- Saturday, 19 April 2008, 2:30pm: Open House "Afternoon Tea" at UniLu
- Saturday, 19 April 2008, 7:00pm: Dinner for Students and Campus Ministry "staff"
- Sunday, 20 April 2008, 10:30am: Weekly worship with Eucharist, followed by a Congregation Meeting to vote on calling the Call Committee's recommended candidate (pending council's recommendation)
Read the letter below if you'd like more details.
As always, Sunday worship is at 10:30am and other weekly events can be discovered at www.uniluphila.org
God's Peace,
Your Peer Ministers
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Greetings in the Name of the Risen Christ!
On behalf of the Call Committee, it is my pleasure to announce that we have recommended a candidate to the Congregation Council for the pastorate of University Lutheran Church of the Incarnation. We have had extensive interviews with the candidate, and had the pleasure of worshiping with the candidate several weeks ago. For many reasons, we believe that this candidate is well-suited to serving as our next pastor, and we will provide you with a more in-depth analysis of our conclusions soon.
The Congregation Council will be meeting the candidate for an interview on 19 April 2008. At the end of the meeting, they will vote on whether or not to recommend the candidate to the congregation. Assuming that the Congregation Council agrees with the Call Committee's recommendation, and moves to recommend the candidate to the congregation, the candidate will be introduced to the community at an open-house "Afternoon Tea" later that day. Beginning at 2:30pm, members and friends of UniLu are invited to spend time socializing, asking the candidate questions, and have informal discussions about whether or not they are interested in calling this pastor. (Refreshments will be served - it is Afternoon Tea, after all.)
Saturday evening (beginning around 7:00pm), the candidate has agreed to have dinner with students and interested campus ministry-related folks, including the peer ministry mentors and our Interim Coordinator for Campus Ministry, Fred Wolfe. If you will be joining us for dinner, please RSVP by Thursday, 17 April 2008, by sending me an e-mail (ChasW...@comcast.net) or by calling me at home (856/582-4692).
On Sunday, 20 April 2008, the candidate will preach and preside for our regular Sunday-morning worship. Following that service, the congregation will meet to discuss and vote on extending a call (the only business allowed at that meeting). Students are reminded that they are invited to participate and vote at our congregation meeting assuming that they are a member of another congregation elsewhere.
You should know that the candidate is rostered by Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries, and not by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The candidate was ordained extraordinarily a few years ago, and has been serving an ELCA congregation since that time. The committee considered and interviewed candidates from both rosters, carefully and prayerfully deliberating characteristics and experiences of each candidate and the appropriateness of such for UniLu. Our conclusion is that UniLu will be well-served by this candidate.
The synod (including Bishop Burkat) is aware of our intentions to recommend an ELM-rostered pastor, as is Pr. Saarela (regional director for campus ministry). We have been informed that Bishop Burkat plans to take steps to suspend our campus ministry funding from the synod if we move forward with calling this candidate. What is not clear is whether or not funding from the ELCA will be suspended - one of the bishop's assistants indicated that this would occur, while another assistant indicated that the bishop has no control over that decision and that Pr. Saarela may well be willing to work with us to continue that funding. Regrettably, we have not been able to ascertain whether Bishop Burkat is considering taking any further disciplinary action.
The Call Committee is very excited about this announcement, and we hope that you will be able to share our excitement for the candidate. Please mark your calendar for the afternoon of April 19th and the morning-into-early-afternoon of April 20th. You will not want to miss these opportunities to shape the future of our ministry. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with me.
Peace,
Charlie | ||
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