Synod Assembly voting members were sent an informational email on Tuesday, May 31, 2022. If you are a voting member and did not receive this email (and you have checked your spam folder!), please call Theresa at the Synod Office at (602) 957-3223.

We’ve also included the information in this post.

Greetings, Grand Canyon Synod Assembly Voting Members! 

THANK YOU! We really appreciate your willingness to serve as a voting member at this year’s Synod Assembly. We are looking forward to seeing you at Love of Christ Lutheran Church on Friday, June 10 and Saturday, June 11 – our first in-person assembly since 2019. If you’ve been to the Assembly website, you already know there is a great deal of important information to review and digest. To follow is a summary of some important items, frequently asked questions, and tips to make the Assembly a wonderful experience as we get “Stirred Up in the Spirit” and have the opportunity to truly be church together.

The week of the Assembly, the usual home page at www.gcsynod.org will converted to our assembly home page. There you can find quick links to all the information you need, easily accessible by mobile phone or tablet. You’ll also find any updates posted during the assembly at that gcsynod.org home page.

COVID Safety:

• To mitigate our risk as we move through a pandemic that continues to surprise us, we strongly encourage all attendees to wear facial masks. While no proof of vaccination is required, we highly encourage voting members to stay up-to-date with vaccinations and boosters.

• To help ensure physical distancing, only voting members and essential staff will be admitted to the assembly. Non-voting members can watch from home via livestream on our Facebook page at no charge. We will have no in-person visitors or tables from partner missions and ministries. Please do not bring non-registered persons with you to the assembly. Name badges for voting members will be provided at registration and worn throughout the Assembly.

• We encourage voting members and congregations to have alternate voting members ready in case a voting member tests positive and is unable to attend. Please provide these names as soon as possible to me by email at office@gcsynod.org.

Where and When:

• Love of Christ Lutheran Church, 1525 N. Power Road, Mesa, AZ 85205

• Registration begins on Friday, June 10 at 8:00 a.m. in the LOC Center of Compassion (see attached map). Worship begins at 10:00 a.m. Nearly 300 people will be arriving before that time, so please come early and enjoy some refreshments and fellowship before the assembly begins. Seating is open, but a space at each table will be reserved for the table host, and some tables will be reserved for presenters.

• The full agenda and timeline are available at https://www.gcsynod.org/2022/assembly/agenda.

What to Bring:

• Refillable water bottle and/or coffee container.

• Laptop, tablet, or other mobile device for accessing the assembly website and the internet.

• A pen

• Your business card or other small quantity of networking materials. Again, there will be no vendor tables or visitors at the Assembly due to COVID concerns.

• The worship offering will be split between Lutheran World Relief (LWR) and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) both designated for Eastern European support. If you would like to contribute, please bring a check or cash with you.

Childcare:

The Synod has partnered with Lullaby Guild to provide childcare for voting members who would otherwise not be able to attend the assembly.  If you plan on availing yourself of this service, please email Kathye Hamm at khamm@gcsynod.org BEFORE Friday, June 3 with the names and ages of your children. We’re sorry, but we will not be able to accommodate children who have not been pre-registered. Be sure to bring a lunch for your child for Friday, as well as their favorite snacks. Additional rooms will be open during meals, so that we can further practice social distancing while eating, so you are welcome to have lunch with your child if you wish!

Spanish Interpretation:

A Spanish interpreter will be available at the Assembly. Tables will be reserved for those who would like to be seated with the interpreters.

Dietary Concerns:

During registration, voting delegates were invited to list any special dietary requirements. If someone registered for you and you did not provide that person with your dietary concerns, please email Kathye Hamm at khamm@gcsynod.org BEFORE Friday, June 3.

Important Items to Review Prior to the Assembly:

• The Mission Spending Plan.

• The Assembly Rules of Procedure.

• Assembly Nominees.

• Resolutions and Memorials.

• Mission and Ministry Partner Reports.

Other Information

If you know someone who should have received this email but did not, invite them to check their spam folder first and then ask them to contact me by email at office@gcsynod.org.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any (assembly-related or not!) questions or concerns and I will do my best to get them resolved for you.

On behalf of the Assembly Planning Team (Bishop Deborah Hutterer, V. P. Barbara Carl, Secretary Pr. David Brandfass, Prs. Nanette Christofferson, Steve Crittenden, Tina Mills, Steve Springer, and Sarah Stadler, and Brian Flatgard and Kathye Hamm), we thank you again for saying “yes,” to serving as a voting delegate and we hope that you are as excited for this year’s assembly as we are!!

Theresa S. Thornburgh

Director of Administration and Events
Grand Canyon Synod - ELCA
1819 E. Morten Avenue, Suite 110
Phoenix, AZ 85020
(602) 957-3223
office@gcsynod.org