Introducing The Wild Web!
A series highlighting stories from across the wild web of relationships and ministries that make up the Oregon Synod. Each issue we will share examples of how Christ’s love is being embodied in ministries just like yours. We are excited to highlight the amazing life emerging across Oregon Synod congregations, ministries, & relationships!
Knit Together through the Land
A reflection from Pr. Melissa O’Keefe Reed on bearing witness to a “Land Liberation Horizon Action” in November 2024 organized by local leaders in Cove & La Grande in Eastern Oregon.
Honoring Memory with Legacy
The graceful and generous end of The Good Shepherd in Eugene as told to Bishop's Associate Rev. Melissa O'Keefe Reed by its remaining congregants.
Spiritual and Theological Mutual Accompaniment
Spiritual and Theological Mutual Accompaniment (STMA), stewarded by the Oregon Synod, is now a communion of over 120 spiritual leaders from Oregon, California, and Washington, and twelve additional countries, including Latin America, Africa and Europe. These leaders are lay and clergy, theologians and community workers, all engaging their own margins and the margins of their communities on pathways of struggle, healing and liberation.
Courageous Love Goes Camping: Compass at Camp Lutherwood
Compass, at Camp Lutherwood Oregon, provides a healing experience for middle-schoolers affected by wildfire related trauma.
Ruah in Astoria: Peace First Trusting the Spirit during Uncertainty
In 2020, Peace First was born from the merger of First Lutheran and Peace Lutheran Churches as the result of a changing congregational landscape across the state. While a challenging journey, Peace First is learning to trust their newly formed muscle memory: there is opportunity in transformation and beauty in expanding community.
A New Generation of Leaders: The Oregon Fellowship
The Oregon Fellowship seeks to create a new and much needed space for passionate young people to explore their own leadership journeys and spirituality without the pressure of fitting into any predetermined ideas of what that leadership “should” look like, and to be deeply accompanied in the process.
The Faithful Rebirth of a Village
We’ve all heard the saying “It takes a village to raise a child,” but when was the last time we seriously considered the implications of this for our faith communities and relationships? ReVillage, a ministry of the Storydwelling community in Bend, is doing just that. Storydwelling is a young faith community born out of a shared commitment to centering relationships and building community power for love and justice in the world, in partnership with the Oregon Synod of the ELCA and the United Methodist Church. In 2019, after Storydwelling community members began having children and struggling with costs of childcare, Storydwelling and [...]
SALM: Empowering Lay Leadership Across Oregon
For years, congregations, lay leaders, and clergy across the state of Oregon have planted seeds for new ways of stewarding faithful emergent lay leadership. These seeds, cultivated, watered, and nurtured by many, bore the growing fruit that is the new SALM (Synod Authorized Lay Ministry) Program of the Oregon Synod.