Greetings from the PoP council, we hope fhe beginning of September has treated you well!
At the September 9th council meeting, the first order of business was a meeting the Bishop of the Saint Paul Area Synod (SPAS), Patricia Lull. The council was informed in August that our synod “case manager” for our call process was leaving the SPAS for another opportunity. Our case has been picked up by Bishop Lull herself to help guide us through the next several months of the call process. She was very informative and told us about how the call process works from the Synod’s side and gave us a copy of the materials that are available on the SPAS website illustrating the call process. If you want to know more about the conversation with Bishop Lull, speak with Andrew Hannesh or another of your council members!
Next, we went over updates from each of our spheres. From the Building the Church Sphere, we began with Pastor Steve’s update to the council which mainly consisted of discussing the fall worship series and how it will grow and develop through the season.
The update we received from Julene included information that Pop Rocks and God Rocks programming began last Sunday and confirmation will begin this coming Sunday, Sept 21. Women on Wednesday also began this week, but there are still spots available for last minute additions! The cost is $25 and includes a copy of the book for your chosen group! Finally, the Fall Senior Social will be on Thursday October 2nd with a theme of Chili and Cider.
The council is planning to host the October 19th community lunch to provide time for a regular congregation report as we have done over the past year or so.
There was no update from the Loving the World Sphere this month other than a prayer request for well travels for everyone on the trip to Tanzania!
Next, we heard an update from Pastor Steve and Deb Cordes about next steps in the call process. Steve shared some insights he had gathered over the 40-50 one on one interviews he conducted which I believe were shared between services last Sunday. Nothing was surprising and the main takeaway is that members of PoP feel like the biggest strength of our church is community, so how can we build on that?
This brought us to discussions about the creation of the Transition Team as part of the call process. The transition team will be a group of 8-10 congregation members who will work with each other and Pastor Steve to explore the question raised above. This group will also use that context to help develop the Ministry Site Profile (MSP) which will give potential pastors material to read about who PoP is and what we stand for. It will also describe the type of leader we are looking for and help potential candidates decide for themselves if this is a good fit.
A robust MSP is also necessary so that the synod can share it with potential candidates and complete the first round of vetting for us. Once about 2-4 of the strongest candidates are identified, the call committee, which will be created by the PoP congregation, will be able to begin interviewing candidates.
As for how long the transition team will work to answer the questions about what community means and looks like, the answer is unknown. That process could continue after we have called the next leader of our church. The answer for how long it will take to develop the MSP and give it to the synod is also unknown, but will hopefully be ironed out in the next several months. There will be regular updates to the congregation throughout the process, and you will get a chance to look at the MSP when it is completed. For additional questions, please find Dev Cordes or Andrew Hannesh.
The final item we discussed was an email conversation Andrew Hannesh had with the Spanish-speaking church that uses our building several times per week, Centro Cristiano Bethel (CCB). This email conversation originated in late July and early August when there had been several ICE raids in the Minneapolis area. Prince of Peace was not and is not worried about anything happening on our property, but we figured some communication was justified in the unfortunate case that a random event did occur.
I will include the entire email correspondence below in case you would like to read it, but suffice it to say there are no concerns of a law enforcement event on the PoP property, but we will keep CCB informed if we do hear something. In the meantime, continue praying for them and for the safety of anyone in the United States who lives in fear because of their immigration status or simply their race or ethnicity.
Peace to you all,
Andrew Hannesh
Council Vice-President
My email to CCB:
Good Afternoon,
My name is Andrew Hannesh and I am the Vice President of the congregation for Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. First, let me just express my gratitude that we are able to host Centro Cristiano Bethel in our community spaces. We appreciate the opportunity to share in ministry with you and hope to continue our partnership.
I am writing to you as we see terrifying things happening across the United States over the last six months, especially in regards to increased immigration enforcement that unethically target communities with people of color. We would like you to know that Prince of Peace condemns the racism that has been evident, especially between Hispanic and Latino communities and the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office.
We would like to offer our support in any way we can. In the unfortunate circumstance that ICE agents should visit our property, is there anything Prince of Peace staff or congregation can do to support your community? We do not anticipate anything happening, we would just like to be prepared should a situation arise. Centro Cristiano Bethel, family members of your community, and all who live in fear of ICE are kept in our prayers. Thank you again for being a part of our community.
Peace,
Andrew Neshem Hannesh
Vice-President
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
2561 Victoria St N, Roseville, MN 55113
CCB’s response:
I’m sorry we couldn’t respond earlier.
We really appreciate you writing to us about a situation like this. As a church, we also feel very welcome within the Prince of Peace facilities, and of course, within your community. Thank you very much for offering us your support in such a delicate situation as the one we, as different minorities, are experiencing in the United States. We don’t know the immigration status of our people, but we imagine that more than one of us may have some unresolved immigration process.
As a church, we are concerned about helping our congregation spiritually. To be honest, there isn’t much that can be done, but Taking your word for it, if you could help us to the extent possible, let us know if any ICE visits have been scheduled or anticipated to the church, That would be very helpful for some of our people.
Once again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for caring about us. We always carry you in our hearts and minds.