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Words from the Bishop: 
Our Children, Our Future

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This week, congregations across the Montana are preparing to send our teenagers to the ELCA Youth Gathering in Texas. Our church puts great effort into planning this gathering every 3 years, as a significant, life-transforming event. Many of our camp counselors, campus ministry peers, Young Adults in Global Mission, Lutheran Volunteer Corps and pastors, as well as others, talk about their experiences at Youth Gatherings as crucial to their understanding of their place in the world. We invest in our children because they are our future.
 
But even as Lutherans are streaming to Texas from the north, families are streaming northward from Latin America. And they are being stopped at the border. And, most horrifying, the children are being separated from their parents. Some children are the age of our teenagers heading to Houston. Some are the age of our children excitedly preparing for camp, at Christikon, or Flathead, or UMM. Some are toddlers, like the ones I saw frolicking at church on Sunday. And some are nursing babies. As of this writing, 2000 children had been taken from their parents, and put into confinement. This is not acceptable by any standards. It is not defensible.
 
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Faith Leader Statement on Family Seperation

June 7, 2018
 
Recently, the Administration announced that it will begin separating families and criminally prosecuting
all people who enter the U.S. without previous authorization. As religious leaders representing diverse
faith perspectives, united in our concern for the wellbeing of vulnerable migrants who cross our borders fleeing from danger and threats to their lives, we are deeply disappointed and pained to hear this news.
 
We affirm the family as a foundational societal structure to support human community and understand
the household as an estate blessed by God. The security of the family provides critical mental, physical
and emotional support to the development and wellbeing of children. Our congregations and agencies
serve many migrant families that have recently arrived in the United States. Leaving their communities is often the only option they have to provide safety for their children and protect them from harm. Tearing
children away from parents who have made a dangerous journey to provide a safe and sufficient life for
them is unnecessarily cruel and detrimental to the well-being of parents and children.
 
As we continue to serve and love our neighbor, we pray for the children and families that will suffer due
to this policy and urge the Administration to stop their policy of separating families.
 
His Eminence Archbishop Vicken Aykazian
Diocesan Legate and Director of the Ecumenical Office
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America
 
Mr. Azhar Azeez
President
Islamic Society of North America
 
The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera
Bishop of Scranton, PA
Chair, Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs
 
Senior Bishop George E. Battle, Jr.
Presiding Prelate, Piedmont Episcopal District
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
 
Bishop H. Kenneth Carter, Jr.
President, Council of Bishops
The United Methodist Church
 
The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry
Presiding Bishop
Episcopal Church (United States)
 
The Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer
General Minister & President
United Church of Christ
 
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
 
The Rev. David Guthrie
President, Provincial Elders’ Conference
Moravian Church Southern Province
 
Mr. Glen Guyton
Executive Director
Mennonite Church USA
 
The Rev. Teresa Hord Owens
General Minister and President
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
 
Rabbi Rick Jacobs
President
Union for Reform Judaism
 
Mr. Anwar Khan
President
Islamic Relief USA
 
The Rev. Dr. Betsy Miller
President, Provincial Elders’ Conference
Moravian Church Northern Province
 
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II
Stated Clerk
Presbyterian Church (USA)
 
Rabbi Jonah Pesner
Director
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
 
The Rev. Don Poest
Interim General Secretary
 
The Rev. Eddy Alemán
Candidate for General Secretary
Reformed Church in America
 
Senior Bishop Lawrence Reddick III
Presiding Bishop, The Eighth Episcopal District
Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
 
The Rev. Phil Tom
Executive Director
International Council of Community Churches
 
Mr. Jim Winkler
General Secretary & President
National Council of Churches USA
 
Senior Bishop McKinley Young
Presiding Prelate, Third Episcopal District
African Methodist Episcopal Church

Montana Synod Strategic Benchmarks

Our Mission: "Marked by the cross of Christ forever, abundantly blessed, we faithfully serve God and neighbor."

Our Vision: "Every person a witness, Every minister equipping witness, Every congregation and ministry, empowered for witness, serving faithfully."

The Montana Synod will measure its own faithfulness to our mission and vision and to the task of providing leadership to the Montana Synod by the following benchmarks:
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1. Meet the future boldly.
For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart. (Jer 29:11-13)

We will take risks for the sake of the Gospel, remembering that Jesus said that whoever wants to save your life will lose it, and the only way to be a disciple is to pick up a cross and follow. We will learn from our conversations with  congregations and we will model faithful, visionary ministry that is more prophetic than safe.
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2. Serve the world, especially the poor and those who are in need.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16-17)

We will be able to articulate how everything that we do, everything that we advocate, everything that we commit time and money to will serve the world, remembering that the Gospel of John tells us that God so loved the world as to give Jesus, for the whole world. Through direct action, advocacy and cooperative work, we will minister to the poor, the poor in spirit, the forgotten and neglected. Realizing that this mission field is limitless, we will encourage coalitions, cooperation and establishment of meaningful priorities.
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3. Deepen faith and witness.
"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have
commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matt 28:18-20)

We remember that Jesus called us to go and make disciples of all nations. We will support and encourage congregations to remain faithful in worship, Word and Sacrament. We will support congregations as they encourage their members to grow in faith and to broaden their witness in their communities and beyond.
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4. Promote unity.
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do  nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus (Phil 2:1-5)

We remember Paul’s image of the body of Christ. We will maintain a clear sense of who we are and whose we are. We will celebrate our diversity within the unity that is ours in Christ. We will give thanks for our many gifts of the Spirit as we  explore our different responsibilities within the body.
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5. Strengthen congregations
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another
(Gal 5:13)

We are a resource to congregations and pastors. The Synod leadership, staff and volunteer, will provide support to congregations to empower them to live out their calling as centers of mission. We will encourage and support the development of networks among clergy, lay leaders and congregations.