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An opportunity exists to serve the LCA Victorian and Tasmanian District on the People and Strategy subcommittee, a subcommittee of the LCAV District Church Council.

The role of the People & Strategy subcommittee is to assist DCC to ensure appropriate strategies, policies, and frameworks are in place for effective people management, strategy development and nominations and elections, taking into account the environment in which LCAVD operates.

We would welcome people with skills and experience in the Human Resource area, balancing the existing skills base of strategic planning, risk management and church governance.

Expressions of interest are sought from those willing and able to contribute Human Resource skills, and the characteristics and capacity per the Terms of Reference

Applicants should provide details of relevant skills and experience and motivation for this role.

Enquiries and applications to: People & Strategy subcommittee Chairperson, Katie Lang      Email: katie.lang@lca.org.au.

District Church Council are responsible for the appointment of members to the People & Strategy Subcommittee

Running from 10-16 October 2021, National Carers Week is a time to recognise and celebrate the 2.65 million Australians, and 430,000 New Zealanders, who provide care and support to a family member or friend.

Carers are people who provide unpaid care and support to family members and friends who have a disability, mental health condition, chronic condition, terminal illness, an alcohol or other drug issue or who are frail aged – anyone at any time can become a carer. Many, many people in our Lutheran church communities are carers, and we remember and celebrate them this month!

Great resources for reflection:

Messages of Hope by Lutheran Media has excellent resources that reflect the reality of being a carer, and offer hope through this season. In the Chronic Pain series, you can watch episode 2, “What about the Carer?” to learn more about what it means to be a carer and reflect on how to support carers. Order a discussion guide from Lutheran Media to use as a bible study or reflection with your small group or family; it comes as an e-book or packaged with the Chronic Pain DVD series. Alternately, watch John and Maureen’s story in Dementia – this is our story.

So many people are providing informal, unpaid care for family and friends in our communities – let’s give thanks for them, honour their work, and support them in this essential role. God’s love comes to life when we celebrate and care for those people who compassionately care for people in need.

Easy ideas for a celebration:

Download the Christian Care Sunday resources at www.lca.org.au/ccs and plan to include a prayer for carers in your worship service in Carers Week.

In Australia, put up a poster for the Carer Gateway in your church so that those in care roles know there is Government funded support available to them. You can request posters and other resources free of charge from https://publications.carergateway.gov.au/ or by ringing 1800 050 009 in business hours. In New Zealand, provide ‘A Guide for Carers’ or other resources from Carers NZ, available online at www.carers.net.nz or by phoning 0800 777 797.

Host a morning tea for carers to chat and connect – perhaps even virtually over zoom if you are in lockdown, or people find it hard to leave home and their care responsibilities.

Celebrate the carers in your community with a card, a coffee voucher or chocolate bar, or a prayer of blessing. Order cards or tracts to use from Lutheran Tract Mission https://www.ltm.org.au/.

A prayer for carers:

Lord Jesus Christ, we remember how exhausted you often were as you gave yourself to all who came to you in need. In the midst of a raging storm, you slept in the bottom of a rough fisherman’s boat. Thank you that you understand how we can become drained and empty by the demands made on us as we constantly care for those who depend on us. Renew our strength that we may not flag in our service. Refresh our spirits that we may work with patience and with joy. And restore our love that we may serve in the same way as we love to serve you. We ask this for your glory. Amen.

Adapted from David Short & David Searle, Pastoral Visitation: A Pocket Manual, p. 83 – as reproduced in the Mental Health and Pastoral Care Institute 10/10 church resources pack accessed online at http://www.mentalhealthinstitute.org.au/resources/1010-videos

Short Messages of Hope to share in Carers Week on your social media platform:

Caring for someone you love with chronic illness https://youtu.be/xq-xKORMnxs

Who cares for the carers? https://youtu.be/rcGtTbYJbEw

Dementia – this is our story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUUxw-eJnGg&t=393s

If you would like support to celebrate Carers Week or Christian Care Sunday in your congregation, please contact the Project Officer, Anna Kroehn via email: anna.kroehn@lca.org.au.

Have you signed up? Yes you have! (mostly!)

Thanks to the support of the LLL, LCA congregations participate free of charge! Most of the Victorian and Tasmanian Congregations have now ordered forms ready for The National Church Life Survey (NCLS):
Next Step: find a suitable week or two in October or November to conduct the survey.
Handy things to know:
• the survey can be completed online as well as with paper forms – both will be available, including switching to fully online if desired (regardless of your original order)
• results will be available to churches in early 2022, initially by email and later as hard copy

Contact Erin Grainger if you have not yet ordered your NCLS surveys.

E erin.grainger@lca.org.au

In a first for the LCANZ, the church’s next Convention of General Synod will be held in two parts – an online meeting in October 2021 and an in-person meeting in 2022.

LCANZ Bishop John Henderson announced the change in a special eNews to the church on 10 June after the General Church Board (GCB) decided on the move on 9 June. The six-day face-to-face convention scheduled to be held in Melbourne from 28 September to 3 October will not go ahead.

‘After making every effort to hold the Convention by the usual means, ongoing uncertainty about travel restrictions, exacerbated by the recent lockdown in Victoria and its potential flow-on impact in parts of Queensland and New South Wales, meant the time had come to make the very difficult call on a COVID contingency plan’, Bishop Henderson said.

Taking into account the extraordinary circumstances relating to COVID-19, the GCB unanimously agreed to hold the 20th regular Convention of General Synod in two parts: an online meeting in early October 2021, which will then be adjourned until the meeting resumes in person at a location to be determined in September or October 2022.

‘The GCB has adopted this approach, a first for the LCANZ, so we can keep the regular constitutional cycle of three-year synodical terms and make the necessary decisions in a timely and orderly way, allowing proper opportunity for consideration and discussion’, Bishop Henderson said. ‘With the risks to travel at present, that will mean an online format in 2021 and an in-person meeting in 2022, God willing.’

The 2021 online component of the Convention, likely to be held over two days, will be for essential business items necessary for the regular transition into the next synodical term, such as the election of the LCANZ bishop, assistant bishop and GCB; board and council reporting; and voting on essential constitutional and other matters that for various reasons cannot be held over until 2022.

Delegates will receive the Book of Reports, which also contains proposals to General Synod, before the 2021 meeting.

The 2022 in-person component of the meeting, likely to be held over two to three days, will be for matters of a theological or doctrinal nature and the proposals that will require robust ‘live’ debate in the usual Synod format.

‘The planning team will do its best to make sure all delegates can participate in both the online and in-person components of the Convention’, Bishop Henderson said.

The General Pastors Conference (GPC), scheduled for 6–8 July 2021 in Tanunda South Australia, will now not be held in person at that time. The GPC planning committee will advise all pastors of the revised arrangements as soon as practicable.

GPC will still need to ensure that nominations for LCANZ bishop and assistant bishop reach the opening session of Convention of General Synod in 2021 and that its advice on theological and doctrinal issues reaches delegates suitably in advance of the second meeting of Synod in 2022.

Regarding General Synod, GCB was mindful of the financial risk to the LCANZ and its parishes in the event of a snap COVID lockdown in Melbourne. Also taken into account was the considerable burden a physical Convention of General Synod in Melbourne would place on ‘already exhausted leaders, pastors and people in Victoria, the state that has borne the brunt of the COVID pandemic in Australia’.

‘In making this weighty decision, the GCB has considered not only the potential impact on delegates and others but also the risk to the wider church’, Bishop Henderson said. ‘While the financial risk is one factor, there is also the possibility that any decisions made by a depleted Convention of General Synod might later be contested as not being fully legitimate.’

As details about the online component of the convention become available, registered delegates will be informed via the Synod eNews, and there will be regular updates in LCA eNews for the wider church.

Bearing in mind that specific details for the new format for Convention of General Synod are not yet available, if you have questions or concerns, please contact the General Synod planning team via synod@lca.org.au