Jodi Slattery, ELCA Executive for Governance, was the ELCA representative to our NC Synod Assembly. Jodi began her report with the ELCA Report video which will be shown at the assemblies of all 65 synods! In the video, the Assembly got a glimpse of a Minnesota congregation that has been situated in an immigrant community for all of its 135 years—initially immigrants from Sweden and now Spanish-speaking neighbors. ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton reminded us, “Our unity is in Christ who gathers us around Word and water, wine, and bread.” Together we are fed, together we serve and share.

Jodi shared a number of slides with information about Mission Support giving, both across the ELCA and, in particular, from this synod:

• In 2022, over 38 million was shared with the churchwide expression of the ELCA via Mission Support (8900+ congregations).
• In 2022, the congregations of this synod shared $1,036,768 in Mission Support with the churchwide expression of the ELCA.
• In 2022, the ELCA had 311 Synod-Authorized Worshiping Communities (SAWCs)—33 new starts this year across the church.
• Eleven of those SAWCs are in the NC Synod.
• NC Synod congregations gave $456,440 through the synod office to Lutheran Disaster Response.
• Across the ELCA, Lutheran Disaster Response raised nearly 24 million dollars in 2022.
• The ELCA’s Fund for Leaders, supported 375 seminarians with $3,062,418 in 2022, more than any previous year. Seven of those were newly-supported NC Synod candidates.
• 160 federal chaplains are serving across this church along with more than 450 local chaplains.
• In 2022, 131 ELCA missionary households served in 54 countries across the world.
• In 2022, the congregations of this synod shared $14,832 to support ELCA missionaries.
• Many synod folks serve on churchwide committees and boards:
  • Pastor Emily Hartner (Holy Trinity, Charlotte) serves on the ELCA Church Council.
  • Pastor Paul Wollner (Augsburg, Winston-Salem) serves on the ELCA Committee on Appeals.
  • Carolyn Parrott (St. John’s, Salisbury) serves on the ELCA Nominating Committee.
  • Diana Haywood (Church of the Abiding Savior-Lutheran, Durham) and Ted Goins (St. John’s, Salisbury) serve on Portico Benefits’ Board of Trustees.
  • Pastor Danielle DeNise, is on churchwide staff, serving as the NC Synod’s Director for Evangelical Mission.
  • Bishop Tim Smith serves on the Conference of Bishops’ Roster Committee, as well as the ELCA Gender Justice and Women’s Empowerment Consulting Group.

She also spoke about the study of women in ministry, AMMPARO, the Rostered Ministers event happening this summer, and the ELCA Youth Gathering in 2024. highlighted our synod’s generosity, creativity, and faithfulness. She closed with this prayer: “May Jesus, the Living Son of God, continue to remind us of whose we are together.”