June 23, 2023

As stipulated in the Synod Constitution, the Minneapolis Area Synod Council at its first meeting since the 2023 Synod Assembly considered and approved a Bishop’s Election Committee (BEC) for

the 2024 Synod Assembly election. Bishop Ann Svennungsen will have reached her twelve-year term limit in July, 2024, so a new bishop will be elected at the May 2-4 Assembly.

The Synod’s Nominating Committee provided the Synod Council with a slate of seven names (and two alternates) for consideration for the BEC. The Nominating Committee members strived to identify people who express all the diversity of the synod – from size and location of congregation to age, ethnicity, and gender.

“The challenges and opportunities faced by the Nomination Committee are not dissimilar to those churches face every day,” reflected Pete Erickson, chair of the committee. “Our team sought to bring forward thought leaders reflective of the diversity and theological imagination so vital to aligning the enduring and emerging values of our changing communities and churches. The people recommended for the Bishops Election Committee are a faithful representation of our changing church and will help to

facilitate a faithful process for discerning the future of leadership in the Minneapolis Area Synod.”

The Bishop’s Election Committee, with support from the synod staff, will identify and prepare materials about the election process and the synod itself, determine a process for voting members to meet the nominees for the Office of the Bishop, and oversee the process (along with the Synod Vice President and the Churchwide representative) during the Synod Assembly.

 

THE MEMBERS OF the Bishop’s Election Committee appointed by the Synod Council are Ms. Emma Kasiga, Deacon Savannah Olaphson, Mr. Tim Nelson, Pastor Hans Lee, Ms. Molly Schroeder, Pastor Rebecca Gamble, and Pastor Hierald Osorto. The two alternate members of the committee are Mr. Trevon Tellor and Mr. Jay Lor. Vice President Felecia Boone is a ex officio member of this, and all, synod committees; she has voice but not vote on the Bishop’s Election Committee.

 

Rebecca Gamble is the Pastor of Outreach and Care Ministries at Normandale Lutheran Church in Edina. She has previously served as a rostered or lay leader at Shepherd of the Lake in Prior Lake, Zion in Minneapolis, and Jacob’s Well (now Fabric) in Minneapolis. She has also served in global positions in Malaysia and India.

 

 

Emma Kasiga is a member of Minnesota Swahili Christian Church in Minneapolis, a strategic ministry of the synod. She has served on the Mission table and the Equity Lens Task Force of the synod, and recently fulfilled her term on the Synod Council. She is the Community Lending Market Executive (VP) for Old National Bank.

 

 

 

 

Hans Lee has served in settled pastoral positions at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church and Calvary Lutheran Church, both in Minneapolis, and Christ the King Lutheran Church in Bloomington. He has served in interim pastoral positions at Holy Trinity, New Prague; Holy Trinity, Minneapolis; and Mount Olivet in Plymouth. Most recently he was Interim Executive Assistant to the Bishop.

 

 

 

 

Tim Nelson is past vice president of Braham Lutheran Church in Braham. A graduate of Yale Law School, he was also a Policy Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. He currently serves as the Chief Deputy Attorney in Isanti County. He is also a Trustee for the Initiative Foundation, a community and economic development organization working to expand opportunity in 14 counties across Central Minnesota.

 

 

 

 

Savannah Olaphson is the Deacon of Service and Justice Ministries at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie. She grew up in the mountains of Montana and Washington, served as a Young Adult in Global Mission in Cambodia (2016-2017). She also previously worked as program staff at Messiah Lutheran Church in Auburn, Washington.

 

 

 

Hierald Osorto is the Pastor of San Pablo/Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church, a bilingual congregation in Minneapolis. Prior to moving to Minneapolis, he served at Ithaca College as the Executive Director for Student Equity and Belonging and the founding Director of Religious and Spiritual Life. Hierald is a 2018 Masters of Divinity graduate of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He also received a Certificate of Study in Theology and Decolonization from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil.

 

 

Molly Schroeder is currently serving as an associate with Interserve Ministries, just completing her time with Grace Lutheran in Andover. She also currently serves as the Founder and President of The Wave Youth Center in Big Lake. Molly has a Master of Children, Youth, and Family Ministry and a Master of Theology focused on Congregation, Mission, and Leadership from Luther Seminary.

 

 

 

In addition, the Bishop’s Election Committee will include two alternates who will be prepared to engage the process should anyone need to leave the committee. Both are lay members of their congregations, though both are also interested in further theological training.

Trevon Tellor currently attends Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, having grown up at Christ the King Lutheran in Bloomington. A graduate of Augsburg University, he is the Worker Solidarity Coordinator for Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL).

 

 

 

 Jay Lor worships at Amazing Grace Lutheran Church, Fridley, the synod’s Hmong-language congregation, where he is a lay preacher and co-leader of the youth and young adult ministry. He is a member consultant for Affinity Plus Credit Union.

 

 

 

The Bishop Election Committee will begin to meet this summer, and most of its work will take place between this fall and the Conference Assemblies on February 10, 2024. Working with the Synod Vice President, the committee will also oversee the election process at the 2024 Synod Assembly which will be held May 2-4 at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Ramsey.