Ministerium Mondays
National #DayOfEncouragement is dedicated to uplifting people around us and making a positive impact. In celebration, we’re sharing the story of Ministerium Mondays for the encouragement of our rostered ministers.
“We can do this.” Pastor after pastor in early March talked to me, talked to Bishop Kusserow, talked to organists and church councils and worship committees and said, “We can do this.” And then they went and did it! In the space of two weeks, the pastors and deacons and congregations of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod moved from regular, in-person, singing and chanting and shaking hands to on-line worship by Facebook or YouTube or Zoom.
But it was hard, hard work, occasionally complicated and frustrating. And that was just getting worship going. When pastors and deacons began to talk about funerals, and nursing homes, and surgeries, the discussions turned from frustrating to agonizing. People needed to talk, and needed to know they weren’t alone.
Out of those needs, and a desire to share the resources of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, our synod, and the rich resources of our strong ministerium, “Ministerium Mondays” was born.
Each week during this global pandemic, we gather via Zoom to hear a word of gospel from the bishop. We continue to share resources and advice regarding all things online and pandemic related. And we have heard from our seminaries and our insurance plans, from our camps and from our social ministry partners how their ministries, too, are changing.
As we have continued through Pennsylvania’s various phases of gathering restrictions and we have struggled together to hear how each of us is discerning, with our congregation’s leadership, what “re-opening” looks like and what “normal” looks like in the age of coronavirus. We’ve argued, we’ve disagreed, we’ve encouraged, we’ve shared, we’ve challenged ourselves and each other.
And together, through these weekly gatherings, we have strengthened each other and the congregations of our synod “among whom the Gospel is preached in its purity.”
Pastor Peter D. Asplin
Assistant to the Bishop
peter.asplin@swpasynod.org | 412-367-8222