The following is a letter from former Bishop Robert Isaksen regarding our relationship with the ELCJ.

In 1990 Herbert Chilstrom, the first presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, came up with a bold initiative for the newly formed church only two years after it was formed by merger. He called it Mission 90. There were a number of components: one that dealt with teaching the heart of the Gospel. Some of you may remember the well-received videos featuring Bishop Chilstrom. Additionally there was an initiative to encourage daily Bible reading, tithing, and an emphasis on global mission. The latter was to be accomplished by assigning a Companion Synod to each of the 65 synods. We in the New England Synod were initially assigned two partner churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan [ELCJ] and one of the regions of the Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil. Originally it was hoped that this could develop into a three way relationship, but aside from an exchange of letters, nothing really developed with the Brazilian church.

With the ELCJ it was another story. We had the advantage of having in the synod Pastor Chas Moline who had once been the English language pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in the Old City of Jerusalem and Pastor Rick Neu and the people of Ascension Lutheran Church of South Burlington VT who already had a companion relationship with Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. Rick was in regular e-mail contact with Pastor Mitri Raheb of Bethlehem.

The Synod's Global Mission committee was floundering while the Companion Synod Committee was coming up with plans for visitations. We decided to make the Companion Synod Committee the synod's Global Mission Committee.

I was fortunate to make two visitations. One, in October 1997, was a delegation of lay and clergy from around the synod in which we each brought a large suitcase full of medical supplies collected by Ascension, South Burlington to be given to the Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives. Augusta Victoria Hospital is a ministry of the Lutheran World Federation. During that visit we were present for a thrilling ecumenical Reformation service at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Jerusalem. Bishop-elect Munib Younan was the preacher.

Then Assistant to the Bishop Kathleen Reed accompanied Presiding Bishop H. George Anderson in January 1998 to participate in the installation of Bishop Munib Younan as the new bishop of the ELCJ. Later that year, in September, I was invited by The Division for Global Mission to return to install Pastors Michael and Susan Thomas as the new pastors of the English language congregation at Redeemer in the Old City of Jerusalem. Susan and Michael are members of the New England Synod and have made reports at synod assemblies. I got to preach that morning in Hope Lutheran Church in Ramallah.

Suad Younan, wife of the bishop, made a visit to the New England Synod in March 1997 to make a passionate presentation on the difficulties faced by our companions in Christ. Later her husband, Bishop Munib Younan, accepted our invitation to lead a Lenten retreat for pastors at Trinity College in Hartford and at Trinity Church in Worcester in 1999.

The relationship continues to grow with visits by Bishop Margaret Payne in December 2000 and Associate Hans Arnesen in November 2001, more frequent e-mail reports from Bishop Younan's office, and financial support from the New England Synod.

The vision of Mission 90 has broadened the vision of the New England Synod as it has in each of the other 64 synods. The community of Christ around the world has become so much more real and has enriched us immensely. Our eyes have been lifted to see our companions and to evaluate our mission in light of a much larger perspective.

Thank you Bishop Chilstrom.

Bob Isaksen

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