To: the Congregation and Community of Trinity Lutheran Church, Long Beach

“ ….but you will receive power when the Holy comes upon you; and you shall be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
Grace and Peace to you beloved, in the name of our Lord and gracious redeemer, Jesus the
Christ of God.
Trinity, as a congregation is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As a
denomination we are structured in nine geographical regions and sixty-five synods across the
country. We are about 8,900 congregations and roughly 17,000 rostered leaders (clergy and deacons).

As a congregation, it is through our partnership in the denomination and our Southwest
California Synod, that we are able to live out our call as disciples to be engaged in ministry
beyond the walls of our church house on the corner of Linden and 8 th in Long Beach.
As we actively support and participate in the work of our synod and denomination (churchwide)
we engage in local ministry and ministry initiatives across the country and even around the
world.
July 28 th to August 2 nd I will be participating in our Churchwide Assembly in Phoenix Arizona as a
voting member from our Southwest California Synod. I encourage you to go to our ELCA.org
website to learn more about the assembly and the work of our Chicago-based Churchwide
offices.
The 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly will be held July 28–Aug. 2, 2025, at the Phoenix
Convention Center in Phoenix, Ariz.
The ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the primary decision-making body of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America, is a process of communal spiritual discernment. When the ELCA
Churchwide Assembly convenes, its voting members meet with confidence in God’s grace
around word and water, wine, and bread, to continue their work on behalf of the entire church.
Over the course of the assembly, voting members will:
 Hear reports and review the work of churchwide officers, leaders, and units.
 Receive and consider proposals from synod assemblies.
 Elect officers, board members and other leaders as specified by the constitution or
bylaws.
 Establish ELCA churchwide policy.
 Worship together
 Adopt a budget.
 Conduct other business related to the ELCA churchwide organization.

A major focus for this assembly will be the election of a new presiding Bishop. Our current
Bishop, Elizabeth Eaton will not be available for re-election. Bishop Eaton was first elected to
serve as Presiding Bishop in 2013 and elected to a second term at the Churchwide assembly in
2019. She was the first woman to hold this position in our church/denomination’s history.
There are a number of pre-assembly meetings and events. I will be attending the African
Descent Lutheran Association assembly which will begin July 24th
In my previous work with our ELCA churchwide offices in Chicago, I served as director for ethnic
specific and multicultural ministries and leader for a team that included program directors for,
Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, Arab and Middle Eastern,
African National and African Descent, and Latino/Latinx Lutheran communities within our ELCA.
Our collective work as congregations, synods, and a national/global church continues to be
some of our most challenging as we live out what it means to be church for the sake of the
world.

To find out more about our ELCA churchwide go to Churchwide Assembly.
These are challenging times, no doubt about that. These as also exciting times as we get to see
the grace, love and joy of Jesus, the Christ of God, unfold right before our very eyes.
We have made efforts to strengthen our bandwidth in preparation for streaming worship
services online from the sanctuary at Trinity, but I also want to encourage you to come to the
church here on the corner 8th and Linden in Long Beach. Worship at 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning
is still a vital part of who we are and what we do as God’s people in this community.
Together we are church, given strength and power to be church together in service, church for
the sake of the world.

Be well beloved.
Pastor Starr