{"id":2284,"date":"2025-07-09T18:58:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T18:58:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/?p=2284"},"modified":"2025-07-09T18:58:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T18:58:47","slug":"pastor-starr-letter-for-july-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/?p=2284","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Starr Letter for July 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

To: the Congregation and Community of Trinity Lutheran Church, Long Beach<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026.but you will receive power when the Holy comes upon you; and you shall be my
\nwitnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.\u201d
\nActs 1:8
\nGrace and Peace to you beloved, in the name of our Lord and gracious redeemer, Jesus the
\nChrist of God.
\nTrinity, as a congregation is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As a
\ndenomination we are structured in nine geographical regions and sixty-five synods across the
\ncountry. We are about 8,900 congregations and roughly 17,000 rostered leaders (clergy and deacons).<\/p>\n

As a congregation, it is through our partnership in the denomination and our Southwest
\nCalifornia Synod, that we are able to live out our call as disciples to be engaged in ministry
\nbeyond the walls of our church house on the corner of Linden and 8 th in Long Beach.
\nAs we actively support and participate in the work of our synod and denomination (churchwide)
\nwe engage in local ministry and ministry initiatives across the country and even around the
\nworld.
\nJuly 28 th to August 2 nd I will be participating in our Churchwide Assembly in Phoenix Arizona as a
\nvoting member from our Southwest California Synod. I encourage you to go to our ELCA.org
\nwebsite to learn more about the assembly and the work of our Chicago-based Churchwide
\noffices.
\nThe 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly will be held July 28\u2013Aug. 2, 2025, at the Phoenix
\nConvention Center in Phoenix, Ariz.
\nThe ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the primary decision-making body of the Evangelical
\nLutheran Church in America, is a process of communal spiritual discernment. When the ELCA
\nChurchwide Assembly convenes, its voting members meet with confidence in God\u2019s grace
\naround word and water, wine, and bread, to continue their work on behalf of the entire church.
\nOver the course of the assembly, voting members will:
\n\uf0b7 Hear reports and review the work of churchwide officers, leaders, and units.
\n\uf0b7 Receive and consider proposals from synod assemblies.
\n\uf0b7 Elect officers, board members and other leaders as specified by the constitution or
\nbylaws.
\n\uf0b7 Establish ELCA churchwide policy.
\n\uf0b7 Worship together
\n\uf0b7 Adopt a budget.
\n\uf0b7 Conduct other business related to the ELCA churchwide organization.<\/p>\n

A major focus for this assembly will be the election of a new presiding Bishop. Our current
\nBishop, Elizabeth Eaton will not be available for re-election. Bishop Eaton was first elected to
\nserve as Presiding Bishop in 2013 and elected to a second term at the Churchwide assembly in
\n2019. She was the first woman to hold this position in our church\/denomination\u2019s history.
\nThere are a number of pre-assembly meetings and events. I will be attending the African
\nDescent Lutheran Association assembly which will begin July 24th
\nIn my previous work with our ELCA churchwide offices in Chicago, I served as director for ethnic
\nspecific and multicultural ministries and leader for a team that included program directors for,
\nAsian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, Arab and Middle Eastern,
\nAfrican National and African Descent, and Latino\/Latinx Lutheran communities within our ELCA.
\nOur collective work as congregations, synods, and a national\/global church continues to be
\nsome of our most challenging as we live out what it means to be church for the sake of the
\nworld.<\/p>\n

To find out more about our ELCA churchwide go to Churchwide Assembly.
\nThese are challenging times, no doubt about that. These as also exciting times as we get to see
\nthe grace, love and joy of Jesus, the Christ of God, unfold right before our very eyes.
\nWe have made efforts to strengthen our bandwidth in preparation for streaming worship
\nservices online from the sanctuary at Trinity, but I also want to encourage you to come to the
\nchurch here on the corner 8th\"\" and Linden in Long Beach. Worship at 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning
\nis still a vital part of who we are and what we do as God\u2019s people in this community.
\nTogether we are church, given strength and power to be church together in service, church for
\nthe sake of the world.<\/p>\n

Be well beloved.
\nPastor Starr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To: the Congregation and Community of Trinity Lutheran Church, Long Beach \u201c \u2026.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.\u201d 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\u2013Aug. 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\u2019s 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: \uf0b7 Hear reports and review the work of churchwide officers, leaders, and units. \uf0b7 Receive and consider proposals from synod assemblies. \uf0b7 Elect officers, board members and other leaders as specified by the constitution or bylaws. \uf0b7 Establish ELCA churchwide policy. \uf0b7 Worship together \uf0b7 Adopt a budget. \uf0b7 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\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2285,"href":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2284\/revisions\/2285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinitylclb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}