Bishop Bos’ Reflections on the 2026 Assembly
Meeting under the theme “God is our Refuge and Strength” brought special courage and comfort for me at this year’s Synod Assembly. Nearly 300 people gathered at the Pasadena Hilton to pass a budget, consider resolutions, elect leaders and hear from our powerful keynote speaker, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the President and CEO of Global Refuge, and Pastor Khader El-Yateem, the Executive Director of the ELCA’s Service and Justice division. These two leaders shared their ministries and their passion in serving the vulnerable people of this planet.
In my mind, true leadership connects both the honest telling of our situations and the vision of a better future for all. This requires deep listening to those in need, those in power and all the rest of us in between. Synod assembly is a wonderful place to hear from each other, learning about hopes, goals, disappointments, shared vision and commitments. Because God is our refuge, we were able to lean into God’s grace as we heard some hard truths, as challenges were raised about our spending and our priorities. I spoke frequently about the time and courage it takes to truly see and hear each other, to be changed by each other’s experiences. Southwest California Synod is one of the most diverse in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. While that gives us a splendid opportunity to learn from each other, we also live in historic and systemic tensions of race, power, gender and economic realities. I love this place, I believe we all do, and it requires a lot of us.
This is where God’s strength comes in. God’s love and promise fuel us when life gets hard. God’s commitment to us, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, binds us together when the going gets tough, or when the conversations get awkward. I confess there are many times when I don’t know what to say, or how to respond, and I am constantly learning to lean into God’s will and wisdom… which does not always immediately reveal itself.
Still, we are in this together, and our synod assembly is an important time to witness that. We voted to support the ministry of Fe Y Esperanza, with regular reporting to the whole synod on the progress we are making to find a shared understanding of the synod’s relationship to the congregation, including financial and governance relations. We bore witness to the students and faculty of California Lutheran University and I am committed to strengthen the synod’s relationship with the university. I know the university leaders share that commitment. We voted to explore climate justice and advocacy resources in our congregations. We supported our young people as several learned about church business and how to participate in it. We sent a proposal to our synod council to explore affordable housing options when church buildings are sold. All of our synod business will be shared more officially in next week’s newsletter.
We worshipped a lot, in short vignettes and in the larger festival worship. Pastor Albert Starr stirred our hearts and imaginations with his poetry and song. We had an overflowing amount of workshop offerings, learning about everything from senior ministry to building sales to grant opportunities.
And always, we were called to be a better church, responding to more needs and clinging more deeply to the teachings of Jesus. I am so grateful for your participation, and for your desire to be more connected.
There was a question asked at assembly which I did not get a chance to answer during the event. “How can we get more involved?” Well, here is your chance: If you are interested in engaging our senior ministry team of volunteers, or supporting young people’s deeper involvement in synod life, or working with our Global Refuge team, or strengthening lay ministries or disability ministries, kindly let us know in this form, and a member of my staff will be in touch with you.
Enormous thanks to the team of folks who brought this assembly into being: Pastor Scott Maxwell-Doherty as our planning chair, Pastors Megan Fryling, Melissa Maxwell-Doherty, Misael Fajardo-Perez, Beth Gallen and Roderick Hines for their amazing worship offerings, Pastor Steve Herder, Viv Vega and Pastor Maria Paiva for curating remarkable workshops, and a large gathering of skilled people, including synod staff, who made the event run so smoothly.
God is always calling us to new things, and I am so grateful that we continue to answer that call. We can do this, because God is both our Refuge and our Strength.
