Connect(ed):
2024 SD Synod Assembly

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many…Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

– 1 Corinthians 1:12-13,27

Join us as we celebrate all the ways that we are connected as a Synod and remember all the ways we are connected with each other and with the whole church as the Body of Christ in our mission to share the Gospel of God’s love and forgiveness with the world.

May 31 – June 1 at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Sioux Falls, SD.

Livestream on YouTube.

What to Expect

Thursday, May 30

2:00 – 6:00 PM – Displays Set Up
5:00 – 6:00 PM – Early Check-In
7:00 – 9:00 PM – Ministry Recognitions with dessert sponsored by Luther Seminary and Wartburg Theological Seminary.

Friday, May 31

8:00 AM – 5:00 PM – Displays Open
8:00 AM – Check-In Opens
9:10 AM – Opening Worship with Holy Communion
10:25 AM – Plenary 1
11:55 AM – Lunch and Conference Caucuses
1:00 PM – Plenary 2
3:30 PM – Plenary 3
4:20 PM – “Connection Hubs”

*Voting at this year’s Synod Assembly will take place via a secure online platform. Go to vpoll.mobi and enter the access code “pasque” to log in. More information is available below.

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM Food Truck Friday at the Synod Assembly
An evening featuring a free concert by the guest musician for the Assembly, Peter Mayer. The event will take outdoors at Augustana University by Morrison Commons. Food and beverages will be available for purchase from local food trucks and vendors. You can find more details below.

Saturday, June 1

8:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Displays Open
8:30 AM – Morning Worship with Holy Communion
9:45 AM – Lutherans Outdoors Annual Meeting
10:30 AM – Break
11:00 AM – Plenary 4

Close of the Assembly

*Times Subject to Change. See the proposed agenda for more details.

Registration

Regular Registration for voting members, visitors, and displayers opened on Friday, April 19 and will close on Monday, May 20 at 11:59 PM CT. Click here to register.

Late Registration ($25 late fee added) is open until Friday, May 24th at 12 Noon CT.

If you have questions regarding registration, please contact the assembly registrar, Lois Borchardt, at 605-274-4025, or send an email to assembly@sdsynod.org.

Formula

For additional information regarding voting members, please reference Chapter 7 of the Synod Constitution.

Churchwide Representative

The Rev. Norma Malfatti

The Reverend Norma Malfatti serves as the Director for Evangelical Mission Support in the Christian Community and Leadership Home Area of the ELCA’s churchwide organization.  In this role, she accompanies and equips the 70 Directors for Evangelical Mission (DEMs) in the ELCA and partners with their bishop in supervising their ministry.  She also accompanies and supports each synod bishop when the synod is calling a new DEM.  As part of her work, she serves on churchwide’s Multi-Ethnic Ministry Initiative, God’s Love Made Real Transformation Team, and the Synod Engagement Team.  Prior to serving the churchwide organization, she served as a DEM for eight years, first in the Upstate New York Synod and then in the Minneapolis Area Synod, and as a parish pastor in New York and rural Maryland.  In Pastor Norma’s earlier professional days, she managed apartment buildings across the metropolitan New York area for low-income seniors and people with physical disabilities.

When not working from her home or traveling across the ELCA, Pastor Norma spends time reading, hiking, being herded by her three finicky cats, and rooting for the New York Yankees!

Guest Musicians: Peter and Brendan Mayer

We are thrilled to welcome Peter and Brendan Mayer as our guest musicians this year.

Peter Mayer, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, has been with Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band for over three decades. Mayer also follows his own musical path with both national and international tours and has released 20 live and studio albums to date. Over his years in music he has been privileged to share the stage with many bright lights in the music industry including James Taylor, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Don Henley, Dave Matthews, and many others.

Brendan Mayer, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, has been building a following, laying his tracks in the music world. He released his first album, the “Getaway Car” EP, on Jimmy Buffett’s Mailboat Records, after touring a year with Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band in 2014. He has spent the last months working on his latest release, “Best at the Show,” which is due out this year. He performs regularly on his solo tours.

Brendan and Peter joined forces in 2017 to record their debut album, “Long Story Short.” With both songwriters contributing to the list, this collection of twelve songs showcases the father and son’s unique musical directions that, together, weave a unified sound with compelling lyrics and inventive melodies. The result is two voices turned into one with their bloodline harmony.

More Information on Friday Evening and the Online Voting Process at the Assembly

Food Truck Friday at Synod Assembly

Rev. The South Dakota Synod invites you to join us for an evening of good food and great music on the Friday night of Synod Assembly (May 31st), featuring a free concert by the guest musicians for the Assembly, Peter and Brendan Mayer. The event will take outdoors at Augustana University by Morrison Commons. Food and beverages will be available for purchase from local food trucks and vendors. A limited number of bag chairs will be available for a freewill donation from Church on the Street, or you can bring your own! Download an informational poster here.

The list of the food trucks that will be at the event is below. We encourage you to view their menus before attending to help the lines move as quickly as possible.

• Let Me Be Frank
• Berkes BBQ
  • Featured $12 meal for the evening: cheesy hash browns, coleslaw, pulled chicken & pulled pork
• Hunny & Bunny Mediterranean Cuisine
• Curbside Delights (order online)
• Taquiera Juanita (menu)
• SDSU Ice Cream

Those who register for the Assembly will receive a voucher for up to $12 to use at the food trucks. Please note that no change will be given, and attendees are responsible for any amount over $12. Those registered will also receive a voucher for one free scoop of ice cream at the SDSU Ice Cream Truck, thanks to the sponsorship of the Mission Investment Fund and Portico.

Online Voting at Synod Assembly

You can view and download instructions on signing into VPOLL, the secure online voting platform we are using for the Assembly, here. 

Assembly Materials

Synod Assembly materials will be made available this year once again electronically. Download reports to your device to print or save or use the free Synod Assembly app. We will once again be using the free ELCA Guidebook App for all of our synod assembly materials.

Download the 2024 Synod Assembly App!

The South Dakota Synod Assembly Guidebook is now available to download on any smart device. Get the guide to access the most up-to-date information about our assembly, including schedules, quick links, materials and much more.

Get our guide by clicking here.

Android and Apple iOS users:

1. From the link above, tap the “Download” button to download the free Guidebook app
2. Open Guidebook and you can find our “2024 South Dakota Synod Assembly” guide
3. OR, if you already have the Guidebook App installed, simply search in the “find guides” section for the “2024 South Dakota Synod Assembly.”

You can also download materials on the Synod Assembly page here.

Location

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church
909 W 33rd Street
Sioux Falls, SD

Our Savior’s Lutheran Church will once again be the host site for the 2023 South Dakota Synod Assembly. We are grateful to the volunteers and staff at Our Savior’s who graciously host us for this important work of the church.

For more information about Sioux Falls and places to stay, click here.

Synod Assembly Offering

The Synod Council has designated the offering for the 2024 Synod Assembly to go to the Neighbors in Solidarity Ministries of the South Dakota Synod.

Solidarity is a commitment with others and a way of seeing, being, and acting. Solidarity means seeing and experiencing one’s own well-being as connected to the well-being of others and the communities to which they belong. Solidarity often involves people aligning themselves with others who do not have the same experiences. The principle of solidarity compels respect for the lived experience of all our brothers and sisters. Solidarity encourages us to share in our neighbor’s suffering and to participate in their liberation.

Across the South Dakota Synod, we have many specialized or supported ministries.  Each of these ministries proclaims the Gospel and carries out the mission of our church in a specific way – sometimes working with those who have no home, sometimes building a new faith community, sometimes working with prisoners.  We call these ministries “Neighbors in Solidarity” to celebrate that their work is our work, too.  Jesus calls us to imagine our neighbors in a broad sense, and we stand together – in solidarity – with these ministries to share the love of Christ.  These ministries are your ministries, because we are the body of Christ together. You can find out more about our Neighbors in Solidarity here.