Staff
changes coming for Friends of Scotchman Peaks
Wilderness
Would you like to have a job helping to save the wild Scotchmans? Your chance is coming up fast. Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness announced recently that long-time FSPW staffer, Sandy Compton, will retire at the end of March. To that end, FSPW seeks to hire a staff member to fill his position of Program Coordinator. Compton has had a variety of responsibilities, including trail crew leadership, summer and winter outdoor education, media and press work and volunteer management. His replacement will be focusing on the FSPW partnership in trail work with the Forest Service, the Winter Tracks outdoor education program FSPW leads each year and the summer Trail Ambassador program on Scotchman Peaks trail #65.
A full job description is now posted at http://www.scotchmanpeaks.org/job-opportunities/
For more information, contact news@scotchman peaks.org.
Submitted by Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness
Montana Community Foundation awards grant to Libby Chamber
The Libby Area Chamber was awarded the Montana Community Foundation Grant to institute the SNAP Program in the The Farmers Market at Libby.
Libby native becomes first female to serve as bishop of
Oregon
Evangelical Lutheran church synod
Bishop Laurie Larson Caesar’s ministry career has been dedicated to ecumenism, social justice and radical compassion. Saturday’s worship service to install her as the bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Oregon Synod will reflect that joyful commitment to multifaith community building and courageous love. Bishop Larson Caesar, elected to a six-year term by the ELCA synod assembly in May, becomes the first woman to serve as bishop of the Oregon Synod. In this role she oversees 30,000 Lutherans in 111 congregations throughout the state.
“I want us to be bold for the sake of courageous love. Courageous love reaches across boundaries and barriers to promote dignity, justice and kindness for our neighbors just as Jesus did…however different our neighbors may be,” says Larson Caesar. “One of the things I treasure most about being a Lutheran is Martin Luther’s belief in constant reformation. We are called to constantly reassess what we think we know and how we do church. To be a church in a new way in this world is hard: It means being grounded in God’s grace in our bones, it means being fearless for the sake of love and it means maintaining hope in uncertain times.”
In a ground-breaking year, Bishop Larson Caesar joins eight other women who were elected to lead their synods – the most women ever elected in one year. This year is also the 50th anniversary of women’s ordination in the ELCA. The Oregon Synod was the first Lutheran synod to declare itself as a sanctuary synod (2016) and was also the first synod to become “Reconciling in Christ” (2005), welcoming individuals of all races, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, identities and marital status.
As a native of Libby, Montana, Bishop Larson Caesar grew up with a strong affinity for science, which led her to study human biology at Stanford University. After training as a chaplain at Stanford Medical Center, she went on to earn her Master of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, focusing on interfaith studies and feminist theology. Her one-year internship took place in Des Moines, Iowa, followed by a Certificate of Advanced Theological Studies from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California.
From 1996 to 2019, Bishop Larson Caesar served as pastor of Spirit of Grace in Beaverton, perhaps the world’s only community of Lutherans and Roman Catholics worshiping together. At Spirit of Grace, she helped the congregation grow, deepen their engagement with social justice work and expand their mission of love and diversity by developing and deepening relationships with Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh neighbors.
Bishop Larson Caesar is married to Drew Caesar, a pastor of the Presbyterian Church – USA and a therapist in private practice. Their daughter, Sophie, is pursuing undergraduate studies at the University of Denver.
The Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Elizabeth Eaton, will preach at Bishop Larson Caesar’s installation. Presiding Bishop Eaton was elected to another six-year term at the churchwide assembly in August 2019. The service will be followed by a festive reception.
Submitted by Sarah Strausb
Bishop Laurie Larson Caesar. Photo courtesy of Sarah Strausbaugh.