At the 2025 Synod Assembly, a resolution was passed, urging all congregations and ministry sites of the synod to implement safe child and vulnerable adult policies and to provide training for rostered ministers and lay leaders to safeguard children and vulnerable adults in our communities. To accomplish these directives, the Synod Council appointed a task force that has been at work since June to assist congregations in accomplishing this task and to vet training resources.
We are proud to announce that the first piece of the process is ready for you. A new page on the synod website is now available and it is full of resources for your ministry leadership teams to access and use in adopting a vulnerable adult and child safety policy appropriate for your context. Check it out here.
The welcome page of the website helps us set the stage for this work across the synod:
We continue to take the posture of student and steward. We will be students of human growth and development, of consistent safety and accountability practices, and partners in justice when it is demanded on behalf of a vulnerable person. We will be stewards of congregational relationships, of trust borne out of Christian community and of policies and procedures that are for the sake of the neighbor. We answer this call from the 2025 Synod Assembly as students and stewards so that every congregation in this synod will have a working, functional and consistent policy and procedure for child and vulnerable adult safety.
We welcome your engagement with the materials here as you find the best ways to create or update your own policies. If you have found resources helpful in your own congregation’s process, please share them with us. The more resources we can share, the better we all can be in creating places of safety and security for all who enter our faith communities. We now turn our focus to preparing training opportunities for our rostered ministers and lay leaders. More information is coming soon!
Please join me in thanking Joy McElroy (Christ on Capitol Hill, St. Paul), Rev. Ruth Sorenson (Lyngblomsten, St. Paul), Rev. Kevin Bergeson (Easter, Eagan), and Deaconess Claire Schoepp (Augustana, West St. Paul), who joined me on this task force, sharing their time and energy. We look forward to engaging with you as you take up this task on behalf of vulnerable lives in our communities!
Deacon Krista Lind
Assistant to the Bishop for Vocational Formation
