Community Lutheran Partners, Inc.

Greetings, beloved in Christ!

Another year, another Synod Assembly. It has been a busy year, in ways that I’m thankful for and in ways that I would have preferred boredom. Mostly I am thankful for you and your continued support. Your influence has spread wider than you realize and the ripples you’ve sent out continue to change the world around us.

I received a recent observation that CLP doesn’t look quite like it used to. That’s because it doesn’t look quite how it used to. Part of that comes from having a different director and board members. I am a deacon, with a whole different set of life experiences behind me. Our board is currently quite small, with different experiences as well. I tend to be a systems thinker: I look for how an immediate need is tied to a larger issue. Nothing stands alone. Part of the diaconal call is to be on edges and margins, looking for unexpected solutions and bringing attention to the need that surrounds us. How is this issue tied to another issue? How can we unknot this by pulling on that?

Part of how it is different is that grant funding doesn’t work quite like it used to. Direct service money is harder to come by and money to operate a program (like pay an executive director), harder yet. This is where systems thinking comes in. How do we work towards solving this issue rather than only putting a band-aid on it? Granted, sometimes that feels like all we have, but it isn’t. We can always be a voice for those we are trying to help.

We are having to look at what sustainability looks like here, in this place and time. Change is not easy and occasionally even painful. While we suspect the future MAY look different, we are still hard at work in the Synod.

This has been a year of floods and fires. CLP continues to work with Lutheran Disaster Response to fund long term recovery in WV. We have also partnered closely with United Methodist Committee on Relief and WVVOAD for the flooding that occurred in February 2025. Writing this in early April, I can say that you all have donated over two thousand dollars (money and items) to the southern coalfields. I fully expect more donations to come in before we are together later this spring.

Hurricane Helene recovery was mostly wind related for WV. CLP delivered donations of water to feeding and recovery stations where the power was out for over a week. My LDR colleagues tell me that recovery continues to be a difficult and heartbreaking job.

While the south flooded, eastern portions of the state burned last spring. CLP was involved in providing emotional and spiritual care to those affected.

Wildfires continue to be a growing concern in the Synod. This is quickly becoming another disaster we need to be aware of and prepare for.

Building bridges with Mennonite Disaster Services and LDR is nearly finished. We have two more permitted and now it’s waiting for weather and people. The WV program has been used as an example to help do similar work in North Carolina after Helene. I am not kidding when I say that we bring change to our siblings outside our hills and hollers.

I am currently working with the American Geophysical Union – Thriving Earth Exchange on how place, story-telling and faith affect resilience. I am excited to see where this will go and hope it will produce something to help faith leaders to build more resilient communities in the face of disasters of all kinds. CLP was featured at an LDR webinar event to discuss what this could look like and mean for communities.
I have a short program on building trust that I was asked to provide for different groups recently, including WV Council of Churches and rural health care providers in Appalachia (we had people in it all the way down to Georgia!) One of the remarks that came out of that was “I didn’t know we had Lutherans in WV.” Yes, ma’am, we are here and we’re worshipping and plugging away in our communities.

CLP is working with ELCA Hunger on what hunger programs look like and what kind of support they need in rural areas. I am hopeful that this might engender some change outside of the synod as well. There is good work happening right here. How do we find support for it?

CLP is a member of the LDR Emotional and Spiritual Care Workgroup. This is still a mostly new group, and we are working on training and resources for clergy and laity.

I represent CLP on the WV Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster Board of Directors, as well as on their Emotional and Spiritual Care Committee.

I am a very noisy advocate for what we are doing in the Synod. There’s probably a poster of me in my bibs on a dartboard somewhere.

Recently, I was asked by the WV Council of Churches to speak at Compassion Call Us Day at the WV capitol. Other speakers included a pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the former executive director of the WV Council of Churches, a UMC Pastor from Welch, the WV UMC bishop and the bishop for the Wheeling Catholic Diocese. I was tasked with addressing healthcare access in rural Appalachia. In my remarks I stated that all the strings of justice are knotted together. While the knot looks too big for us to untangle alone, we can each find a string to pull. Find the string you want to pull. CLP can help you find that string if you’re not sure what it is. Together we can unravel issues to improve lives for all. After all, driven by God’s word, empowered through the sacraments, we are sent to serve in the heart of Appalachia.

Peace and joy!
Deacon Mary Sanders
Executive Director
Community Lutheran Partners