Report of Reference & Counsel

Report of Reference & Counsel
May 31, 2025

On May 12, 2025, Bishop Riegel appointed Pastor Sherry Miller, Pastor Daniel Collins, Vivian Grate, Wendell Beitzel and Jim Sheatsley to serve as members of the committee on reference and counsel for this year’s Synod Assembly. Bishop Riegel forwarded, along with that appointment, a copy of a resolution which has been made available to assembly participants entitled “To Establish a Future, Part-Time Call Option for the Bishop of the WV-WMD Synod”. The members of the committee met and consulted by electronic means. It appeared, from brief historic information available, that the issue of “a part time Bishop” had been addressed in different manners formally and/or informally in the past.

The committee believed that the Resolution seeking review of a part-time call for an elected Bishop to serve our Synod is proper.

The Resolution as distributed as a portion of the preassembly materials sought referral back to the Synod Council with directions to the Synod Council to come back to the Assembly in 2026 with a proposal in line with the Resolution.

The committee initially perceived that this could be a matter to bring before the assembly as a whole as “an action item” this year rather than sending the matter back to Synod Council which would delay action on the Resolution. However, the committee was guided by the Bishop and his more detailed familiarity with not only the Constitution for the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod and its Bylaws but also the general content of Constitutions for Synods upon which the Constitution and Bylaws for our Synod were based. Because there is no provision in our Constitution or Bylaws for a “part-time Bishop” any Resolution or debate of a Resolution to create different options for the Bishop’s position by any Assembly would have to be prefaced by an amendment to the Bylaws of the Synod permitting that concept.

Additionally, currently no rostered minister may hold more than one letter of call at a time in our Synod. This provision of our constituting documents necessarily must be addressed as a part of the overall possibility of a part-time Bishop.

After further committee consultation, it was determined to forward the Proposed Resolution submitted by Pastors Setley, Holbert and Ames largely in the format in which it had been presented to the committee for review.

Therefore, the Committee, on Reference and Counsel, moves the attached Resolutions.

Resolution as submitted by Reference & Counsel

Whereas, The West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod is the third smallest synod in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by number of congregations;

Whereas, Several congregations within this synod currently have Pastoral vacancies, and this synod faces challenges recruiting new rostered ministers to serve in the region;

Whereas, Demographic and structural realities align this synod more closely with American Lutheran of the early 20th-century and earlier, when synod presidents routinely served both as ecclesial leaders and congregational pastors due to similar limitations of size, geography, and resources, the full-time bishop, in most places, being a relatively new product of the larger and wealthier mid-20th-century church;

Whereas, The Constitution of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America permits flexibility in how a synod bishop’s call is structured, so long as the duties and responsibilities of the office are faithfully fulfilled; and

Whereas, Offering a part-time call may enable candidates and this Synod Assembly to discern the candidacy of those who may otherwise not be called to full-time episcopal service; therefore, be it

Resolved, That the 2025 West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod Assembly direct the Synod Council to prepare, in advance of the next Bishop’s election, a plan for offering three models of episcopal service:

1. A full-time call, and
2. A 1/2-FTE call under which the bishop may concurrently hold no other employment (e.g., partially-retired) or may hold concurrently a congregational, church-related, or secular position; and
3. A 1/4-FTE call under which the bishop may concurrently hold no other employment (e.g., partially-retired) or may hold concurrently a congregational, church-related, or secular position;

Resolved, That in conjunction with the “plan referenced hereinabove, the Synod council address any amendments to the bylaws or constitution of the WV WMD Synod necessary to permit the consideration by future Synod Assemblies of the “optional models” as described.

Resolved, The chair of the Synod Assembly’s election committee is tasked, in future episcopal elections, to elicit from all bishop-nominees a declaration regarding preferred call model, to be reported to the Synod Assembly before the second round of voting, thereby facilitating the Synod Assembly’s decision-making;

Resolved, That this plan be completed and made available to all bishop-nominees and voting members no less than 28 days in advance of any upcoming episcopal election to be undertaken by this Assembly; and

Resolved, That the Synod Council shall issue a call under the model declared by the candidate during the election, unless the Synod Council and bishop-elect reach a mutual agreement to choose another model.

Jim Sheatsley, Chair

*The resolution presented in this report is an alternate moved by Reference & Counsel in place of the Setley/Holbert/Ames submission. Under the rules of the assembly, Reference & Counsel may submit a resolution of its own devisement in the place of a resolution submitted. The sponsors of the originally submitted resolution have the right to move substitution with the original submission on the floor.

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