Cantu Funeral

Stewardship Campaign Seminar

Real Estate 101

Synod Council Synopsis

Synod Council met 25 April 2026, and the summary of actions is posted; click here.

Synod Constitution Ratified

The Church Council of the ELCA ratified amendments to the Constitution of the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod at its recently concluded April 2026 meeting. You may review the Constitution as it now stands on our Synod Polity page.

Synod Assembly 2026

Call of the Assembly

By order of the Synod Council, the 2026 Synod Assembly of the West Virginia-Western Maryland Synod will be held 5-6 June 2026 at the Mon County 4H Center, Mylan Park, Morgantown, WV, the first business meeting convening at 1:00 p.m.

Registration Open

Online registration for Synod Assembly 2026 is now open. For details on the Assembly and registration link, visit our Synod Assembly 2026 page.

Resolutions & Memorials

Congregations and properly constituted conferences may memorialize Synod Assembly; voting members my submit resolutions. The deadline for both is16 May 2026. Review the information posted on our Resolutions & Memorials page to ensure proper formatting and submission.

Bulletin of Reports

The preview edition of the Pre-Assembly Bulletin of Reports is live; click here. There are many more things yet to publish, and some will wait until official publication 10 days before the Assembly convenes. In the meantime, you can get a head start with

• the draft agenda,
• the proposed Rules of the Assembly,
• several reports, and
  
• a collection of Assembly aids.
  

Worship

In observance of America's 250th, we are resurrecting the Lutheran liturgy of the time with the Friday evening (7:00 p.m.) service being the order for Holy Communion of the Muhlenberg Liturgy (1748) at St. Paul's, Morgantown.

The Assembly's opening worship will be the preparatory rite of the Muhlenberg liturgy held at 12:30 p.m. at the Assembly venue.

Everything Else You Might Want To Know

Ascension or Pentecost? The Paschal Candle Debate

Mercury Retrogradant

Little known among modern Lutherans is the degree to which astrology was part of the life of the sixteenth century. Even Melanchthon mentions the horoscope that his father had commissioned for his birth. So, we make a little joke when saying that Mercury is retrograde, i.e., moving in the opposite direction in the night sky than it usually does. Astrologers caution that communications can become confused when Mercury is retrograde; remember: Mercury was the messenger of the gods. Well, we are having communications problems...

Web Links to ELCA.org

ELCA.org has been updates, and links on our site to several pages and documents on that site no longer work. You can help us fix things on our end by reporting dead links.

Migrating The Bishop's Roadshow

Mailchimp^® lowered the quotas for both subscribers and sends for our account level. We are working on migration to another platform, hoping that we can keep costs low and maybe even improve the service. Be on the lookout for The Roadshow coming via Zoho Campaigns^®. If you don't see one in a few weeks, let us know.

On the brighter side, we have a way for you to access the most recent past issues of The Roadshow. Visit our Contact Info & Communications page and scroll down; you'll see the past issues posted on the right.

Camp Luther: Camper Registration Open

Help! I Have To Plan Worship (without a Pastor)

The Exchange

If you haven't checked out the members portal...

Don't forget to take a peek of the members portal (click the button at right near the top of this page). It's not password protected. We only call it the "members portal" because it's mostly stuff that deals with the internal workings of the synod. Visitors looking for more general information about the synod, will probably find the "guest portal" more interesting.

Synod Website Updates

The synod website updates frequently (as in often) and irregularly (as in not on a particular schedule). Click here (or on the picture at right) to find out what has been recently updated.