Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is the regional ELCA judicatory of the Philadelphia metropolitan area. It is one of the 65 ELCA synods. The synod covers Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties as well as the City of Philadelphia.

The synod includes more than 70,000 baptized members, 154 congregations and missions, and more than 340 rostered ministers (pastors, deacons, and members of the ELCA Deaconess Community). The synodical organization, the office of the bishop, and related staff provide support, resources and programs for the congregations and rostered and lay leaders of the synod.[1]

On May 5, 2018, the synod elected the Rev. Patricia Ann Curtis Davenport as its fifth bishop.[2] She assumed office on August 1, 2018. Bishop Davenport is the first woman of African-American descent to be elected a bishop in the ELCA.[3] The following day, the South Central Synod of Wisconsin elected another African-American pastor, the Rev. Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld, as its bishop.[4] They were among six women elected bishops in the ELCA in 2018, bringing the total number of women in the Conference of Bishops to 16.[5] Bishop Davenport will be installed on September 22, 2018, by ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton.

Prior to her election, Bishop Davenport served as the Synod’s Director for Evangelical Mission and Assistant to the Bishop. She previously served as founding Pastor/Developer for Spirit and Truth Worship Center, a new church start in Yeadon, Pa. She received the Master of Divinity degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, now United Lutheran Seminary.

The highest legislative authority of the synod is the Synod Assembly, which meets annually in May. The Synod Council is the board of directors of the synod and is its interim legislative authority between meetings of the Synod Assembly. The Synod Council normally meets five times every year. The Bishop is elected by the Synod Assembly and may serve an unlimited number of six-year terms. The other synod officers are the Vice President (who must be a layperson), Secretary, and Treasurer (either a layperson or a rostered pastor), all of whom may serve an unlimited number of four-year terms.

The synod's current office is located on the grounds of United Lutheran Seminary, having been moved from its previous office in Norristown, Pennsylvania in 2008.

The synod's territory is located in an area rich in German and Swedish history, with the latter bringing Lutheranism (as missions of the Church of Sweden) in the 1640s before the subsequent takeover of Tinicum (present-day Chester) by the British and the formation of the Province of Pennsylvania under the Quaker William Penn, who invited scores of people, mostly British Quakers and German Lutherans and Anabaptists (Amish and Mennonite), to settle the land. Its predecessor body, the Ministerium of Pennsylvania and Adjacent States, the oldest Lutheran synod in America, was organized in 1748 at Philadelphia by the Lutheran patriarch, Pastor Henry Melchior Muhlenberg of Trappe, Pennsylvania. The synod is also the home of United Lutheran Seminary (ULS) formerly Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP).

Since the Called to Common Mission with the Episcopal Church, it has been in ecumenical partnership with the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, allowing the synod and the diocese to share both pastors and staff. Symbolically, the synod gave the diocese a baptismal font with the consecration of the new Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral located in Philadelphia's "University City" section (near the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University).

Geographically, the synod shares the same five-county area as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, part of the larger Philadelphia Episcopal Area (which includes the Peninsula Delaware Conference), is also located within the geographic boundaries of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod, but also includes territory located within the ELCA's Northeastern Pennsylvania Synod, mostly the Lehigh Valley and Pocono Mountains regions.