Welcome to Our Synod
We are glad you found this site and welcome you to learn about the ministries of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod. Perhaps you are looking for a church home. Perhaps you are here to find information as a leader or congregation. Whether you’re here for a specific reason or just curious, you are welcome here.
As the ELCA professes, we are the church that shares a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. Liberated by our faith, we embrace you as a whole person—questions, complexities and all. Join us as we do God’s work in Christ’s name for the sake of the world.
The installation for Bishop-elect Erik Christensen is Saturday, Sept. 19, 3 PM (pre-service music begins at 2:30), at St. James Cathedral in downtown Chicago. The service will also be livestreamed.
Bishop Installation on Sept. 19
Who We Are
The Metropolitan Chicago Synod (MCS) is made up of 148 congregations and nine Synod Authorized Worshiping Communities (SAWC). We are both urban and suburban, with 60,805 baptized members in four counties: Cook, DuPage, Kane and Lake. We are one of 65 synods in the ELCA.
Our mission statement calls us to proclaim the gospel, make disciples and do justice in Jesus’ name. We hope the images and information on these pages will introduce you to our synod—our faith and values, ministries and events. These pages are filled with practical information for congregations and leaders, and will help you become familiar with the synod staff and governance.
Metropolitan Chicago Synod-ELCA to install bishop in festive Eucharist at St. James Cathedral
CHICAGO — The Rev. Erik Christensen will be installed as the seventh bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) on Saturday, Sept. 19, 3 p.m., at St. James Cathedral in downtown Chicago. Bishop Christensen officially began his six-year term Sept. 1.
Christensen, 52, was elected June 6 at the synod’s annual assembly.
The Holy Eucharist with Rite of Installation service is open to the public and is expected to draw ecumenical, interfaith and civic leaders as honored guests. A reception follows. The service will also be livestreamed. Many ELCA bishops and clergy will attend and be part of a festive procession that will include other denominational and interfaith leaders. The Rev. Yehiel Curry, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and former bishop of the synod, will preach and preside. The Rt. Rev. Paula E. Clark, bishop of Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, will also participate.
Bishop Christensen most recently served as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in Evanston, IL, and prior to that was Pastor to the Community and Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC). Before joining the LSTC staff, he was pastor of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church of Logan Square in Chicago. He and his husband Kerry Jenkins live in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago.
Christensen graduated from Macalester College (’95), St. Paul, MN; Candler School of Theology at Emory University (’02), Atlanta, GA; and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, PA (’04). He was ordained extra ordinem in 2006. Before seminary, he worked as a youth advocate and community organizer with and for runaway, homeless and street-dependent youth.
He was received onto the roster of the ELCA in 2010, after the church voted in 2009 to allow partnered LGBTQ+ ministers onto the roster. Prior to that he was credentialed by Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries (ELM) and served as co-chair of their governing body. ELM works for the full participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in the life and ministry of the Lutheran church.
Christensen describes himself as a “child of the church.” The son of musicians and educators, his growing up years in Iowa meant spending several nights a week at church singing in choirs and being in youth group. “Church has been home my whole life,” he says.
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Our Stories
Good News Garage
They came from a country in the middle of Africa to a city in the middle of America. Husband, wife and four sons, ages 20, 15, 8 and 5. They have been here since January and during the summer were finally settling into their apartment. The oldest son needed a bike for his full-time work and the 15-year-old needed transportation for his after-school job. The younger boys just needed bikes to be kids.
It started with Seeds
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church of Northbrook helped area folks usher in the summer by hosting their fourth annual Native Plant Fest on the last Saturday morning of May. More than 100 people from the community browsed tables of plants that had been nursed by members throughout the winter in their gallon plastic milk jugs.
Irving Park pantry and congregation build new pantry with $1 million grant
The Irving Park Community Food Pantry, which Irving Park Lutheran Church (IPLC) has long supported and is intentionally partnering with to help identify a potential new space, in early summer received news of a $1,035,617 grant from the City of Chicago. The grant may be used to reimburse half the cost of construction of a new facility for the pantry, to be built on land owned by IPLC and adjacent to the church.
Metropolitan Chicago Synod Office
Ph: 773-248-0021 | Address: 1420 W. Dickens Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614