Synod Assembly 2025
Friday and Saturday, May 30-31
Q Center, St. Charles
Go, therefore!
Rules of Procedure for Assembly - coming soon
Book of Reports - available in May
Tentative Synod Assembly schedule
Friday morning
7 - Doors open, check in begins
8 - Assembly opens, morning worship
9 - Plenary
9:25 - Ecclesiastical ballot for bishop
10 - Break
10:15 - Workshops
11:20 - Plenary
11:45 – Lunch
Friday afternoon
1 - Plenary
2 - Break
2:20 - Plenary
4:30 - End of business
5:30 – Cocktail hour before dinner
6: 30 - Dinner (pre-registered)
Saturday morning
7 - Doors open
8 - Worship with eucharist
9 - Plenary
10:50 - Break
11 - Plenary
11:30 - Keynote session (Advocate)
Saturday afternoon
12:30 - Lunch
1:30 - Plenary
2 - Break, workshops
3 - Plenary
(3:30 Bishop’s report)
4:30 - Closing of assembly
Available after assembly
Elections for bishop, officers
The 2025 Metropolitan Chicago Synod will elect a bishop, a vice president, and a secretary.
Registered voting members were invited to pre-identify a candidate for bishop between March 24 and April 11. By May 9, a report of the pre-identification process will be available, along with biographical information on the six individuals with the most responses who are willing to serve.
The week of May 12, the election committee will host four forums across the synod, one of which will be recorded, for everyone to be introduced to the six people who were pre-identified. Those forums are:
Monday, May 12, noon-2 p.m., Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Wheaton
Tuesday, May 13, 7-9 p.m. Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
Thursday, May 15, 7-9 p.m., Jubilee Faith, Country Club Hills (ALS translation available)
Saturday, May 17, 10 a.m.-noon, Lutheran Church of the Ascension, Northfield
May 30, the first day of the synod assembly, the bishop’s election process begins with each voting member filling out an “ecclesiastical ballot,” nominating any eligible minister of word and sacrament. The process will continue until a bishop is elected or re-elected.
After the bishop is elected, the assembly will begin the election process with ecclesiastical ballots for the vice president and secretary.
Further details of the election processes will be available here closer to the assembly. Questions may be directed to Pastor Robin Brown at or Pastor Aneel Trivedi at , co-chairs of the Elections Committee.
Nominations open for synod council, committee
Nominations are now open for Synod Council, Consultation Committee, and the Committee on Discipline.
- The Synod Council has a vital role in shaping the direction and ministry of our synod. Council members participate in strategic planning, decision-making, and oversight of synod programs and initiatives.
- When there is disagreement between or among congregations of this synod on a substantive issue cannot be resolved by the parties, the council of an affected congregation may petition the synod bishop for a consultation after informing the other affected congregation(s) of its intent to do so. The Consultation Committee – at the request of the bishop – then undertake efforts to find an appropriate
- The Committee on Discipline’s purpose is to fairly look at charges brought against any officers, ministers of Word and Sacrament, ministers of Word and Service, congregations, and members of congregations.
At this year’s Synod Assembly, voting members will elect nine general members of the synod council along with one young adult and one youth member. They will also elect at least four members of the Consultation Committee and seven members of the Committee on Discipline.
Members of a synod congregation can be nominated for the various ballots. Individuals can nominate themselves or someone else (with permission). Nominations should be submitted by downloading and filling out the appropriate form available here. Email completed form(s) by May 1, 2025 to the Nominations and Elections chair at .