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September 21, 2022
10AM - 3PM
Benbow Hall, Brossman Center, Philadelphia campus and on YouTube
Our 2022 Fall Convocation for ELCA rostered leaders will take place on the Philadelphia campus or via livestream. The theme is "Who is My Neighbor? Immigration and the Call to be a Beloved Community."
Karen González and Eric Shafer will present.
is seeking to see and love her neighbors as God does. She is a speaker, writer, and immigrant advocate, who herself immigrated from Guatemala as a child. Karen is a former public school teacher and attended Fuller Theological Seminary, where she studied theology and missiology. For the last 11 years, she has been a non-profit professional, currently working for World Relief, an organization that serves immigrants and refugees. She wrote a book about her own immigration story and the many immigrants found in the Bible: The God Who Sees: Immigrants, The Bible, and the Journey to Belong (Herald Press, May 2019). Autographed copies will be available at the convocation at a special discounted price. We also welcome Rev. Eric Shafer from the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services to share critical data about the status of immigrants and refugees in the current political climate of the United States .Rev. Eric Shafer comes to LIRS as Pastor in Residence after a long career that included ministry in Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York and California as well as extensive ecumenical and interfaith leadership. He served as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Director for Communication, as an Assistant to the Bishop in northeastern Pennsylvania, and as Senior Vice President of Odyssey Networks in New York as well as congregations in Pennsylvania and California. He has received numerous recognitions for his work in helping found the first shelter for homeless college students in the USA in Santa Monica and was named “Religion Communicator of the Year” in 2012. He currently serves on LIRS' Presidents Council.
