Dear Siblings in Christ:
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator and our Savior Jesus Christ.
It seems as if just yesterday I walked through the doors of Peace as your seminary field education student in the fall of 2017, and then as your Minister for Youth and Family the following August. We read in Ecclesiastes, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven” (3.1). My season with you has been enriching, and each one of you has helped in my formation toward becoming a Lutheran pastor. I thank God for all of you, for the wisdom you have shared, and the relationships we have built. It’s not easy to say goodbye. Together we shared many joys and struggles that made us church together. But now is the time for me to step into the next season of this journey that God has called me.
I meet with the Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod’s Candidacy Committee for my endorsement interview on Wednesday 7 October at 11:30 a.m. The endorsement interview marks the second stage in the process of becoming a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The interview will explore my discernment, formation and theological comprehension. With the committee’s endorsement, I will finish my theological studies at United Lutheran Seminary and begin a year of Ministerial Immersion (internship).
Sunday, 15 November, will be my last Sunday at Peace Lutheran Church. Then I will finish the remaining weeks of my second to last semester of theological education and prepare to begin my internship at the beginning of January. I will be able to share my internship site with you after my endorsement interview as the congregation is still making arrangements.
I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ, you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God (Philippians 1.3-6; 9-11).
Grace and peace,
Eric Randolph 27 September 2020