On June 20, at St. Peter Lutheran Church in Elma, Ryan McDermott was ordained and installed by District President, Rev. Brian Saunders. Pictured are l-r: Rev. Dennis Konkel, Calvary Lutheran Church of Deaf, Des Moines; Rev. Bruce Kaltwasser, Trinity, Osage; Rev. David Kind, University Lutheran Chapel, Minneapolis; Rev. Bruce Miller, Messiah, Mason City; Rev. Ryan McDermott, St. Peter, Elma; Rev. Rick Foss, Intentional Interim Pastor, St. Louis; Rev. Brian Saunders, President IDE; Rev. Michael Parris, St. Peter's, Riceville; Rev. Robert Alsleben, retired.
The LCMS parish nurse district representatives met at Concordia University, Mequon, WI, June 1 & 2.There were 20 of the 35 district reps in attendance.Carol Lueders-Bolwerk RN, PhD, CUW Director, Parish Nurse and Congregational Ministries is a wonderful hostess each year for this event, the Mequon campus continues to make improvements and Lake Michigan was so peaceful!Dr. Marcia Schnorr from Rochelle, IL, is the parish nurse coordinator and Maggie Karner is the LCMS Director of Life and Health Ministries.Each year relationships grow between many of the district representatives, joys and frustrations are shared, ideas and encouragement are given, and “pool therapy” is a great wrap up to each day.The upcoming 2010 Synodical Convention with proposed changes was discussed with approaches developed in response to the possible changes.
The 18th Annual Concordia Conference for Parish Nurse and Congregational Health Ministries was held following our district rep meeting.“Christ Be My Leader” was the title of this two day conference.Nearly 80 parish nurses from 14 different states attended.We heard excellent keynote speakers- Rev. Randy Raasch, “Christ, Be My Leader” and Rev. Dr. Kevin Voss, Director, Concordia Bioethics Institute, spoke on “Bioethical Issues in Parish Leadership”.The keynotes were followed by many excellent breakout sessions.A few that I attended were “Snapshot of Church Worker Health” by Steve Gruenwald, Concordia Health Plans; “Everything I Need to Know about Parish Nursing I Learned from … WAWWWE (wise and wonderful women with experience)”; “Healthy Bodies, Beautiful Spirits: Exercise Ministry” by Marla Lichtsinn; and “Congregational Disaster Preparedness” by Karen Hardecopf (NID).
My function as district rep is to promote, support and educate others about parish nursing and health ministries.As the Iowa District East rep I have identified 11 parish nurses in our district.The Cedar Rapids area will be hosting another Parish Nurse Basic Preparation Course in Sept.If you know any RNs interested in parish nursing I would love to talk to them about enrolling in this class.I appreciate the support given from the synod, district and my congregation for me to be able to attend this conference.Please contact me if I can assist you in learning more about health ministries and parish nursing.
Ronda Anderson RN, FCN
Parish Nurse, Bethany Lutheran Church
LCMS Iowa District East, Parish Nurse District Representative
