Synod School turns 70, and robust worship and birthday cake help celebrate the milestone

The annual offering by the Synod of Lakes and Prairies has drawn 540 attendees, including 80 first timers

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

With Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School turning 70 this year, members of the Synod School Committee came out dressed in attire popular during the decade they represented. (Photo by Mike Ferguson)

STORM LAKE, Iowa — Synod School, put on each year by the Synod of Lakes and Prairies, turns 70 this year, and so who else would leaders ask to preach during opening worship on Sunday than Elona Street-Stewart, a septuagenarian who’s the synod’s executive and Co-Moderator of the 224^th General Assembly (2020).

Street-Stewart, 72, is a descendant of the Delaware Nanticoke tribe and was the first Native American to be installed in the denomination’s highest elected office. She served alongside the Rev. Gregory Bentley.

“Here at Synod School,” Street-Stewart told a joyful and revved-up crowd of about 540 people, “we experience the gifts of community and the joy of belonging.”

In a follow-up to a time for children about the Parable of the Mustard Seed, Street-Stewart said the purpose of the Synod School community — the last in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — is to sow seeds. “Let’s think about small seeds and big dreams,” she told those gathered in Schaller Chapel on the campus of Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa.

Synod School “has grown with God’s generous spirit to be both a cooperative and individual experience,” she said. “Its impact has more significance than anyone could have imagined 70 years ago.”

Street-Stewart said she’s long loved morning glories. “I used to pick off the seed pods and save them in a jar,” she said. When they’re ready to be plucked, “it’s the plant that tells you. They make noise. They actually shout it out,” she said. “They dry out, and the pods start to ping and zing in the air.”

Ruling Elder Elona Street-Stewart is executive of the Synod of Lakes and Prairies and was Co-Moderator of the 224th General Assembly (2020). (Photo by Kim Coulter)

“I used to try to store them before that happened, and then one year, I thought, why am I doing that? They fling their seeds around for a reason.”

“Seeds can provide great wisdom and examples when we start to pay attention,” she said. “It’s their ability and stability to go on spreading and sprouting.”

It’s a parental aphorism to say, “Always be ready so you don’t spend time getting ready. That’s also true of morning glories,” Street-Stewart said. “They know where they come from. It’s time for us to recognize how we are rooted in place with a purpose.”

This week, Synod School leaders plan to trace the genealogy of the beloved gathering. “It all goes back to the seed that took root and grew,” Street-Stewart said. “The seed said, ‘Here I am. Plant me.’”

“Our life together over 70 years has grown more meaningful by the things we said yes to, to become something we were not before, and to discover how much our choices have generated new beginnings,” she said. “We could not have imagined how much the church could be transformed by relationships.”

Indeed, many Synod School goers — this year’s edition includes 80 newcomers — say it’s the relationships they form during their week here that keeps them coming back, year after year.

“My morning glories are now more than 30 years old. They’re still self-seeding, twisting and climbing based on what they touch, entwine and encounter,” Street-Stewart said. “This anniversary is a testimony to small seeds and big dreams, the story of years of small growth and years of surprising expansion.”

Deb DeMeester, the synod’s Director of Leadership Development, took attendees through a brief history of the seven decades Synod School has been held at different colleges around Iowa. Members of the Synod School Committee — including Annie Wattles, Erica MacCreaigh, Phil Anthony, Jeff Dickinson, Sarah Hegar, Lisa Tarbell and Meredith Sauer — came dressed according to their decade — in poodle skirts, go-go boots, disco regalia, workout gear, and toting a selfie stick.

The Rev. Burns Stanfield offers a trumpet solo during “This Little Light of Mine.” (Photo by Mike Ferguson)

As they have for many years, musicians shepherded by the Rev. Burns Stanfield supercharged worship with both their considerable skills and their enthusiasm. For “This Little Light of Mine,” Stanfield promised he’d play his trumpet for a verse “if you sing really robustly.”

Generally, the pianist said, he reaches for his trumpet “only on Easter and for Synod School.” He wisely had worshipers clap on the second and fourth beat.

Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall, Deputy Executive Director of Vision, Innovation and Rebuilding in the Presbyterian Mission Agency, is the convocation speaker for the 70^th Synod School. His first scheduled address is Monday morning.