Healthy Boundaries

Healthy leadership requires healthy boundaries. The South Carolina Synod leadership is committed to providing tools, support, and resources for both rostered and lay leadership to be open and explicit in establishing respectful rules for our life together that preserve and encourage healthy relationships.

Boundaries are set in their broadest sense as guides for maintaining a healthy life and relationships. Boundaries can also be perceived as barriers when drawn to extreme and to exclusion. As public ministers we are continually navigating and negotiating boundaries. Our relationships are the heart of what we tend to as we preach, teach, and care for our communities of faith. As lay leaders our behavior is a manifestation of our boundaries and a reflection of our community’s values.

From ELCA Definitions and Guidelines:

Rooted in God’s grace and steadfast love, we are called as followers of Jesus to live a life “of bold trust in God and joyful, generous service to everyone we know and meet in daily life.” (https://elca.org/Faith) Affirming God’s gracious covenant made with us in baptism, we commit to live in right relationship with God and our neighbors.

The South Carolina Synod requires all rostered leaders (active, retired, candidates for ministry, and on leave from call) to participate in annual Boundaries Training. As gift and promise we gather to learn, affirm, grow, and hold one another accountable.

Through this site you will find resources for your personal and corporate development of healthy boundaries, and contacts and courses when boundaries have been violated and/or another has been harmed mentally, emotionally, or physically.

To report a case of misconduct, use the following contacts:

Contact Bishop Aebischer (ginny@scsynod.com) or 803-509-8321
ELCA Reporting Rostered Minister Sexual Misconduct (safeplace@elca.org) or 773-380-2568
ELCA information on reporting misconduct (https://www.elca.org/our-work/leadership/vocation-become-a-leader/report-misconduct)

In July of 2019, in recognition of the 50^th anniversary of the ordination of women, the bishops of Region 9 developed the “Region 9 Bishops’ Relational Agreement for boundaries, candidacy and call process.” The introductory paragraph of that document states:

Committed to always reforming for the health of leaders, vitality of congregations, and the flourishing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we agree to work together as a region to address systemic issues facing rostered ministers who are women. Together, we will work to create a culture change in our region through deepening trust and relationship – creating authentic avenues for reporting, responding, education, advocacy and care.

Region 9 has been working together to provide boundary education for these six years. Beginning in the fall of 2025, each synod will take lead in how and when it leads its own boundary training. Synods may work together in that leading, training, and implementation, but given our large geography, cultural differences, language needs, and staff realities; we are moving toward this model. This does not change nor negate the importance of boundary training or the bishop’s commitment to hold our rostered ministers, candidates, and ministers accountable.

Every active rostered minister, candidate for rostered ministry, synod authorized minister or lay preacher is required to be current on their annual boundaries education in order to activate an RMP, transfer into another synod of Region 9, be available for any call or appointment. This includes interim (supply, bridge, etc.) work, and those who serve as a synod-recommended supply preacher.

Region 9 of the ELCA is comprised of six synods: the Virginia Synod, the North Carolina Synod, the Southeastern Synod (Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi), the South Carolina Synod, the Florida-Bahamas Synod, and the Caribbean Synod (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).