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Synod Assembly 2022

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Greetings, reader!


This email is going out to all voting members of the 2022 Synod Assembly!

We’re very excited to have you aboard with us in less than a week. As we’re approaching the sail date, we’d like to share some important updates with you regarding meeting room locations, meeting times, the availability of assembly reports, and more.

Our assembly business will be conducted during four plenary sessions that will take place across the morning and afternoon times of our two sea days. We’ll also be holding our service of Holy Communion in the morning on the first day at sea as well, immediately preceding the first plenary session. This is scheduled with consideration given to the ship’s scheduled use of those rooms; by scheduling our business during the slowest “off” times of the ship’s day, we allow our voting members to get the most out of their time aboard the ship, see as many of the ship’s venues and offerings as possible, and still be able to gather as a synod for worship, enrichment, and business.

As such, you can anticipate spending the First Sea Day with us on Wednesday, December 14, from 9am-3:30pm. Holy Communion will begin at 9am, and non-voting visitors of this assembly are invited to join us for the service. Following the conclusion of the service, visitors are invited to enjoy the ship at their leisure and voting members will remain for the First Plenary Session, which will be followed with a recess for a brief lunch. The Second Plenary Session will conclude at 3:30pm, leaving the remainder of the evening for your leisure.

The Second Sea Day will see an almost-identical schedule: Plenary Session Three will begin at 9am on Saturday, December 17. The assembly will be recessed for lunch, and will resume business with Plenary Session Four before adjourning at 3:30pm. These hours are subject to revision depending on expediency of the business to be conducted.

The meeting space for the Service of Holy Communion and for all plenary sessions will be Moderno. This space is recognizable as the Brazilian Churrascaria Steakhouse in the evenings, and is located on Deck 8 to the Aft of the vessel. It should be easy to find by making your way to the Aft elevators on whichever deck you are on, and taking them to Deck 8. Restrooms are located near those elevators, for the convenience of our guests. A refreshments station, stocked with ice water and hot coffee and hot teas will be made available in our meeting space as an additional convenience for our guests, with additional beverages and refreshments available at the Garden Cafe on Deck 15 Aft, straight up from our meeting space in Moderno or, depending on hours, from the Prime Meridian Bar found immediately outside our meeting space on your way to the bathroom or elevators.

The Assembly Reports and Materials are almost ready for you. They’ll be made available in the coming days on the Slovak Zion Synod app, available on the Apple App Store for iOS and Google Play Store for Android. If you do not have these apps, be sure to download them to your devices ahead of traveling to the Port of New York. (We also recommend saving your Apple ID or Google Play login details and having those with you too, in case we ask you to re-download the app after boarding the vessel.) The SZS app will allow you to view reports and handouts, quickly search whole documents for keywords, cast electronic votes (if/when we use this system), and view the detailed agenda for each day of business. A short video will be emailed to you in the coming days which explores the app with you.

If you indicated when you registered that you don’t own a tablet device and need one assigned to you, you will be assigned an Apple iPad with charging block and adapter. These borrowed iPad units, which will come preloaded with the SZS app and materials, will be delivered to your stateroom on the afternoon of embarkation, on December 13. If you are not available to sign for and receive your iPad, we will make our best effort to get in touch with you later that evening. Borrowed iPads must be returned at the conclusion of Plenary Session Four in their originally assigned condition, with no functional or cosmetic damages.

If you have any questions, please kindly reply back to this email and let us know! We’re always here to help.

Blessings upon your ministries. We’re looking forward to our time together!

Cheers,
Joshua Drobena & Sheila Welch
Assembly Registration Committee
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