Dispatches from the assembly: Hofstad announces he will not seek third term

All assembly dispatches by Rachel Pritchett, communicator

In his report to the assembly, Bishop Robert D. Hofstad announced he will not seek a third term.

"This has been a difficult decision," he said, adding he seeks to spend more time with family.

Next year, the assembly will chose a new bishop, and by then Hofstad will have served 12 years in that post, and 17 years total in the synod office.

He urged listeners to remember the Eight Commandment, which prohibits bearing false witness against a neighbor.

He said that in congregations with division and conflict, it only takes one brave person to turn things around.

And he said the poor will always be with us.

"Concern and care for the poor is a constant and never-ending struggle," he said.

The bishop lifted up the new worshiping communities begun during his tenure. They include Living Stones Prison Ministry at Shelton; Light of Grace, which offers worships to Koreans in Federal Way; the north-campus ministry at Messiah Lutheran Church of Vancouver; Peace Lutheran Fellowship of Port Ludlow; Federal Way Chinese Fellowship; and two federated Lutheran/Episcopalian groups, St. Christopher's Community Church near Olympia and Faith Community Church of Kingston. 

Another new worshiping group will begin next year in Tacoma.

"Starting new congregations is simply what we do," he said.