LEXINGTON, S.C. — St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in downtown Lexington will host a service Saturday, Oct. 24, that formally seats the Rev. Wade Thomas Roof III as the new bishop over the ELCA’s statewide South Carolina district.
The worship service starts at 10:30 a.m. at the church, 119 North Church Street, and anyone may attend. Roof becomes the fifth person to lead the statewide synod.
Yehiel Curry, the ELCA presiding bishop, is scheduled to preach and lead the rite. Pastors, deacons and clergy from other traditions who plan to vest and walk in the procession are asked to arrive by 9:30 a.m. Red is the liturgical color for the day.
Those who cannot come in person can watch online, with the service streamed on the synod website and its YouTube channel.
Synod Assembly delegates chose Roof for a six-year term on June 13. He had been senior pastor at Mount Tabor Lutheran Church in nearby West Columbia, and he formally took office Sept. 1, following the Rev. Virginia Aebischer, who held the post from 2020 to 2026.
The South Carolina Synod counts more than 36,600 baptized members spread across 137 congregations and worship communities.
