The Lower Susquehanna Synod[1] of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is one of the 65 ELCA synods, grouped in Region 8[2] alongside seven other synods in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC.
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The LSS includes approximately 260 congregations and worship communities, with a baptized membership of 119,000.[3] It is entirely contained within central Pennsylvania and covers Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Fulton, Franklin, Lebanon, Lancaster, Perry and York counties, including the cities of York, Lancaster and the state capitol of Harrisburg.
The current bishop of the LSS is the Rev. B. Penrose Hoover,[4] who was elected to his post on June 9, 2007[5] and began his six-year term on September 1, 2007. Former bishops of the LSS include Carol S. Hendrix[6] and Guy S. Edmiston.[7]
Bishop Hoover was officially installed in his office on October 27, 2007.[4] At the ceremony, his daughter Rabbi Heidi Hoover (then a rabbinical student) offered the Old Testament lesson by chanting Torah in Hebrew.[8] Rabbi Hoover was ordained in the Spring of 2011 by the Academy for Jewish Religion in Riverdale, NY[9] and is currently the rabbi of Temple Beth Emeth v'Ohr Progressive Shaari Zedek in Brooklyn, NY.[10]