Strengthening your companion relationships
Companions nurture their relationships by:
- Praying for one another
- Keeping in touch via email, letters or calls
- Learning about one another’s lives
- Visiting one another
- Exchanging pastors and leaders
- Creating and collaborating on specific joint ministries or programs
- Connecting individual congregations in “sister” relationships
- Advocating for one another, where the companion church lives under continual oppression or danger
For resources to strengthen your companion relationships, download the Companion Synod Handbook 
and review the following sections:
Preface.............................................................................................................................. 4
Foreword........................................................................................................................... 5
PART I: Companion Synod Basics................................................................................6
PART II: For ELCA Synods.............................................................................................14
PART III: For ELCA Congregations.............................................................................. 31
Appendices
Appendix 1: Protocol agreement.................................................................................... 68
Appendix 2: Some thoughts about being companions............................................. 73
Appendix 3: Sample companion synod covenant.......................................................74
Appendix 9: Accompanying your companion’s scholarship students.....................87
Orientation Handouts
Handout B: Accompaniment Kyrie..................................................................................89
Handout C: Cross-cultural Relationships.....................................................................90
Handout D: Cultural Norms Worksheet........................................................................ 91