Posts in ELCA
A History of Welcome, A Lutheran Legacy

When war came to Ukraine and desperate people began streaming across the international borders in the frigid days of late winter and early spring, the Rev. Miroslav Mató knew he and the members of his parish would be called upon to help.

Located in Gerlachov, a small village in Slovakia about 200 miles from the Ukrainian border, Rev. Mató and his wife, Rev. Jana Matóva, prepared to offer refuge.

Read More
The Rev. Dr. Yolanda Denson-Byers: My Freedom Day as a Female, Black and Queer Pastor 

To be a female, Black and gay pastor on “Freedom Day” necessitates a certain amount of introspection, for my relationship with the church has long been a queer dance whose steps I don’t often apprehend.

Galatians 3:28 says: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Yet this oneness has been elusive in the ELCA and elsewhere, has it not?

Read More
Prompts for Prayers of Intercession: June 26, 2022
  • For those grieving, injured, and displaced after the earthquake in Afghanistan, and for all relief and aid efforts…

  • For the people of Ethiopia, as their nation is torn apart by civil war…

  • For those whose lives have been upended by the war in Ukraine, including civilians trapped in their homes, prisoners of war held behind enemy lines, and those grieving loved ones who’ve been killed…

  • For those organizing and attending Pride celebrations…

  • For LGBTQIA+ siblings who cannot yet feel safe coming out…

  • In thanksgiving for the life and work of Clela Rorex, the first county clerk in the U.S. to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple, in Boulder in 1975…

Read More
Bishop Eaton: Tell the story in a new way

In the video we shared at our 2022 Synod Assembly, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton urges us to follow Luther's example and use modern tools to spread the gospel, just as Luther shared the good news with the help of Gutenberg's printing press. 500 years ago this year, Martin Luther published his first translation of the New Testament into German vernacular.

Read More
ELCA Worship News: June, 2022

ELCA Worship shares their June news in this newsletter, highlighting All Creation Sings, Spanish resources, and many summer resources and events.

“During the summer months, worship leaders often plan for fall and the next liturgical year. As part of this looking ahead, there can also be an intentional looking back to what has nurtured and shaped your congregation’s worship in the past months.”

Read More
Rev. Amy E. Reumann: Quashing Replacement Theory with Irreplaceable Truth

In her sermon, my pastor lamented that “each person killed was a precious and irreplaceable child of God,” on the Sunday following the racially motivated massacre of 10 shoppers and workers at the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. The irreplaceability of each person made in God’s image stands in marked contrast to so-called “Great Replacement” theory, the fear that stoked the White shooter’s hatred and motivation to target and gun down people of African descent.

Read More