Yvonne Shortt is an artist who uses grasses, clay, moss, and other natural materials to create beautiful sculptures of people’s heads. Slowly over time Yvonne began losing her eyesight because of a rare genetic disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa. Her story is part of a documentary called Adapt-Ability by filmmaker James Robinson which highlights how her limitations are really a gift to her art.
Read MoreThe healing of the blind man in John chapter 9 is one of my favorite healing stories in the whole Bible. I love this story because in this story Jesus confronts and rejects the common belief that disabilities are somehow caused by sin.
I commend to you the book A Healing Homiletic: Preaching and Disability by Kathy Black. Kathy Black is an ordained Methodist minister who has served as the chaplain at Gallaudet University and pastored two churches for deaf persons.
Read MoreDuring the summer of 2024, the ELCA Youth Gathering, MYLE, the tAble and Young Adult Gathering will center around the theme of “Created to Be” which comes from Psalm 139. To learn more about the 2024 Gathering, visit elca.org/Gathering and watch the video in this post.
Read MoreIf you visit the Saturday-morning farmers market in Federal Way, Wash., you might see Kay (Kyong Yon) Mattingly smiling and dancing with her friends from Dasom Bi-Cultural Cooperation, a ministry of Light of Grace Lutheran Church. The ministry hosts a booth with a variety of Korean goods for sale, but the members also seek to bring joy to those around them – and create it for themselves.
Read MoreKeah Brown, a journalist, has filled this book with her essays. In each standalone essay, Ms. Brown addresses a particular issue of life as a black woman living with Cerebral Palsy in a mostly able-bodied white America. She discusses the depression that comes from internalizing the “idealized body” of the able-bodied world we live in.
Read MoreThank you so much for your support of what we do at ELCA Disability Ministries. Especially, we thank God for you and the way the Spirit is moving you to make accessibility and equity for people with disabilities a priority in the lives of your ministries.
Read MoreMariia Simian, from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, is living through war for a second time. Just three years old when World War II tore across Europe in the 1940s, she says the memories haunt her.
“I remember everything,” she says. “I often remember. My mother hid our whole family from this horror wherever she could – in the basement, in fields behind the house – because the Nazis were looking for Roma.”
Read MoreIn Ghana, water scarcity threatens the lives and livelihoods of nearly 90% of the population. Even in urban areas, more than half the people lack access to clean, safe water. In developing countries such as Ghana, almost 80% of illnesses and deaths are caused by water-borne diseases, which in turn are driven by people needing to rely on unsafe water sources.
Read MoreThe Conference of Bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met Feb. 28–March 4, 2023, at the Eaglewood Resort in Itasca, Ill. The conference, an advisory body of the ELCA, comprises 65 synod bishops, the presiding bishop and the secretary.
Read MoreHow do we go in peace to love and serve the Lord in civic life?
The ELCA invites you and your congregation to explore this and other questions by using "A Study Curriculum on Civic Life and Faith." View a video on this question in this post, along with a PDF guide.
Read MoreAs part of the latest Stories of Faith in Action, we share a story about the Delaware-Maryland Synod and the North Ave Mission (NAM) community (view online or as PDF). “Everything that has sprung to life at North Ave Mission is a vision of the early community. We’re a mix of worshiping community, mutual aid organization, harm reduction, housing, leadership development, even advocacy. But Family Life is our center and our locus.”
View all the Stories of Faith in Action here, and how your offering becomes mission support.
Read MoreIn observance of International Women’s Day, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, along with the Rev. Patricia Davenport, bishop of the ELCA Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod and the Rev. Brenda Bos, bishop of the ELCA Southwest California Synod, celebrate and recognize the women leaders in our global Lutheran community. https://elca.org/iwl for more info.
Read MoreYou can be and are part of the exciting 67th UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) taking place March 6-17, 2023, in New York City. The Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC) and Lutheran World Federation (LWF) have assembled and prepared for a delegation and partners to take part in CSW67 both in-person and virtually, including our ELCA Hunger Advocacy Fellows.
Read MoreJust over two years ago, after decades of working, Susan became disabled. “I was newly poor and relatively terrified,” she wrote. “With literally everything stripped from the budget except a roof over our heads and very modest transportation, the monthly budget showed a balance of negative $5. The meaning of food insecurity became abundantly clear.”
Read MoreWhen Detroit Police Officer Marcus Harris II got a call to check in on an individual sleeping at an abandoned gas station, he found far more than he ever expected. At first, Corporal Harris went through the motions, offering the man, Adrian Hugh, a bus ticket back to California.
But after taking time to talk and get to know one another, Corporal Harris and Hugh realized that there was more they could do together than apart.
Read MoreFor peace and an end to violence in our world, especially between Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Palestine…
For refugees and all migrants, especially those facing threat of violence…
For recovery efforts following landslides in Indonesia…
For open access to education for women and girls across the globe…
For equitable outcomes from labor strikes in Paris, France, and for all workers seeking just working conditions and fair compensation…
For transgender siblings, especially transgender youth, in the midst of political battles, threats of violence, and diminished access to healthcare…
For those called to challenge religious, political, or institutional authority for the sake of justice…
For those suffering and dying from COVID-19 in our nation and in our world, and for loved ones fearing risk of contagion…
That the love of God so fill our deeds and words that our whole life is joyful noise…
What's faith-based living got to do with civic life?
The ELCA invites you and your congregation to explore this and other questions by using "A Study Curriculum on Civic Life and Faith." View a video on this question in this post, along with a PDF guide.
Read MoreDeep breaths, time with loved ones, a good night’s sleep … what are your best practices for keeping yourself centered and healthy?
If you’re looking to expand your toolbox, and you have ELCA-Primary health benefits, check out Learn to Live’s new course focusing on building resilience. Take the initial assessment and then enroll in the self-guided program at no out-of-pocket cost to you: learntolive.com.
Read MoreIn this message to congregations, current International Women Leaders (IWL) scholarship recipients share what their scholarships mean to them and their communities. International Women’s Day is March 8. The ELCA celebrates this day by uplifting the IWL program, which provides scholarships for emerging women leaders from our companion churches around the world to study at ELCA colleges and universities, ELCA seminaries and other institutions. The following Sunday, congregations are encouraged to take a special offering for IWL. Give to IWL at: http://ELCA.org/SupportIWL
When a building collapses, there’s an estimated 48-hour window during which trapped victims might be rescued. More generous estimates expand that to five or six days, maximum. Beyond that, the odds of survival decrease significantly. But after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit Turkey on February 6th, rescue teams were still pulling survivors from the rubble nearly 10 days later!
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