As we travel through the first week of our Lenten journey, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton shares this simple prayer from her spiritual director.
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All ELCA rostered faith leaders are invited to join a letter, drafted by the ELCA and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), which will be sent to members of Congress in support of the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021.
View the letter and more info in this post, or visit this page to sign on to the letter. Deadline to sign on is Friday, February 26, 2021.
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It’s important for me to converse with white folks about the reality of rewritten or rejected history by colonizers and how that affects what they believe about indigenous peoples and land use. One of my goals is decolonizing educational spaces and reclaiming history as part of the work of environmental justice.
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The United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and its economy is by far the largest. Yet, the U.S. has one of the highest rates of child poverty among developed countries.
In 2019 (the most recent year for data), 14.4% of children – about 10.5 million children – in the U.S. were living in poverty. This is tremendous progress from 2010, when 22% of U.S. children were living in poverty.
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Why a lament, as opposed to a prayer or litany? This lament is intended as an action that acknowledges what has been broken in our relationship with our neighbor – the neighbor that we as the ELCA are called to love as we love ourselves. Specifically this lament is a way to recognize points of brokenness in the relationship between the ELCA and African Americans.
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Before going into the story of my racial justice work, let us take a detour and consider how becoming Lutheran was part of my overall journey of integration as a former refugee.
I was born in Burundi and resettled in Fargo, N.D., in fall 1998 through Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota.
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Lent is probably the church year’s midlife crisis. And, like real midlife crises, it doesn’t always come when we expect. This year Lent comes on the heels of Valentine’s Day, with the ashy cross marking our brows just days after the dust from candy hearts will cross our lips.
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This week, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton tells us of the steps she takes to find peace when she feels overwhelmed by stress and anxiety.
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A year ago, congregations gathered as usual and began the Lenten journey. Many of us attended midweek services, and shared soup and bread.
All was interrupted with the arrival of the coronavirus. Most of us did not imagine this fast of physical gathering would last a year, let alone become a new and strange “normal.”
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“We are at a 1945 moment” — Those words from António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, came in a speech on January 10, 2021, marking the 75th anniversary of the first meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. Referencing the moment when the world, emerging from the horrors of World War II, took their first steps into a new era of global cooperation and unity.
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This week, Bishop Eaton shares some of the rich contributions of Black Lutheran history.
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Black History Month was the idea of African American historian Carter G. Woodson in the absence of a thorough picture of the contributions of African Americans to the larger American story.
The significance of this month ought not just be embraced by those of us who are African American. The history should be important to all of us. As an African American Lutheran pastor, I think of those Black Lutheran saints on whose shoulders I stand.
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In the first decades of the 20th century, African Americans faced grinding poverty and harsh racial restrictions. Many African American leaders fought against these evils and worked to bring justice to their communities.
One such leader was Rosa Young of Alabama, whose drive and determination enabled her to spearhead the development of Black Lutheranism in the South.
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This year has been bittersweet as a youth director at Shepherd of the Hills in Flagstaff. As a youth director just starting out in my call in the last few years, in March of 2020 I felt as if I was just getting some traction under my feet when, like for all of us, it was yanked away.
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“We’re good at talking about this, and good at doing small, one-time acts of service toward climate justice. There are awesome folks who want to push the church but they’re hesitant to take bold risks. We should be challenging our synods to be carbon neutral.”
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I ask you consider what our church is missing when all the members of God’s world are not represented in our church. We are not whole when our church becomes a wall to our neighbor.
We are created in God’s image, and to see the pageant of humanity around the globe is a way to glimpse God.
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In her weekly message, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton notes how a fresh snowfall and sunshine reminds her of God's work in creation.
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We all know the hymn Amazing Grace, but do you know the history behind the hymn? Join Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton as she discusses the history of Amazing Grace and how we continue to live out this grace in our everyday lives.
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In her January/February column for Living Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reflects on the past year and looks toward 2021. The pandemic has taught us a lot about our church and about ourselves. We are connected. We are generous. We are freed to serve. Read her column in English at https://bit.ly/38FNErx and in Spanish at https://bit.ly/2N4Lcm9.
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Paul as described in Acts 21 arrived in Jerusalem to some strong responses. Buoyed by a crowd incensed by rumors that he was encouraging Jews to no longer observe Jewish law, a Roman tribune arrested and interrogated Paul to determine his crime.
We’ve heard a lot of rhetoric about our laws recently – from politicians, from pulpits, and most recently, from angry mobs of people rallying around a cry to hold fast as a country to tradition or law and order.
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