The Gathering is an integral part of the ecology of faith formation and call narrative in the ELCA. There are those who question the value of specialized ministries such as the Gathering, especially in a time of declining church attendance and difficult budget cuts. But I am not one of them, especially after fresh research has demonstrated the importance of several crucial ministries in the ELCA. I also know the impacts first-hand.
Read MoreDuring this week of devastating news, Bishop Eaton encourages us to take a brief pause in silence, that we may be able to hear the voices of those affected by tragedy, listen for God, and respond to suffering in our world.
Read MoreThe Wisdom Keepers Program is an exciting new way to communicate Jesus, connect people, and create possibilities. It is an amazing opportunity for accompanying the local community as we rediscover the Gospel as interpreted through Navajo culture, traditions, and language.
Read MoreFor many years, I gave little thought to the complexity of my being Osage, Lutheran and gay. Growing up in the Osage nation and learning about my Osage ancestors, history and customs; following my path to self-acceptance as a gay man; embracing the Lutheran Christian faith—these seemed to be three quite different aspects of my story. And though they overlapped chronologically, they didn’t always connect.
Now, after years of reflection and with more experience interpreting my own story, I have begun to understand how all this made me who I am.
Read MoreIn this Living Lutheran profile, we meet Ben Iboshi, who attends Augustana Lutheran Church, Portland, Oregon, is a senior at Grant High School in Portland, and founder/chair of the Youth Leadership Academy to End Gun Violence.
Read MoreIn her August column in Living Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton writes: “This is the faith which declares that through pandemics, droughts, floods, famines, deadly bigotry, war, all the death-dealing things in nature and the human heart, life—the abundant life that Jesus promises—will prevail. Plant something in the summer.” Read her column in English at https://bit.ly/3CGLepk and in Spanish at https://bit.ly/3iDH4qd.
Read MoreFor over two decades, the ELCA has been present in southern Haiti. Lutheran Disaster Response is working in those communities to meet relief needs. In this post we share a letter from The Rev. Daniel Rift, Director of ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response Fund.
For many Haitians, their only source of aid throughout their lives has been the church. After the earthquake, presidential assassination and storms, many of those churches are in ruins, as we learn in this article and podcast from the New York Times.
Read MoreIn this episode of ELCA World Hunger’s Hunger Policy Podcast, Patricia Kisare, international policy advisor for the ELCA, and Kaari Reierson, the ELCA’s associate for corporate social responsibility, join Ryan Cumming, the program director for hunger education, to break down some of the myths and realities about US aid and the church’s witness when it comes to this part of the federal budget.
Read MoreEspecially as temperatures and wildfires are soaring all over the country, it is clear that our climate crisis is reaching a tipping point. Our Christian call and vocation include caring for creation, and Bishop Eaton encourages us to find ways to be part of the solution to this dire situation. Start with a read or re-read of the ELCA Social Statement, Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope and Justice.
Read MoreAfter reflecting on the 10,000 Year Clock and speaking with a prominent Lutheran theologian, Elise Seyfriend anticipates the future with optimism.
Read MoreThe Lutheran World Federation Council has elected Estonian theologian Anne Burghardt as the next general secretary of the global communion of Lutheran churches. We share her Living Lutheran profile in this post.
Read MoreAnita Fete Crews, Director of Blessed Tomorrow, shares this letter, which includes recently released action sheets.
Kelly Sherman-Conroy writes, “As the Team Leader of MYLE (Multicultural Youth Leadership Event) and group of amazing leaders of color who I am graciously working alongside, we want everyone to know what MYLE is so that this life changing opportunity for our youth of color can experience a Beloved Community like no other.”
Read MoreJust as the Olympians are surrounded by family, friends, mentors, and entire countries, we too are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. This week, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton encourages us to "run like the wind."
Read MoreOn Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021, congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will join together for “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday.
Bishop Eaton invites your congregation to join this annual day of service and celebrate who we are as the ELCA ― one church, freed in Christ to love and serve our neighbor. Learn more and plan your day at ELCA.org/DayofService.
Read MoreIt’s been a few months since I wrote about Covid. I had hoped, like all of you, that we were past this virus.
We want to be done with Covid, but Covid isn’t done with us. It’s a phrase we hear a lot lately, as the Delta variant spikes the number of reported cases in the United States to 100,000 per day, eerily repeating last winter’s trajectory.
Read MorePeople are lonely. A January 2020 survey from Cigna found that three in five US Americans are lonely, and we know loneliness only got exponentially worse during the COVID-19 pandemic.
So, what does that mean for a church that believes in a relational God?
Read MoreJesus taught us that when we welcome the stranger as a person made in God's image, we also welcome God. Our lives, ministries and congregations have been blessed by many immigrants and refugees over the years — from many of our ancestors to those we welcome among us today.
Read MoreAs cases of the Delta variant of COVID-19 increase, it may seem like we are in a never-ending wilderness. Bishop Eaton reminds us of the exodus of God’s people, who wandered in the wilderness for forty years searching for the land that God had promised them. God never left them, and God has not left us.
Read MoreIn this letter, the American Indian Alaska Native Lutheran Association invites congregations to hang orange banners in solidarity with Indigenous people throughout North America and in remembrance and lament of Native children that never made it out of residential schools. View the letter in this post or as a PDF.
We also encourage you to learn more about Orange Shirt Day (September 30), a Canadian statutory holiday. Religion News Service also provides these articles on US churches reckoning with the traumatic legacy of Native schools and the new spiritual movement aiming to recognize the official US apology to Native American people.
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