In this letter, former Bishop Lowell G. Almen encourage pastors, deacons, and congregations to remember with gratitude the 35th birthday of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) on April 30, 2022.
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“For those of you who are wondering about the particulars of the process to address the issues that arose in the Sierra Pacific Synod, I want to give you an update on the ways in which we are moving forward.” (This update is provided in English and en español.)
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Rev. Tim Wright, pastor of Community of Grace Lutheran Church in Peoria, recently wrote an opinion piece in the Arizona Republic/AZ Central, saying we must stand up to those who speak hate.
“The war against Christianity is not being waged by anti-Christian elites or the politically correct or the Woke crowd. It’s being waged by people vomiting hate-filled rhetoric in the name of Jesus and/or by people who wrap that hate-filled speech in Christian clothes and/or by far too many Christians who fail to stand up and say that this is not who Jesus is.”
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In their most recent newsletter, Navajo Lutheran Mission 2022 Mission Board Chair Patty Charley shares remembrances of the Mission’s founding in 1953.
“God’s love has blessed the Diné with so much. My name is Patty. My community is Rock Point, Arizona, near the Four Corners in the Navajo Nation. This is who I am as a Navajo woman to the world.”
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On March 25, 2022, we commemorate the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, declared by the United Nations in 2007. As we remember the victims of what has been called the “the worst violation of human rights in history,” Bishop Eaton calls us to “learn more about the inhumane history of the transatlantic slave trade and examine the paths that will lead us towards racial healing and justice.”
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The Rev. Daniel Rift, Director for ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response Fund, talked live with the Rev. Dr. Rafael Malpica-Padilla, Executive Director for Service and Justice, and the Rev. Rachel Eskesen, Area Desk Director for Europe. They discussed the situation in Eastern Europe and Rafael and Rachel shared about the ELCA’s response.
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In her March column for Living Lutheran, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reminds us that “over and over again humankind has betrayed the hope God has for us.” She suggests that this is a “time for a reset.” Read her column in English at https://bit.ly/361wmXp and in Spanish at https://bit.ly/3wgluj2.
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Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton shares some of the ways the ELCA, Lutheran Disaster Response and our partners in ministry are responding to the growing humanitarian crisis in eastern Europe by providing support for refugees and internally displaced people. Please keep our companions in your prayers during these turbulent times. God of life, give us your peace.
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Rev. Rachel Eskesen, ELCA Area Desk Director for Europe, and Associate in Ministry Rev. Zach Courter provide updates from Budapest, Hungary. In this post, we share a video update, an expanded letter (read in this post or view as PDF), and a bulletin insert (PDF).
For those of you wishing to financially support our partner churches who are doing the work on the ground to respond to the needs of refugees, you can donate here.
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“I am appointing a listening panel of three people to review the interactions of Bishop Megan Rohrer with Misión Latina Luterana, particularly on December 12, the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and to make recommendations to me.” Read more in English and Spanish in this post.
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Pastor Lars Hammar writes: “We have our spring schedule planned out for once (minus the once a month hikes), and we’re going to be getting back to our roots a little, investing time in regular fellowship and community, sharing highs and lows, and doing some devotions and/or prayer. We’ve been apart for so long, hobbling along through Covid closures, and it’s time to get back to our basics.”
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Ruth Ivory-Moore, ELCA Program Director for Environment and Corporate Social Responsibility, writes: “A new – but deemed to be landmark – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was finalized on Feb. 27, “Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” (IPCC Report). Unfortunately, the message is not new.
Yet while the report re-emphasizes the dire situation the global community faces, it also emphasizes hope: The climate we remember is gone, but we can dramatically limit the damage and reduce our risk by adapting to the new climate.
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Directors of Lutheran summer camps from around the USA are eager to discuss opportunities for you at their camps. Get more info at lomnetwork.org or this post, and try out their Camp MatchUp app for an easy way for camps to connect with potential summer staff looking for a camp.
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The prophet Joel doesn’t hold back when sounding the alarm about the coming Day of the Lord in our Ash Wednesday reading. This year Joel’s alert sounds above the horror of the Putin regime’s invasion of Ukraine, a great and powerful army conducting an unprovoked attack against a neighboring state.
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We share a letter from Ambassador Daniel Speckhard, President and CEO of Lutheran World Relief, encouraging emergency gifts to deliver urgent support and care.
We also share a message from Rev. Lisa Kipp, with Lutheran World Relief’s Congregational Engagement, announcing that Nelsonville Lutheran Church in Wisconsin will double all gifts from congregations – up to $100,000 – for our neighbors suffering in the Ukraine crisis. You can give online at www.lwr.org/match.
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We share Pastor Sarah Stadler’s letter to the Grace Lutheran congregation in Phoenix. We appreciate the letter’s thoughtfulness on the Ukraine conflict as we enter Lent, and the specific calls to action from Grace members’ brainstorming sessions.
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On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian forces invaded Ukraine, launching land, sea and air attacks. Millions of civilians fleeing the violence are heading toward Ukraine’s western districts and neighboring countries.
In this post we share a letter from The Rev. Daniel Rift, Director, ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response Fund. You can support Urkainians and others by giving here.
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Bishop Eaton provides a prayer as we enter Lent, and invites us to explore Now Is the Time: A Study Guide for ELCA Declaration to People of African Descent and ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving at ELCA.org/40Days.
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Pastor Kristin Engstrom, ELCA Global Missionary with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zambia, is glad to share with us her arrival in Zambia, “to begin my new call as an ELCA global missionary with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zambia (ELCZa). Thank you for all your prayers and support over these past months of waiting and anticipating my deployment to Zambia. I've written a new blog post about my first week in Zambia. You can find it here.”
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Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), writes: “The humanitarian implications of a full Russian invasion must be a central consideration in the U.S. and international response. Thousands could lose their lives, and millions more could lose the only home they have ever known. The U.S. and its allies must prepare to respond to the very real possibility of a mass exodus of Ukrainian refugees. Protecting the displaced cannot merely be an afterthought.”
Read the full statement in this post or on LIRS.org.
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