Posts in Worship Resources
Lenten Reflection 5: What Will It Take to End Hunger? Action

As part of ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving, this post and accompanying video continue a series weekly reflections.

Thus far this Lent, we have heard stories of God working through this church, our companions and our neighbors to end hunger. Here, in this last week, companions from Colombia will help teach us about the final tool: action.

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Covid Service of Lament available

The Grand Canyon Synod Covid Service of Lament is available in this blog post and on our Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo. Download available on Vimeo.

We thank our participants: Rev. Alan Field; Carol Paulsen; Diakonia participants, Bill Aurand, Tina Gilson, Cheryl Pridgeon, and Cindy Stein; Bishop Hutterer; music from organist Lars Andersen and vocalists Sherri McClellan and Jennifer Wortman from Tanque Verde Lutheran in Tucson; and Pastor Sarah Stadler from Grace Lutheran in Phoenix.

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Worship services available for Holy Week and Easter

Save the date for two upcoming services, available for use on Monday of Holy Week, March 29, 2021. We’ll share additional details as we receive them.

In the Grand Canyon Synod, a Good Friday service is in the works, a project led by Pastor Jason Adams, Reformation Lutheran, Las Vegas.

A Region 2 worship for Easter 2 will be available, with Dr. Shauna Hannan, Professor of Homiletics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, as the preacher.

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Day of Lament Against Anti-Asian Racism is March 21, 2021

The Asian and Pacific Islander Association of the ELCA recently issued a statement, affirmed by the ELCA Conference of Bishops, calling on the church to declare a day of lament during Lent to express solidarity with, help in healing and support Asian American victims of violence.

Sunday, March 21, has been named as the common date, though worshiping communities may choose a different date as appropriate for their context. Worship resources are available in this PDF.

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Service of Lament: one year of coronavirus

As we approach the time last year when we ceased in-person gathering, we take time to lament: an opportunity to express deeply held grief and frustration. Through Scripture, music, and prayer, we invite you to allow yourself to lament our life under COVID.

This service premieres on March 14th, 5pm MST, and will be available on our Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo pages. Featuring Bishop Hutterer, Rev. Alan Field, Diakonia participants, and music from Tanque Verde Lutheran in Tucson as well as Pastor Sarah Stadler.

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Lenten Reflection 3: What Will It Take to End Hunger? Justice

As part of ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving, this post and accompanying video continue a series weekly reflections.

The direct service of providing filter pitchers and the organizing work of bringing demands to our alderpersons, health department and mayor all lead us back to the font, where we stand with people at the holy water that makes us God’s children and sends us out to serve God’s justice.

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Lenten Reflection 2 - Honesty: What Will It Take to End Hunger?

As part of ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving, this post and accompanying video continue a series weekly reflections.

If we are going to end hunger, we have to start by being honest about the stories of pain, exploitation, injustice and violence that lie behind it. We must start with honesty about what hunger is and what it is not.

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Singing at the Vigil of Easter with All Creation Sings

New Fire. Easter Proclamation. Ancient stories. Baptismal waters. Bread and wine. This is the night. As you plan worship for the Vigil of Easter, All Creation Sings offers many and various ways for us to sing the centrality of our faith.

2021, like its 2020 counterpart, will be unique in how the Easter Vigil liturgy is offered.

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Denise Rector: The Work of Lamenting Racism in All Creation Sings

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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The catechism in a new context: Lutheran scholars of African descent add their experience 

In 2014, during the lead-up to the commemoration of the Reformation’s 500th anniversary, a group of African descent Lutheran theologians gathered to explore and reflect on Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. While affirming the catechism’s gift in the life of the church, they recognized the importance of broadening its explanations of Christian faith to address the experience of Lutherans of African descent.

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Lenten Reflection 1: What Will It Take to End Hunger?

As part of ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving, this post and accompanying video begin a series weekly reflections.

Ending hunger means seeing what unjust power tries to keep hidden. It means defining “we” in a way that threatens the principalities and powers — including our own privilege — that make everything about “I.”

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ELCA World Hunger Sermon Starter: Ash Wednesday

The prophet Isaiah provides a beautiful column of words from which to build a thoughtful sermon, but truly on this Ash Wednesday the sermon will not be built by words, but by the world that is still trying to stop the hemorrhaging of our much loved friends and family. Truly we sit upon an ash-heap of tears and unrealized hopes in this pandemic.

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Prayer petitions honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.

Pastor Steve Springer, Dove of Peace, Tucson, reminds us that January 15 is the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the day he’s on our Lutheran calendar. As Dr. King is a martyr, the liturgical color for today is scarlet red.

Pr. Springer shares five petitions, each beginning with "We remember" and a verbatim citation from "Letter From a Birmingham Jail."

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