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.
Read MoreThe Nevada Legislature opened on February 1, 2021, with a prayer from Bishop Hutterer and an invocation from Rev. Dr. Leonard Jackson.
Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada (LEAN) offers a video on how to engage with the Nevada Legislature. In the video, Bishop Hutterer talks about the importance of keeping engaged with government. View the whole video or just Bishop Hutterer’s message.
Read MoreAll are welcome to attend the installation of Pastor Annemarie Burke at Esperanza Lutheran Church, Phoenix, by Bishop Deborah Hutterer on Saturday, January 30 at 3 pm MST, 2 pm PST. The ceremony will be conducted on Zoom.
Click here to join the Zoom meeting, and view/download the Service of Installation as PDF.
Ever-living God, strengthen and sustain pastors, especially Pastor Annemarie Burke, that with patience and understanding they may love and care for your people. Grant that together they may follow in the way of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Read MoreThe annual Report to the Bishop is an opportunity for active and rostered ministers to connect directly with Bishop Hutterer, who looks forward to your responses and feedback.
Completion of this required report is one of the commitments rostered ministers are invited to make upon entering the synod. The report is due back to Bishop Hutterer by February 19, 2021. Access the form online or offline here.
Read MoreJoin people of faith throughout Arizona as we virtually celebrate Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Monday, January 18 through Monday, January 25, 2021. Bishop Hutterer will present Tuesday, January 19.
Daily devotions, videos, and prayers will be posted in this Facebook event. This is a time for all Christians to come together as an ecumenical community to pray for peace.
Read MoreAs the season of Lent quickly approaches, we come full circle on a year of worship during a pandemic.
You have found new and surprising ways to celebrate all of our major church seasons and festivals except one—Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2021. Some of you have asked, during a pandemic, how should we handle the imposition of ashes?
Read MoreThere are times when events in our nation and world are shocking—we search for words to try to make sense of what we are seeing on television.
As bishops serving in Region 2, we stand united in calling upon elected leaders of all political parties to call for an end to this violence.
Read MoreMay we dwell in the story of Jesus’s birth in new ways, remembering the small intimacy of that night and the gathering of a family of three. May we be as surprised and astonished as the shepherds in the fields.
Read MoreI encourage you to take advantage of this year’s limited gathering ability to focus on what is most important to you and the ones you love as you enter these holidays.
Read MorePlease join Bishop Deborah Hutterer and Pastor Jacqui Pagel for a First Call process update information session. Beginning 1/31/2021, new processes will take effect.
Click here to register in advance for the Zoom meeting on Tuesday, November 17, 2020 2-3pm MST, 1-2pm PST.
Read MoreI encourage you to take advantage of this year’s limited gathering ability to focus on what is most important to you and the ones you love as you enter these holidays.
Read MoreAs Bishop, one of my main goals is to work with all of you to change and grow our church. The year 2020 has been wildly successful in implementing change, far more than anything we could have initiated on our own.
As church and people of faith, we have a huge advantage over most organizations and individuals. Our “product” is eternal and unwavering. The love of God, the good news of Jesus Christ, and the fruits of the Holy Spirit do not cease with the seasons of the world or the actions of humankind.
Read MoreHighlighted in the Arizona Republic, Bishop Hutterer was one of four Arizona faith leaders from diverse traditions who spoke at an online panel last week in Phoenix about how different faiths address human responsibility to the environment.
“From our Lutheran tradition, we have this idea of care of creation, the interdependence of each one of us, and the fact that without caring about creation, we have actually denied our neighbors,” Bishop Hutterer says in the article in Arizona Central. “Our lives depend on the life that surrounds us.”
Read MoreI encourage every congregation and ministry of our synod to take advantage of this disorienting time to intentionally ask God questions.
For the life of God’s beloved world, how can we more fully become the church the Spirit needs us to be? As the Body of Christ in our time and place, what conversations, partners, and resources help us explore the future we are being called to embrace?
Read MoreThe Office of the Bishop team is dwelling in the words of Acts 16:6-10, and will be for the next few months. In a time of weariness, when we are unable to go to the places we desire, this story from the church in its infancy has much to offer.
Read MoreIt has been a while since I wrote about in-person gathering for worship. I was waiting for certainty before I grabbed my pen. I was waiting for clarity from the federal government and the CDC, from health scientists, and from our state health departments and governors. I waited for a common-sense consensus amongst the citizens of our nation. I turned to the books of wisdom in the Old Testament, hoping for a revelation.
I am still waiting.
Read MoreLutheran Campus Ministry, which was a life preserver for me. I saw first-hand how students were hungry for a place to be heard and ask questions about life and faith. I saw students blossom and grow—they are leaders in the church today.
Read MoreWe all want to go back to in-person worship. We also want to be safe. We want our neighbors to be safe. Many have asked me when we can gather for in-person worship.
In a time of so many unknowns with so much at risk, I feel it would be ill-advised to project yet another date. As we decide when to proceed, I suggest we wait for the CDC guideline of a “downward trajectory of documented cases within a 14-day period.”
Read MoreMany of us think of Easter as one day—a day of colorful clothes, full churches, and glorious music as we celebrate the Risen Christ. This year, we did not receive that glorious Sunday we expected.
As we swim through the Eastertide of this year, perhaps we can see we are being gifted with an Easter season rather than just one day, an Easter that continues to expand.
Read MoreAs we journey through this Easter season, we are beginning to hear the question: when can we gather again?
In the midst of changing restriction policies across the three states of our synod, when and how will we worship in person as church? Some ask with concern, hoping that we not gather in person too soon. Others ask with excitement, because they miss the face-to-face community.
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