This 60-minute webinar serves as an overview of the Liturgies in All Creation Sings, the newly published supplement to Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Presenters Jennifer Baker-Trinity and Martin Seltz from Augsburg Fortress take you on a tour of the liturgical settings.
Read MoreKatie Langston has nearly completed her journey to becoming an ELCA pastor—but the path there was anything but linear. Her new book, Sealed: An Unexpected Journey Into the Heart of Grace (Thornbush Press, 2021), tells the story of her childhood and young adulthood in a devout Mormon family, and of her unexpected conversion to the Lutheran faith.
Read MoreFor nearly a century, Lutherans have been helping to resettle those fleeing harm. As we pray for Afghanistan, we are called to support those arriving in the U.S. by becoming a part of the long welcome for these families.
Support LIRS’ Neighbors in Need: Afghan Allies fund, which will provide food, housing assistance, clothing, and other basic needs for our Afghan friends as they await the official services available to them by visiting LIRS.org/HelpNow.
Read MoreHey, everyone! My name is Vanessa Young, and I’m excited to serve as the Team Leader for Gathering Synod Coordinators (GSCs) for the 2022 ELCA Youth Gathering in Minneapolis.
Have you met your Gathering Synod Coordinator yet? If you don’t know who they are, you can send them an email on the “Find Your Synod Coordinator” feature on the Gathering website.
Read MoreThis month I chose to write about sabbath-keeping because I thought it could be a therapeutic activity that might even lead to firmer sabbath disciplines in my life.
I considered my sabbath day to be my day off—one that instantly filled with errands, doctor appointments, housework, quality time with family and maybe a true-crime show on TV. My so-called sabbath day was packed with activity. My “day off” from church was actually a “day on” at home.
Read MoreThe Executive Committee of the ELCA Church Council has acted on Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton’s recommendation to appoint Carlos Peña as the ELCA’s interim vice president, effective immediately.
Read MoreThe 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 MoreThis Gathering webinar provides information about the registering your congregational group for the 2022 Gathering. Registration opens on September 22, 2021 via the Gathering’s website (elca.org/Gathering/Register). For information about the 2022 Gathering, “boundless: God beyond measure,” visit elca.org/Gathering.
Read More“This isn’t a soup kitchen where people get in line and are getting whatever we give you,” said chef and kitchen manager Angelique Gilyard. “We give the people the choice in what they have. You can have your sandwich toasted if you want, the whole sandwich or just the bread. If you want to take your meal home, that’s fine.”
Read MoreThe Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber was installed this weekend as the first pastor of public witness for the ELCA.
She was called to the role of pastor of public witness by the Rocky Mountain Synod, whose bishop, Jim Gonia, has supported her ministry since she first applied to seminary.
Read MoreKen Carder learned that when people with dementia are isolated from their community, their condition worsens. He recognized that people with dementia weren’t at the center of his own pastoral care efforts.
Seeking to change the status quo and demonstrate how congregations can join in ministry with people who have dementia, Carder created a class at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C., where he serves as guest professor, called “Dementia Through a Pastoral Theological Lens.”
Read MoreFor many, taking time to rest—whether it’s an extended retreat or simply a pause in a busy workday—can be a challenge.
“So many of our society’s dominant narratives mitigate against rest,” said Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, a professor of theological and social ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Berkeley, Calif. “I really think that the capacity to hear the Spirit and to [flourish] as a person are built partly by having rest.”
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 MoreThis year will mark the 20th anniversary of September 11, 2001. That day holds great significance for people in different ways including the families of those who died in the attacks and in rescue efforts; those killed because of the resulting military conflicts; and those who are/were subsequently targeted because of their religious or cultural identity.
Read MoreElizabeth W. Corrie’s Youth Ministry As Peace Education: Overcoming Silence, Transforming Violence (Fortress Press, 2021) is a rare work, especially in the field of youth ministry (or, in keeping with the book’s message, “ministry with youth”). Incorporating pop culture as well as theological and historical images, Corrie’s approach is both theoretical, stimulating the mind, and eminently practical, offering ideas that can be implemented immediately.
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 MorePresiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton wrote to the church, “With much sadness and shock I share with you the news of the sudden passing of Bill Horne, my friend and Vice President of the ELCA. He died Saturday afternoon of a suspected heart attack, according to the city press release. Please join me in praying for his wife Loretta and the rest of his family during this difficult time. We will always remember Bill as a faithful servant of God.”
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