Lutheran Disaster Response Western Regions shares their latest newsletter, Upsurge, with climate news and what to expect in Region 2.
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ELCA Worship shares their June news in this newsletter, highlighting All Creation Sings, Spanish resources, and many summer resources and events.
“During the summer months, worship leaders often plan for fall and the next liturgical year. As part of this looking ahead, there can also be an intentional looking back to what has nurtured and shaped your congregation’s worship in the past months.”
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ELCA shares their June, 2022 update, viewable on this web page. Highlights include the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind, providing God’s Word in American Sign Language, Evangelical Lutheran Deaf Association 2022 conference, and the ELCA Disability Ministries blog.
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A well-written mission statement should clearly and concisely communicate the congregation’s purpose for existing and can provide the focus and motivation it needs to carry out its mission. View this PDF at ELCA.org.
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Rostered ministers are heading to Phoenix in July, 2023! If you like to welcome people, help with registration, or have the gift of hospitality, please connect with Pastor Doug Dill: pastordoug@centrallutheranaz.org or 402-235-6969. More info about the gathering at elca.org/rmg.
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In her sermon, my pastor lamented that “each person killed was a precious and irreplaceable child of God,” on the Sunday following the racially motivated massacre of 10 shoppers and workers at the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y. The irreplaceability of each person made in God’s image stands in marked contrast to so-called “Great Replacement” theory, the fear that stoked the White shooter’s hatred and motivation to target and gun down people of African descent.
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Watch the virtual celebration of the 2022 graduating class of International Women Leaders scholars.
These scholars are graduating from Augsburg University, Concordia College, Lenoir-Rhyne University, Luther College, Newberry College, St. Olaf College, Wartburg College and Wittenburg University.
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The prolific and prophetic voices of Black people, Indigenous people and people of color in this denomination remind white folks such as myself that being a faithful Lutheran has very little to do with being polite. The Holy Spirit empowers us to tell the truth.
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On Wednesday, June 22, 2022, 11am PDT/MST, noon MDT, ELCA Coaching welcomes author and poet Daniel Bowman, Jr., (MFA, Seattle Pacific University) who is associate professor of English at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, where he codirects the Making Literature Conference. The login information can be on the ELCA Coaching website.
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For students of all ages, as another academic year comes to a close…
For new high school and college graduates, as they navigate their next steps forward…
For citizens of this nation, as we re-visit the events of January 6…
For all who gather this weekend to mark Juneteenth…
For all victims of gun violence and race-based aggression, especially remembering the Emmanuel Nine…For those affected by record heatwaves, rainfall, and extreme weather and for renewed commitment in working toward climate justice…
For all struggling to make ends meet amidst skyrocketing costs for daily necessities…
For fathers and all who offer compassionate, parental care…
For ELCA synod assemblies and for other denominations meeting in their respective conferences and assemblies…
With so many lives in danger, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) call Lutherans on this World Refugee Day, June 20, to continue to honor our legacy of generous and compassionate welcome and advocacy for those who seek refuge and safety, including those who have resettled in the United States.
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The Rev. William O. Gafkjen, Indianapolis, was reelected June 9 to serve a third six-year term as bishop of the Indiana-Kentucky Synod of the ELCA.
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Bishop Elizabeth Eaton will join faith and government leaders on June 17, 2022, to mark the seventh anniversary of the racially motivated shootings at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. Watch the event here.
The leaders will participate in a commemorative Bible study event that will kick off a yearlong Bible study across the country. The theme for the event, "What Kind of Soil Are We?," is taken from Mark 4:1-20, the Bible passage the Emanuel Nine were studying on the night they were murdered by Dylann Roof (who was raised in an ELCA congregation).
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On the night of May 30, a series of storms, including tornadoes, swept through the Central Great Plains and Upper Mississippi Valley. In Minnesota, heavily affected communities included Eagle Bend, Clarissa and Browerville, where over 100 buildings were damaged. In South Dakota, a tornado impacted the area around the city of Brandon, severely damaging Beaver Valley Lutheran Church in Valley Springs.
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More than three months since Russian troops invaded Ukraine, fighting continues to intensify as humanitarian conditions deteriorate. The United Nations’ OCHA Ukraine: Humanitarian Report estimates that 6.6 million people have fled the country and 8 million are displaced internally.
Read this situation report from Lutheran Disaster Response, including partner updates with Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary (ELCH) and Lutheran World Federation.
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The following reflections are the foundation of comments shared at the “Interfaith Vigil and Rally: Faith Acting on Gun Violence” by the Rev. Amy E. Reumann on June 8, 2022, hosted by Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington, D.C.
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As part of the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, voting members adopted a resolution designating June 17 as a commemoration of the martyrdom of the Emanuel 9—the nine people shot and killed on June 17, 2015, during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.
Our relationship to the shooter, as well as two of the slain, reminds us of both our complicity and our calling.
The resources at elca.org/emanuelnine are provided to help synods and congregations mark this commemoration.
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This June, inspired by a request from an AME congregation we asked the congregations of the ELCA South Carolina Synod to study the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4, to substitute it as their Gospel reading for Sunday, June 19, and to include the names of the Emanuel Nine in the prayers of intercession.
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The Rev. Daniel G. Beaudoin, Findlay, Ohio, was reelected June 3 to serve a second six-year term as bishop of the Northwestern Ohio Synod of the ELCA.
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The Rev. Scott Alan Johnson, Fremont, Neb., was elected June 4 to serve a six-year term as bishop of the Nebraska Synod of the ELCA.
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