Dear church, how quickly our world has changed.
Two weeks ago, I sent a letter urging our congregations to suspend in-person worship until early April. And now, I write to urge you to suspend in-person worship until early May, possibly longer.
As we near the end of Lent, what about Holy Week and Easter?
Read MoreELCA presiding bishop Elizabeth Eaton extends an invitation to join in the Lord's Prayer on Wednesday, March 25, 2020 at noon local time.
I am writing to extend an invitation we have received from Pope Francis, through the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches, to join in the Lord's Prayer on March 25, 2020 at noon your local time. Please share this invitation through your synods, congregations, ecumenical communities and individual networks.
Read MoreMy how things have changed in just one week and how they will continue to change in the coming days.
For today, please remember that we are church together for the sake of the world. We are better together. We get to model a different kind of community than one that is motivated by fear and hoarding.
Read MoreMaybe Lent is a time when we look at the Gardens we are in, the safe places that have kept us whole, but are no longer nurturing us. Perhaps it is a time when we decide to risk expanding ourselves, risk stepping out of the Garden into the Wilderness, to see what can be learned in this mysterious, unfamiliar place.
Read MoreThis Lenten season we live in a time of pandemic. We also live in a time of rapid change. Coronavirus—ignoring the human boundaries of nation-states, class, culture, race, and religion—spreads with the exponential inevitability of a mathematical formula.
As we struggle to understand the virus and its effect on our daily lives, we also wonder how best to be church together. We are a church whose practices literally go hand-in-hand with sharing the virus.
Read MoreThis Lent, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reflects on Paul’s stormy journey to Rome and the Lord’s Supper. In her March column, she reminds us that our Lord’s holy meal is an act of faith, trust, love, strength for the journey, forgiveness and resistance—it’s an intimate communion with God and each other. Read her column in English at https://bit.ly/3cKxNIc and in Spanish at https://bit.ly/2xnTn54.
Read MoreIn 1527 the plague returned to Wittenberg, Germany. Two hundred years earlier the plague had swept across Europe killing up to 40% of the population. Understandably, people were anxious and wondered what a safe and faithful response might be.
In answer to this, Martin Luther wrote "Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague." In it, he emphasized the duty to care for the neighbor, the responsibility of government to protect and provide services to its citizens, a caution about recklessness, and the importance of science, medicine and common sense.
Read MoreWhen I was growing up on a small 3 acre farm in Tacoma, Washington with my two parents and three siblings, I HATED going outside and doing yard work. It was the last thing I wanted to do.
I would rather have been inside the house watching movies on our VHS player. On top of the mandatory all-family yard work on the farm, we lived frugally getting everything second-hand, including my school outfits which did not fit my fashion standards. At all.
Read MoreIn the February issue of Living Lutheran, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reminds us of our uniquely Lutheran understanding of the gospel and renews her call for studying Martin Luther’s Small Catechism. “Luther said he needed to study it every day—and he wrote it! Let’s do the same.” Read her column in English at https://bit.ly/2uhqshX and in Spanish athttps://bit.ly/2vXv90F.
Read MoreRemembering Bishop Emeritus Herb Chilstrom, we look back to a short video of a 2013 devotion delivered from his garden, where he compares the messy work of building a church to composting.
Full obituary and info on services available at gcsynod.org/news/chilstrom.
Read MoreDear Church: Last week, on the third anniversary of the original executive order, the administration extended the travel ban to the United States from seven majority Muslim countries to thirteen. The ban suspends the issuing of immigrant visas that can lead to permanent residency for those from Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar and Nigeria, as well as visas available through a diversity lottery for applicants from Sudan and Tanzania.
As Lutherans, these actions should concern us. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God has set us free from ourselves to serve our neighbor.
Read MoreThis week, we honor The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who preached a message of love. A message of unity where all of God's people could walk together. Where people of faith stood as a beacon of light to those struggling against injustice.
In my travels throughout the Grand Canyon Synod, I am grateful to see the myriad ways in which our congregations and people shine.
Read MoreDear Church,
With sadness I bring you the news that Presiding Bishop Emeritus Herbert W. Chilstrom died at home early this morning. His wife, Pastor Corinne Chilstrom; his son, Chris Holt; and family were with him.
Read MoreThe current crisis between the United States and Iran is worrisome for many of us in our church, in our nation and in the world. Our country and Iran need urgently to find ways to resolve our differences through a de-escalation of the current crisis, using diplomacy and other peaceful means. Our social statement, "For Peace in God's World," offers guidance.
Read MoreLast week, in a flurry of misleading headlines, many of us read that the United Methodist Church had split. This is not, in fact, what happened.
Many of you may be pondering the good Lutheran question: What does this mean? For the UMC? For our full communion partnership? It is simply too soon to have clarity on those questions. I assure you that there are leaders, both ELCA and UMC, who are carefully and faithfully tending to these questions.
Read MoreFrom Mosaic’s Jim Fruehling, Vice President of Behavioral and Spiritual Supports: Looking back over a career inevitably prompts some nostalgia – not necessarily because the “old days” were always that good, but because of colleagues, friends and coworkers who came alongside to cast a light on the path. It’s these relationships that many of us recall the most, the content of which made life meaningful, as they continue to do, even today.
Read MoreIn the January 2020 issue of Living Lutheran, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reflects on white privilege (reprint of her June 2108 column): “We aren’t free until all of us are free.” Read her column in English at https://bit.ly/36BvljB and in Spanish at https://bit.ly/39UNISW.
Read MoreFrom Allie Papke-Larson: Now that Christmas day has come and gone, the presents opened, the second turkey of the season stuffed and eaten, and 25 million tons of packaging and old Christmas trees are in our landfills, it’s time for Americans everywhere to consume the next thing: our New Year’s resolutions, plumped up and stuffed by our self-help culture.
Read MoreYou are light and hope as you answer God’s call in your life, as you do your quiet work which few may see, as you discover and rediscover Jesus Christ in both the friend and the stranger, as you listen to people share their painful stories and wishing we could fix them, or as you listen when people rejoice at small and large victories.
You are hope and light. God uses you for good in the world. Here is to 2020: for your good health, fearless courage when you need it, and steadiness in the work you are called to do in the Grand Canyon Synod and in your circles of influence.
Read MoreFrom Allie Papke-Larson comes this reflection. Papke-Larson is Program Coordinator for Lutheran Campus Ministries/Canterbury Episcopal Campus Ministries at Northern Arizona University and Youth Director at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Flagstaff.
When I was in college I studied abroad in Northern Ireland. I was studying under a Northern Irish professor leading me through a semester of study of what some in his country call The Troubles. One of the first things I learned was that if you thought you had it sorted out, you were wrong.
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