On Sept. 11, 2022, ELCA congregations across the country joined together for “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday. From prairie restoration to fence and bench construction to meal kit assembly, volunteers participated in a variety of service projects this year. View a slideshow of projects in Living Lutheran here.
Read MoreELCA World Hunger's shares their Go & Do News for October, 2022, featuring new resources for Advent and Lent, ELCA World Hunger Education and Networking Grants, World Food Day, partner Fundação Luterana de Diaconia, and Hunger at the Crossroads webinars.
Read MoreLearn new ways of being RE-membered to the Divine Mystery and hone your own prayer practice at this special prayer retreat led by Spirit’s faith mentor, Jim Hanson, and friends. Register for Prayer Retreat here. View full info on our calendar listing.
Read MoreRegistration for the Fifty and Better program’s FABulous Fall Lecture Series is open! Join them in late 2022 for independent and two-part lectures on various topics, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, comparisons of the conflicts in Cuba and Ukraine, Jewish film, neurodegeneration, cyber-terrorism, and more! Visit callutheran.edu/fab for more info and registration.
Read MoreThey call her “Big Mama.” It’s probably not the most common of titles used by church members for their pastors, but it works here.
Mary Louise Frenchman might be “Pastor Frenchman” in professional circles. In more formal settings, some might introduce her as “the Rev. Mary Louise.” But to those who gather for worship and greet her almost daily on the streets of Phoenix, it’s “Big Mama.” Read more in this profile in Living Lutheran.
Read MoreWe start a series of weekly reflections on the 2022 Churchwide Assembly with a “live update” from Glenn Austad, created by the creative team at Lord of Life Lutheran in Sun City West.
Each week we will share a 2022 CWA reflection on how we are church together by our synod voting members. View all our 2022 CWA posts here.
Read MoreLutheran Advocacy Ministry Arizona reminds us that October 11, 2022, is the big cutoff date for registering to vote in Arizona general election. Check your registration status, check your friends and loved ones’ status, check, check, check! Read more in their post: How to register to vote in Arizona.
Read MoreIn this post and video we explore Growing Fervent Voices: Planting seeds for Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Arizona and Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada.
With gifts from congregations, foundations, endowments, and individuals, we can meet our $750,000 goal. Thank you to all who have helped us with gifts of $641,431 so far towards our Growing Generosity Appeal. We invite you to consider a gift. Please visit our pledge page for more info.
Read MoreIt’s often called the National Lynching Memorial. Located at the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Ala., the National Memorial for Peace and Justice consists of 805 hanging steel rectangles that represent each U.S. county where a lynching has taken place.
One day in May, after two years of study and deep discussion about the role of reconciliation in the church, Lutherans from Duke University in Durham, N.C., stood at the memorial and reflected on its enormity with members of St. Joseph African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, Durham.
Read MoreAs we begin this work of reforming the candidacy process, we invite you to answer a few survey questions. Your input is important, so please take a moment to share your thoughts. The Candidacy Leadership Development Working Group has established a webpage where you will find information about the working group, an anticipated timeline of events, and ongoing updates.
Read MoreCohorts come together with the intent of creating nurturing and empowering times, spaces, and relationships. Cohorts meet virtually for 12 sessions using a curriculum of spiritual practices. Membership is open to rostered and non-rostered leaders in ELCA Regions 1 and 2. Explore the cohorts for this year and find one that works for you!
Read MoreClick here to view the October 2022 ELCA monthly Insights newsletter, featuring: what’s missing from your estate plan; Oct. 17-23 is National Estate Planning Awareness Week; avoiding the most common estate-planning mistake; the upcoming webinar Planning Your Legacy; and info on the ELCA Ministry Growth Fund.
For more info, contact our synod’s ELCA Foundation planners, Lisa Marie Higginbotham and Josh Kerney.
Read MoreKaren Thalacker and Andy Newell host the podcast The Homes, which tells the stories of staff and residents of the title community (now the Lutheran Living Senior Campus) in Muscatine, Iowa. From 1921 to 1941 Thalacker’s great-grandfather, Lutheran pastor William Klein, served as superintendent of the Homes. His wife Emma ran the home for the aged.
Read MoreHurricane Ian made landfall in Florida Wednesday with near Category 5-strength winds, dumping record amounts of rain and causing catastrophic flooding. Ian, as predicted, is one of the worst hurricanes to hit the United States in decades.
Gifts to Lutheran Disaster Response make it possible for the ELCA to act quickly after disasters, whenever and wherever they strike.
Read More"ELCA Guidelines for Ministry in a Multi-Religious World" provides general guidance for occasions when Christians and people of other religions come together. Included are recommendations for prayer services, crisis and tragedy response, social ministries, pastoral care, weddings and funerals.
"Preaching and Teaching with Love and Respect for the Jewish People" explores challenging topics, lectionary selections, and Bible passages to inform Christian preaching and teaching so that they respect the integrity of the Jewish tradition and avoid anti-Jewish interpretations of New Testament texts.
Read MoreThe Office of the Bishop does some traveling this week for meetings, conferences, and preaching.
We also share photos from the Synod Council and Dean Retreat last weekend at Ascension Lutheran in Paradise Valley, where our guests and presenters included the ELCA’s Vance Blackfox, Native American Urban Ministry’s Rev. Mary Louise Frenchman and Wanda Frenchman, as well as Patterson Yazzie and Patty Charley with Navajo Evangelical Lutheran Mission.
Read MoreWe celebrate the following ordination anniversaries this week:
Rev. Nanette Christofferson, Love of Christ, Mesa, who celebrates 3 years on October 5.
Rev. Kimberly Sterner, Lord of Life, Sun City West, who celebrates 36 years on October 5.
Five hundred years ago in September, at the Leipzig Fair in the German state of Saxony, the printer Melchior Lotter Jr. offered up for sale his first edition of the New Testament as translated from the ancient Greek into the German vernacular by Martin Luther. By then Luther was notorious across Europe for his attacks on the papacy. He had been denounced as a heretic, excommunicated by Pope Leo X and condemned by Charles V, leader of the Holy Roman Empire. The edition of 3,000 copies sold out rapidly.
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