The Richard R. Hammar Clergy Tax Guide and the Federal Reporting Guide for Churches are both available on myPortico at no cost to you.
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As part of the latest Stories of Faith in Action, we share a story about the United Evangelical Church in Cuba Lutheran Synod (view online or as PDF). “Yamilka Hernández Guzmán always loved education and had a talent for teaching. A psychologist in an oncology hospital in Cuba, she looked for answers to the daily struggle for life she witnessed.”
View all the Stories of Faith in Action here, and how your offering becomes mission support.
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A new cohort of Excellence in Leadership will begin Sunday, March 12, 2023. Classes will run approximately every two weeks and end on April 28, 2024 with a Commissioning Ceremony. Starting in the Spring and finishing in 13 months is an opportunity for councils and ministries as they begin to reorganize early in the year. Learn more on the Rocky Mountain Synod website.
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“In these post-COVID years, I find myself wondering if church is experiencing just such a wilderness. Everything has changed, and our communities are doing their best to pick up the pieces and carry on, only the pieces we have don’t seem to fit our world anymore.”
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Welcome to Episode 4 of Talks at the Desk, season 2. We travel to Ghana and hear from students attending the All Africa Youth Congress. We visit a slave castle and hear about the what enslaved ancestors endured. Also, Pastor Nicolette Penaranda sits down with three legends of Black Lutheran theology.
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This week, a good number of the Office of the Bishop attends the Spring Gathering for Cactus, Capital, Fiesta, Northeast Valley & Rio Salado Conferences, Feb 26, 2023, 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM and travels the synod and US.
We also share photos of Bishop Hutterer in Carson City with Lutheran Engagement and Advocacy in Nevada (LEAN), as well as from our first Spring Gathering for Cactus, Capital, Fiesta, Northeast Valley & Rio Salado Conferences.
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This week we celebrate the following ordination anniversaries:
Rev. Paul Block, New Song, Henderson, who celebrates 22 years on February 24.
Rev. Christopher Heller, Mountain View, Phoenix, who celebrates 13 years on February 28.
Deaths remain persistently high. On average, around 3,000 people are dying of Covid in the U.S. each week.
Note: our updates can be a week behind due to our news cycle overlapping with Thursday updates. View the latest CDC and NYTimes updates here.
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“Ok, time to get honest. Does the church ever start to feel like a burden? Or do you sometimes feel like being part of a congregation isn’t so different from being part of another organization that has finger-pointing or bad-mouthing?”
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The February, 2023 edition of Go and Do News, a newsletter from ELCA World Hunger, is available. This edition features 40 Days of Giving, a new vacation Bible school program, The Dwelling, The Legacy of Martin Lutheran King Jr. event, partner spotlight Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), and featured resources.
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Founded less than 150 years after Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, Frederick Lutheran Church has witnessed more change, growth and conversation on the lives of African descendants than any other church in the Western Hemisphere.
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We share updates from the Lutheran Office for World Community and state public policy offices (sppos) in the ELCA Advocacy Network for February, 2023.
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Increase your confidence and peace of mind by learning more about developing a withdrawal strategy, utilize Social Security, plan for health care costs, and more. Watch the recordings of the Retirement Readiness workshops whenever it works for you. Learn more, or sign up to participate, on myPortico.
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As part of the latest Stories of Faith in Action, we share a story about the “kin∙dom community,” an ecumenical partnership between the ELCA Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana Synod and the Presbyterian Church (USA) (view online or as PDF). When Pepa Paniagua felt called to a job that didn’t exist, she set about creating it. What resulted was the “kin∙dom community,” a new approach to a term adopted nearly 40 years ago.
View all the Stories of Faith in Action here, and how your offering becomes mission support.
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International Women’s Day is March 8, 2023. The ELCA celebrates this day by uplifting the International Women Leaders (IWL) program.
On the following Sunday, March 12, we encourage your congregation to take a special offering for IWL. In honor of International Women’s Day, all gifts to IWL will be matched dollar for dollar until we reach $50,000 — your gifts will go twice as far! Read more here.
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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. Click here to register as a volunteer at elca.org.
Learn more about the gathering at elca.org/rmg.
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After perhaps a year or more of not gathering on-site for Ash Wednesday services due to the COVID-19 pandemic, worshiping communities across a large swath of the US are dealing with or expecting severe weather that would prevent gathering on-site.
Conversations on social media have begun, as fellow worship planners ask one another what they are doing when assembling for worship on-site will not be possible.
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“Even when ashes are imposed while standing on street corners or reaching through car windows the words resonate, a vibration pulsing with the reality we all do our best to avoid: everything and everyone dies.”
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