I was having coffee with a hiking friend the other morning and we were talking about Christmas. My friend recently joined an ELCA congregation after many years of questioning her faith in the Gospel.
She shared her joy at re-discovering Christ's birth this Christmas. In the midst of shopping, parties, and festivities, she has valued the quiet times and pausing to gaze upon the Christ-child in the manger.
Read MoreWe are very excited about our new website, and we thank you for your patience as we rebuild it. If there’s something you can’t find or a feature you’d like, please let us know.
Read MoreThe days are surely coming. This week we begin a season of waiting and anticipation. 4 weeks to prepare ourselves and get ready. Waiting for promises to be realized. 4 weeks of hope.
We live in a world where justice and righteousness are not always present. But hope grows in the soil of possibilities with God, not the dirt of life’s present circumstances. Hope is the deep conviction that God is working powerfully in our lives and in the world. It is not based on what we can do or see. Hope is anchored in the faithfulness of God.
Read MoreAfter my husband Gary was diagnosed with ALS in 2010, it was hard to feel grateful.
We went home, questioning how we would get through this. We prayed that God would give us what we needed, and the eyes to see that God had provided. Each day we thanked God for being with us even when we couldn’t recognize all that had been provided.
Read MoreOne hundred years ago this Sunday, November 11, the most terrible war the world had ever known came to an end.
Sadly, Armistice Day did not mark the end of all wars. Human affairs among nations fail and natural disasters strike. Violence, cruelty, and injustice overwhelm us. And God raises up people who are willing to put their lives in harm’s way on behalf of their country.
Read MoreIn this past year since the horrific events that took place in Las Vegas on Sunday, October 1st, I have had time to process and reflect on those events and the time that I spent with the chaplains, some staff, and others who knew victims of the shooting, and who dealt with the overwhelming numbers of wounded and dying.
Read MoreLutherans and other Christians throughout this nation and the world are deeply troubled by the images of children, including infants and the very young, being separated from their mothers and fathers at the border.
Read MoreFor the Prayers of Intercession in worship, I am convinced that a good form of that prayer is shaped like an hour glass - wide at the top and bottom and narrow in the middle. By that I mean the prayer begins with thanksgiving for the life and long tradition of the whole church.
Read MoreVivid moments of history are unfolding these days in the Grand Canyon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Read MoreThe Rev. Deborah Hutterer was elected the sixth bishop of the Grand Canyon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America at the synod’s 31st annual assembly.
Read MoreOn Thursday, June 14, the Thirty-First Annual Assembly of the Grand Canyon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will begin at 6:45 p.m.
Read MorePaul, on his final journey to Jerusalem, stopped to visit the leaders of the Church at Ephesus. He reminded them that "we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'."
Read MoreIn five months, the voting members from the 89 congregations of the Grand Canyon Synod will gather for the thirty-first annual assembly. We will meet June 14-16 at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Oro Valley, Arizona.
A key assembly decision will be the calling of the sixth bishop of this synod. Work is under way on the "synod profile" that will help inform voting members and others as we prepare for the assembly.
Read More
