Pastor Gary McCluskey provides us an update on a season of Lutheran Campus Ministry unlike any other.
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The origins of Labor Day, established as a federal holiday in 1894, lie in the labor movement's persistent organizing for the rights and recognition of American workers.
This year's impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the heroics and faithfulness of the many we now know to be essential workers.
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In a special message for Labor Day, Bishop Eaton reminds us to give thanks for all workers but pay special tribute to those essential workers for their contributions to our country’s well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Pastor Joel Brandt, Gloria Dei Lutheran In Huntington Station, N.Y., shares how an overwhelming response to their ask for food pantry help on a previously unused Facebook page enabled them to help another church meet their matching goal.
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The next session for Beginning a Culture of Generosity, An Effective, Inspiring Stewardship Appeal, is Saturday, 9/5/2020, at 9 am. Need to review the first session? It’s available here for those who missed it or are curious about the program.
Contact Deb Elstad, 3E Associate Director, deb.elstad@gmail.com, if your congregation wants to be with the 25 other congregations who are benefiting from this one-time-only program during these unique times.
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There is no better time than right now for us to hold on to what is good, treat one another with respect, extend hospitality to strangers and those different from ourselves, seek peace, and care for our neighbors, including our enemies. Pray for strength, empathy, compassion and boldness in our faith and daily life as we follow Jesus.
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With over a million views and counting, this parody of Hamilton’s “You’ll Be Back” from Rev. Lonnie Lacy of St. Anne’s Episcopal in Tifton, Georgia, gives us a laugh while we continue to worship while physical distancing.
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The question of exactly who is our neighbor is critically important in a time when the Oikoumene, the whole inhabited earth, is infected and affected by COVID-19, racism, and injustice.
For help, we can look to the recently issued joint document of the WCC)and PCID, “Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: A Christian Call to Reflection and Action During COVID-19 and Beyond.”
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We continue our 50·40·10 celebration with a message from Eileen Ruppel-Doan, Master Divinity Student, United Lutheran Seminary. Ruppel-Doan shares her appreciation of growing up blessed with female pastors her entire life.
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The Rev. Amy Odgren, Walker, Minn., was elected Aug. 29 to serve a six-year term as bishop of the Northeastern Minnesota Synod.
The bishop-elect has served as assistant to the bishop and director for evangelical mission in the Northeastern Minnesota Synod since 2016.
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California Lutheran University organist Adan Alejandro Fernandez will showcase the 2,109-pipe Borg Petersen Memorial Organ in the first event of a Bach Organ Recital Series, featuring the music of Bach, Buxtehude and more.
September 9, 2020, 12:30pm, at callutheran.edu/college-arts-sciences/music/. Scroll down for the video link.
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September often marks a time of beginning, with students starting school, congregations launching programs and creation transitioning into a new season. But due to the pandemic, this year is different, presenting challenges we have not faced before. Pray that the Spirit will grant us wisdom, creativity and patience as we seek new ways of being church together, attend to the needs of children and youth, care for one another and fight the spread of COVID-19.
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12 News has started a conversation with the African American community on the lived experiences and perspectives on race relations in the Valley.
We invite you to watch this film as part of our next open conversation about race, 9/8/2020, 6:30 pm. Learn more at gcsynod.org/open-talks.
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Two Savings Matching programs through the ELCA’s Resourceful Servants initiative address financial challenges being experienced by rostered ministers, namely a lack of emergency savings and a lack of retirement savings.
These programs partner with rostered ministers to encourage a habit of saving by providing matching funding to more rapidly grow savings and retirement accounts. The due date to complete the process is October 15, 2020.
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Listen to devotional music available through Augsburg Fortress: “Here is Love,” “Jesus Calls Us.”
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Michaela Shelly writes, “Walking off of the Mass Gathering stage after speaking at the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering, I don’t think I fully understood the magnitude of what I had just done. I stood up on stage to show others how you can take some of your worst moments, such as my terminal diagnosis, and use them to help remind others they do not have to feel alone in all of this.”
In this post, read her letter and watch her heartfelt Youth Gathering talk. Read her blog here.
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Bishop Mark W. Holmerud, with the Sierra Pacific synod, writes this letter on the recent incomprehensible weather events.
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Presiding Bishop Eaton and leaders from The Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada have prepared a series of devotions to observe the Season of Creation 2020, Sept. 1–Oct. 4.
The season, which begins with the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, is a time to join with the global Christian community in renewing, repairing and restoring commitments to God, to one another and to all of creation.
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The Rev. Joy Mortensen-Wiebe, Kewaskum, Wis., was elected Aug. 29 to serve a six-year term as bishop of the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
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The Weekly Online Gathering for ELCA Leaders continues every Wednesday, 1 pm Central, 11am MST. Links to the meeting at elcacoaching.org as well as archives.
Drawing on her experiences of simple and powerful ritual in her own life's apprenticeship with sorrow, Rev. Solveig Nilsen-Goodin will begin a six-month series on the sacred work of grief (the first Wednesday of each month, September through February).
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