Many physical places serve as a transition between two other spaces. In locations where outdoor temperatures can be frigid, some homes have a vestibule, which is an enclosed entryway that serves as a buffer between the warm interior and the cold exterior. Architects and other designers will often refer to transitional zones as “liminal spaces,” which means being at the threshold of something new but not quite there yet.
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 MorePlease pray for Miriam and the family of Wayne Perry, who died Thursday, 9/29/2022. Wayne is the father of Rev. Peter Perry of St. John’s Lutheran in Glendale.
Grant Wayne rest eternal, O Lord! And let light perpetual shine on him. Services at St. John's in Glendale will be announced soon.
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“We should look to see what God is doing in our lives but with the knowledge that God isn't out to get us but God is there to guide us, comfort us, perhaps sometimes to challenge us but always to be leading us in the right direction and caring for us along the way.”
View this month’s Cup of Generosity in this post or in this PDF.
Read MoreWe pray for Rev. Andrea Cain, Rev. Thaddeus Book and the people of Desert Cross Lutheran Church in Tempe and Gilbert, part of the Fiesta Conference. Visit their site at desertcross.org, and their social media pages on Facebook and YouTube.
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.
For relief and recovery efforts following Hurricane Ian and Typhoon Noru…
For communities grieving and rebuilding after flooding in Pakistan…
For all areas of the world who have suffered recent natural disasters…
For the health of creation…
For peace amidst leadership and regime transitions across the world…
For those whose mental and physical health is affected by changing seasons…
For blessings upon our Jewish siblings marking Yom Kippur this week…
In thanksgiving for LGBTQIA+ siblings…
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.
Read MoreWe pray for Rev. David Drach-Meinel, Rev. Diane Drach-Meinel and the people of Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Henderson, part of the Colorado River Conference. Visit their site at cslconline.org, and their social media pages on Facebook and YouTube.
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