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ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving Lent 2022 In English and en Espanol Week 4: Transformed in the Wilderness “They ate the crops of the land” (Joshua 5:12) Read Joshua 5:9-12 Psalm 32 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 Reflect The reading from Joshua for this week is brief, but it recounts the time the Hebrews, who left Egypt under God’s care, had so longed to see: the end of their exodus and the beginning of their life in the Promised Land of Canaan. No longer would their food rain down from the heavens; now, they would be fed…

Today’s post is written by Julie Grindle, Assistant to the Bishop for Candidacy and Mobility in the Upstate New York Synod of the ELCA. A past president of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM), Julie also served on the Hymnody Working Group for All Creation Sings. This post was previously published in February 2021. It has been updated by the author to reflect our context in March 2022. New Fire. Easter Proclamation. Ancient stories. Baptismal waters. Bread and wine. This is the night. As you plan worship for the Vigil of Easter, All Creation Sings offers many and various…

Karl Barth wrote: “What took place on the cross of Golgotha is the last word of an old history and the first word of a new.”[1] Keeping in theme with this apocalyptic motif, Samuel Adams writes the following, with reference to Dietrich Bonhoeffer: In his Ethics, Bonhoeffer progresses from the disciple’s conformation to the crucified one to the disciple’s conformation to the risen one: To be conformed to the risen one—that means to be a new human being before God. We live in the midst of death; we are righteous in the midst of sin; we are new in the…

A message from Tammy Jones West, 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering Program Director— I’m just, It’s just…  Hello world. My name is Tammy Jones West. I am a Deacon in this church, from North Carolina, and I am serving as the Program Director for the 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering. I am honored to have been asked to serve in this way and a little terrified at the responsibility and scope of the work. I also know the impact and importance of this ministry and I will do my best to encourage, support and clear a path for the thousands of volunteers…

Elizabeth Hood, Palo Alto, CA Warm-up Question Have you ever felt lost? Lost something really important to you? Lost and Found After 106 years of searching, a ship lost miles below the icy water near Antartica was recently found! Explorer Ernest Shackleford’s ship, Endurance, was exploring these frigid waters when it became trapped by ice and could no longer move. Miraculously, most of the crew survived by making camp on a smaller boat on the ice, living there for months before they were rescued.  The Endurance sank and researchers have been looking for the ship ever since. Scientists say that…

John Webster offers too good of a sketch on a theory of revelation for me to simply pass it by without sharing it for you (and I’ll be using it in my doctoral study as well—which my topic has changed already, I’ll share what it is in an addendum at the end of this post). He synopsizes what I have often been after in many of my posts on the same locus. Let’s read along with him, and then I’ll close with some concluding reflections (and that addendum). The broadest outline of a diagnosis would be something like this: For…

Following are updates shared from submissions of the Lutheran Office for World Community and state public policy offices (sppos) in the ELCA Advocacy Network this month. Full list and map of sppos available. U.N. | Arizona | Colorado | Kansas | Minnesota | Ohio | Pennsylvania | Texas | Washington | Wisconsin   U.N. Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC), United Nations, New York, N.Y. – ELCA.org/lowc Dennis Frado, Director The International Migration Review Forum (IMRF): was created by the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). is a Member State forum, with the participation of stakeholder including civil…

These prompts are provided for worship leaders as they prepare the prayers of intercession for weekly worship. The prompts are prepared by several leaders in the ELCA and reflect current world and national events. You are encouraged to adapt and add other concerns for your local context, including staying informed of events and concerns in your synod. Worship resources for the crisis in Eastern Europe: Follow this link to access resources to assist worshiping communities as they respond to the crisis in Eastern Europe. Several prayers are provided that could be used during the prayers of intercession or at other…

Here is Barth talking about event, and how, as Samuel Adams says: “If the event contextualizes us, rather than being contextualized by us, then we can say that it is something new, since its origin is “outside” of us and has the nature of an “event. . . .”: God’s revelation in its objective reality is the person of Jesus Christ. In establishing this we have not explained revelation, or made it obvious, or brought it into a series of the other objects our knowledge. On the contrary, in establishing this and looking back at it we have described and…

from the ELCA advocacy office in Washington, D.C. – the Rev. Amy E. Reumann, Senior Director Partial expanded content from Advocacy Connections: March 2022 VAWA REAUTHORIZATION READY FOR SIGNATURE  |  FAITH NETWORKS AND STATE OF THE UNION  |  LEARN MORE ABOUT FAITH AND REPARATORY JUSTICE  |  GLOBAL COVID-19 VACCINES ACCESS  |  TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS DESIGNATIONS   VAWA REAUTHORIZATION READY FOR SIGNATURE:  Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) is ready for the president’s signature, and we thank the many Lutherans who expressed support using the ELCA Action Alert! Both Vance Blackfox (Cherokee), Director, Indigenous Ministries & Tribal Relations, and…