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from the ELCA advocacy office in Washington, D.C. – the Rev. Amy E. Reumann, Senior Director Partial expanded content from Advocacy Connections: September 2022  INFLATION REDUCTION ACT  |  FISCAL YEAR ENDING  |  U.S. DISASTER RESPONSE IMPROVEMENTS  |  REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT  |  WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON HUNGER   INFLATION REDUCTION ACT:  The president signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, which is the culmination of months of advocacy on important priorities with Lutherans and partners from every corner of our networks. In addition to significant climate provisions, the Act will make health care more accessible for more people by continuing the Affordable…

“Quienes cruzan por nuestro país para llegar a un mejor lugar para vivir son seres humanos con necesidades que comen, que beben y que necesitan descansar. No permitamos que el rechazo y la xenofobia sean más visibles que los grandes actos de justicia y amor de Dios” —Moisés Pérez Espino, Estudios Bíblicos; Antiguo Testamento y Migración (page 52). “Those who cross through our country to get to a better place to live are human beings with needs who eat, who drink and who need to rest. Let us not allow rejection and xenophobia to be more visible than God’s great…

Theology ultimately should be a very concrete thing, at least for the Protestant Christian. We are people of the Word of God; we are people who have been radically brought into the life of God by a deep sense of the theology of God’s Word as that has confronted us in the face of a man from Nazareth. It is this Word-grounded reality upon which we, then, as Christians think a God-world / world-God relation; that is, through the analogy of the hypostatic union, of the Theanthropos Godman, Jesus Christ. And it is as we have come to know this…

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. Intercession prompts: For communities In Puerto Rico and the Caribbean dealing with the damage caused by Hurricane Fiona… For communities in Alaska in the wake of Typhoon Merbok… For communities In Japan in the wake of Typhoon Nanmadol… For communities in Papua New…

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. Intercession prompts: For those suffering and battling wildfires… For peaceful transitions of power, especially in the United Kingdom… For an end to violence between nations, especially Russia/Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, Eritrea/Ethiopia, and Armenia/Azerbaijan… For those in the path of Typhoon Muifa… For congregational council presidents…

Barth’s theology is often tagged as postmetaphysical in line with something like Kant’s, and more to the point, post-Kantian mediating theologians like Albrecht Ritschl, Wilhelm Hermann et al. But this is overwrought in the sense that Barth might be a trained modern theologian, nevertheless he is conditioned more by his reliance on the antique tradition found in the patristic past, and into the modern post reformed orthodox development of Protestant theology in Western Europe. Because of his influences we get a smattering, as Bruce McCormack might say, of a Barth who is both Orthodox and Modern. In this post we…

Issue 84 of Administration Matters Stewardship Kaleidoscope: Sept. 26-28 Join us online or in person in Savannah, Ga., to hear practical stewardship tips from outstanding plenary and workshop leaders: • New York Times bestselling author A.J. Jacobs, whose numerous books include The Year of Living Biblically and My Life as an Experiment: One Man’s Humble Quest to Improve Himself. • The Rev. Dawn Hyde, pastor at the thriving Downtown Church in Columbia, S.C. • The Rev. Michael Bos, senior minister at Marble Collegiate Church and author of A Church Beyond Belief: The Search for Belonging and the Religious Future. Register…

Happy National Hispanic Heritage Month! As we celebrate, I can’t help reflecting on what is being celebrated: independence, legacy and identity. As far as my own identity, I  grew up, like many Puerto Ricans, hearing the poems and songs that claim we all have a Black grandma hidden away somewhere. There was this shared idea among the people in my life that, no matter how hard we try to hide it, somewhere in our DNA we are all Black.   However, I wouldn’t attribute this to my other hispanic-identifying compatriots. We may share a similar history of colonial conquest, building…

For Barth dogmatic theology is eschatological, dynamic, personal, and scandalously particular to the person and work of God in Jesus Christ. That is why the work of dogmatics is semper reformanda per the ground and grammar of God’s triune life in Jesus Christ. The work of dogmatic theology is a Petrine ‘growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ’ in ‘whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.’ This implies that dogmatic theology should never be stifled by static reception or repristination. As Christians, theologians, we aren’t engaged in an impersonal arid work of dialectical analysis, per…

Scott Moore, Erfurt, Germany Warm-up Question How can good come from evil?   Can you give an example? Heavenly Mansions Mackenzie Scott, novelist and former wife to Jeff Bezos, both of Amazon fame, is increasing her reputation for generosity with a significant donation to the California Community Foundation. This week she donated two mansions in Beverly Hills estimated at worth around $ 55 million. The foundation announced that 90% of the proceeds will go toward providing grants for affordable housing. The remaining 10% is slated to be used for programs for integration of immigrants.  At the end of 2020, Scott’s net…