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Brenda N. Henry, Carnegie, PA Warm-up Questions Holidays are often seen as a time for merriment and happiness. However, not everyone is experiencing those feelings. What are some other emotions that you are/can experience during this Christmas season (i.e. frustration, sadness, loneliness)?  What are some resources that are available (in your school, in your church, in your community) to help with these feelings? When Christmas Feels Blue On Tuesday, December 13th, 2022, Stephen “tWitch” Boss – a dancer, musician, and DJ – died at the age of 40, from a self-inflected gunshot wound – suicide.  The consistent theme in the…

I wrote the following four years ago. This locus remains my primary point of theological interest. That is, how the Christian claims to know God, under what pressures, has the greatest theological, political, sociological, and ethical implications we could fathom. As you will see, beyond the programmatic entailments engaged with in the following, natural theology, and adherence to it, has clear and present impact on the daily lives of real-life people; whether personally or collectively (as a society). If it is maintained that God and His ways can be known in an abstract ground latent in human reason, consciousness, or brute…

from the ELCA advocacy office in Washington, D.C. – the Rev. Amy E. Reumann, Senior Director Partial expanded content from Advocacy Connections: November/December 2022 HOMELESSNESS AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING AWARENESS  |  GLOBAL FOOD SECURITY ACTION  |  STATUS OF TITLE 42  |  WORLD AIDS DAY DEMANDS ATTENTION  |  RESPECT FOR MARRIAGE ACT HOMELESSNESS AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING AWARENESS: In January, the ELCA Witness in Society office will be hand-delivering invitations to members of Congress to encourage lawmakers to visit Lutheran ministries actively addressing homelessness and poverty in their district. Interested Lutheran ministries which would like to host a site visit with a lawmaker…

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. | CALIFORNIA | COLORADO  | NEW MEXICO | OHIO | PENNSYLVANIA | WASHINGTON | WISCONSIN |   Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC), United Nations, New York, N.Y. – ELCA.org/lowc Christine Mangale, Director World AIDS Day 2022 This year, World AIDS Day 2022 was marked under the theme Equalize, a call on global leaders and all peoples of goodwill to recognize and address inequalities holding…

I just came across a Tweet from some random person that stated (my paraphrase): “I no longer believe in an eternal unending hell.” He said: “I understand why some still do, but why do so many who do act is if they are excited about it; as if it’s a sign that they were right, and those who rejected Christ were wrong and now will pay for it in an eternity of unending, hopeless torment?” So, of course, we are referring now to Christian universalism (CU). CU has been growing some serious legs over the last two decades, and even…

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 all experiencing storms and extreme weather conditions… For peace among the nations of the world… For those in the retail and service industries this season… For our Jewish siblings celebrating Hanukkah… For the homecoming of Brittney Griner, and for health…

When the war in Ukraine started, and thousands of refugees were crossing the border, Lucia Martonová and Jana Tabačková from the Ecumenical Pastoral Service Centre and Evangelical Church of Augsburg Confession in Slovakia, and Marika Géciová from the Reformed Mission and Diakonia met at the Slovak-Ukrainian border. They decided to help the most vulnerable people affected by the war and created the project “You Are In My Heart.” They organized a children’s therapeutic camp for 16 children from Ukraine aged 8 to 14 years who lost one or both of their parents in the war. The camp took place in…

Dr. Craig Carter continues to promote the Christian Aristotelian/Thomist theologies of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the London Baptist Confession of Faith, with particular focus on their respective doctrines of God. He just tweeted the following: If someone tells you that God has passions, remember that to say that is to go against the teaching of our reformed confessions. Presbyterians & Reformed Baptists cannot go there. “There is but one only living & true God, a most pure spirit, invisible without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working…

Dear friends in Christ, One of the great joys in my vocation as coordinator for ELCA Disability Ministry is being able to grant some of our funding, donations and other financial resources to congregations and ministries that are committed to inclusion and accessibility. As an advisory member, I thought it was awesome to hear the creative ways that grant applicants have used this funding in the past, and I can’t wait to find out what your needs, dreams and plans are now! I am excited to see how God is at work as you seek to make accessibility, inclusion, participation…

Eleanor Roosevelt, Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights, holding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Photo: FDR Library On December 10, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), written to address the atrocities committed during World War II. Since then, the United Nations and other bodies have adopted additional documents on human rights. The International Bill of Human Rights includes the UDHR, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Every year, International Human Rights Day is observed on December 10. To celebrate, we…