Tag: Confession

08.01.25 – Phoenix, Arizona – Friday’s plenaries end with an evening prayer at the 2025 Churchwide Assembly in Phoenix. On Friday evening August 1 as part of the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly, the assembly’s worship included a confession and repentance for the sins of patriarchy and sexism. This was, in part, to fulfill an implementing resolution to the 2019 ELCA social statement, Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action. As we reflect upon  this moment, it’s important to consider the meanings of confession and repentance. The following background is provided in the resource Forgive Us and Transform Us for the…

Even as a Christian, nearly 30yrs ago, I went through a season of extreme spiritual and intellectual doubt. It was as if the heavens were bronze, as if closed. That in my attempt to think and talk with God, it felt as if my words and thoughts would only make it as high as this bronze ceiling; as if the God I was ostensibly worshipping was merely a projection of my own wants and wishes. But I came to realize—through God’s grace and persistence—that in fact the Heavens are always open; indeed, that the veil of the flesh of Christ’s…

The following reflections are the foundation of comments shared at the “Interfaith Vigil and Rally: Faith Acting on Gun Violence” by the Rev. Amy E. Reumann on June 8, 2022, hosted by Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington, D.C. by the Rev. Amy E. Reumann, ELCA Senior Director, Witness in Society I don’t know what tone to strike today. Is it to be a deep wail of grief and sadness at the blood that has been spilled, the lives lost, the communities forever changed by gun violence? Is it to be cries of holy rage at our leaders in…