“I found my faith in the forgotten places, where hope seems like an intruder—homeless, mired in alcoholism and seemingly alone. The truth is it found me at the end of my rope,” says Lenny Duncan, a candidate for ordained ministry and member of Temple, Havertown, in Living Lutheran magazine. “I’m a Lutheran because my life...
Category: Faith in action
June 9, 2016
I’m a Lutheran: Lenny Duncan
“I found my faith in the forgotten places, where hope seems like an intruder—homeless, mired in alcoholism and seemingly alone. The truth is it found me at the end of my rope,” says Lenny Duncan, a candidate for ordained ministry and member of Temple, Havertown, in Living Lutheran magazine. “I’m a Lutheran because my life...
May 26, 2016
Living Gospel: A Firm Foundation
Pastor Linda Manson and Living Gospel Ministries, our newest faith community, are giving people newly returned from incarceration a sense of self-worth and help re-integrating with society. “It’s important to me that the people who come to be in ministry with us feel loved and cared for,” Pastor Manson says. Building up self-worth undergirds the work Living...
May 20, 2016
$22K Raised For Flint Water Crisis…So Far
_rfisher@sepa.org-sepia-150x150.jpg" class="alignleft wp-post-image" alt="" decoding="async" /> The offering at the 2016 Synod Assembly Communion Service of more than $5,400 was directed to the work of our domestic partner synod in Southeast Michigan in response to the Flint water crisis. This brings the total raised so far from our Synod to $22,655. Bishop Donald Kreiss called the gift “a true indicator of...
May 7, 2016
Forward Together In Faith: New Ways of Being Church
In our 21st Century, post-9/11, globalized world full of “nones” and “dones,” what draws people to church? “This is a Kairos moment,” says the Rev. Bryan Penman, when God’s grace leads us to new ways of being the Church. The Forward Together in Faith campaign focuses on supporting congregations as they reform and become networkers,...
April 29, 2016
Bishop Welcomes New Refugee Partner
Pennsylvania Lutherans have an long history of stepping up to help resettle refugees arriving in our area. This life-transforming work will continue despite the decision by Lutheran Children and Family Services in Pennsylvania to bring their resettlement work to a close. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is partnering with Bethany Christian Services to manage...
February 18, 2016
‘Sometimes, Our People Are The Ones We Have Never Met’
Pastor Thomas Rusert doesn’t drink coffee — except for Thursdays when he shares coffee and “Free Prayer” with people who stop in a Doylestown coffee shop. “One brisk October morning, a man I had not met walked through the ever-swinging door of the local Starbucks. Amari, from West Philadelphia, had business at the courthouse in...
February 9, 2016
‘Dust Is Not the Final Word’
The crosses marked on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday are signs of both life and death. The ashes suggest our eventual return too the dust, but “the dust is not the final word,” says Welcome Church Pastor Violet Little. At an Ash Wednesday service on Logan Park in 2013, Pastor Violet told her flock “What...
February 9, 2016
Welcome Church Shelters ‘Women of the Well’
The Welcome Church is collaborating with a number of partners to provide nighttime housing for women experiencing homelessness in Center City. The shelter, called “the Well,” will open at the Church of the Crucifixion at 8th and Bainbridge Streets on Sunday, Feb. 14. It will offer a place for gathering and renewal from 7:30 pm...
September 28, 2015
LDR Gives $1.9M to Nepal Earthquake Relief
Thanks to your generosity, Lutheran Disaster Response has collected more than $1.9 million to respond directly to the Nepal Area Earthquakes. Together, we were able to provide $527,700 to respond to the immediate needs of the people and communities affected, and we will continue to walk with our brothers and sisters in Nepal to rebuild...
September 22, 2015
Celebrating the Parkway as Home
While tourists strolled and workmen set up huge video screens for Pope Francis’ open air Mass, Welcome Church celebrated the “sacred ground” along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway as home to a number of Philadelphia’s unhoused persons. Participants sprinkled the ground with water that had been taken from the Logan Circle fountain and blessed. The Rev....
September 15, 2015
LCS Sponsors Christmas Ingathering
December 6, 2015 @ 1 pm to 2:30 pm For 48 years, SEPA congregations have banded together with an “Ingathering” of gifts serving people in need, locally and globally, with a variety of holiday gift donations. Working together, we have the capacity to serve more people in need than we can alone. This year’s ingathering...
May 18, 2015
Bishops Call for Education Equity
“The area I serve, the five counties of Southeastern Pennsylvania has the distinction of having the highest spending district per student and also the highest poverty district,” Bishop Claire Burkat said at a press conference in Harrisburg in which three Pennsylvania bishops called on the legislature to find an equitable way to fund schools in the...
April 1, 2015
Transforming a Container into a Clinic
A large, red shipping container sits in the parking lot of the Lutheran Church of God’s Love in Newtown waiting for Saturday mornings. That’s when team members open it up and continue work on its transformation into a medical clinic that will serve a community on the outskirts of Kisumu, Kenya, Africa. The idea first...
March 18, 2015
NE Church Helps Evacuated Neighbors
When a four-alarm fire broke out on Academy Road in Northeast Philadelphia Tuesday, evacuated residents were taken in for a time by St. David’s Lutheran Church. Kudos to St. David’s for being ambassadors for Christ in the neighborhood! Does your church have a plan for how to serve your community in case of a disaster...
January 22, 2015
Synod Celebrates Dr. King
Despite icy roadways and heavy rain the Synod’s service celebrating the life and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was held last Sunday (Jan. 18) at Tabor Lutheran Church. The Rev. Dr. Mark Kelly Tyler of Mother Bethel AME Church preached an outstanding sermon, and the Reformation Choir rocked the house. Participants left blessed...
November 21, 2014
We’re Stronger Together…Forming Candidates
Do you know how we, together, identify and form tomorrow’s church professionals? “We’re blessed that the Synod’s Candidacy process is evaluative, supportive and formative,” says senior Seminarian Kat Steinly. “SEPA really tries to bring candidates together to build relationships,” says Kat, who grew up at Trinity, Perkasie. The Synod is very supportive of the contributions...
October 20, 2014
Worldwide Ministry In Our Back Yard
Almost every product we touch each day comes to us via the hands of seafarers from around the world. This holiday season Seamen’s Church Institute is asking your help to say “thank you” to these workers by providing more than 2,000 Ditty Bags to seafarers who come to our local ports. You can help. Download...
September 15, 2014
A Growing Approach to Food Insecurity
From the seeds that planted a garden to help a local food pantry, Lutheran Church of the Resurrection (LCR) in Yardley is nurturing an ever-widening circle of ministry to people experiencing food insecurity. “God keeps putting opportunities in front of us to serve the hungry and the homeless,” says Diane Casey, LCR’s coordinator of serving...
August 5, 2014
“An Undercover Force For Good”
What are you doing on Sunday, Sept. 7 — “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday? “We do the work of serving our neighbors and making the world a better place every day — we’re kind of an undercover force for good,” Presiding Bishop Eaton says in a video message. “But on ‘God’s work. Our hands.’ Sunday...
May 13, 2014
‘Be Communities of Discernment’
“To do God’s work with our hands, we need to know what God is about,” the Rev. Dr. Mark S. Hanson told the 2014 Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod Assembly in his keynote address. “We need to be communities of discernment,” the former ELCA presiding bishop said. To do that, “we need to be fluent in the...
