In the spotlight. In her July column for Living Lutheran, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton notes that the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 may have the media knocking on our doors, asking us to explain ourselves. What will we say? She reminds us that our understanding of the gospel is what makes us distinctive. Download...
Category: Congregations
July 1, 2016
What It Means To Be Lutheran
In the spotlight. In her July column for Living Lutheran, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton notes that the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 may have the media knocking on our doors, asking us to explain ourselves. What will we say? She reminds us that our understanding of the gospel is what makes us distinctive. Download...
June 9, 2016
Becoming A Place For All
With increasing diversity in our culture and growing mobility of people across and into the U.S., how can we as ELCA congregations become places that affirm the God-given dignity and personhood of everyone? What will it take? What’s our role? What’s working? Watch Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, Pastor Ruben Duran, Mikka McCracken and Pastor Matt...
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" loading="lazy" /> 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 16, 2016
Balanced 2017 Budget Approved
The Assembly approved a balanced budget for fiscal 2017 that reflects the continuing decrease in Mission Support contributions from churches. In 2015 Mission Support totaled $1.97 million, a decrease of $180,000 from 2014, reported Treasurer Janet Neff, CPA. The Synod has been responsible managing with diminishing resources, she said. Since 2010, Mission Support has declined...
May 13, 2016
Reformation 500: ‘Explore, Empower and Be Energized’
The upcoming 500th anniversary of the Reformation is a gift to the church. It’s an opportunity to explore, empower, and be energized. It’s a chance to reconnect to our deepest tradition of freedom and to reform stale and stagnant observations of a tradition that began with Luther’s fresh reading of the scriptures and the new...
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,...
March 30, 2016
LCFS Not To Renew Contracts For Most Programs
Update: A service of celebration for LCFS’ refugee work will be held Monday, April 4, 11 am, at St. Mark’s, Conshohocken. We ask for prayers as the Board of Directors of Lutheran Children and Family Service (LCFS) has voted to not renew contracts for refugee resettlement, adoption, foster care, and after-school enrichment programs managed by...
March 14, 2016
“Do Something You Never Thought You Could”
The Church didn’t cause the steady decline in religious participation over the last 50 years, says LTSP President David Lose. Massive changes have shifted the world around the church. But in holding on to what used to work church leaders have missed many of the changes, Lose said at Ministry Resource Day on campus in...
March 7, 2016
Youth Ignite Service at Helping Hands Day
Youth and adults from across our Synod will fan the flames of service to our neighbors on Helping Hands Day: Saturday, April 16, 2016 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. This year’s theme is Ignite – hearkening back to the story of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit’s coming among us in power and fire. We’ll...
March 3, 2016
Global Focus: Irente School for the Blind
Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod and the North-Eastern Diocese of Tanzania have shared a strong partnership for many years. This Lent, we invite you to become part of an exciting new chapter of this companionship with an exciting new project, Located on a beautiful mountain in Tanzania, the Irente School for the Blind is a primary school for...
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 16, 2016
How To Really Welcome Guests
In 13 years of worshiping in different congregations every week, AugsburgFortress CEO Beth Lewis has seen “the good, the bad, and the very ugly” of church hospitality. In presentations hosted by the Synod and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, Lewis offered a host of suggestions for congregations that want to enhance their hospitality, 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...
February 6, 2016
Embracing Diversity in the ELCA
In its February issue, The Lutheran focuses on multicultural congregations and their successes and struggles. You can read how truly inclusive membership requires intention and support and find resources for further conversation. In the “Deeper understandings” column, ask if multicultural ministry is a matter of faith or a fad. To help your discussion of the...
February 1, 2016
Presiding Bishop Calls for Conversation About Race
Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton has called on the ELCA’s 3.7 million members to “be the church that models for the rest of this country what it means to have these difficult conversations” about racial inequality. Eaton made her remarks during a Jan. 14 live webcast, “Confronting Racism: A Holy Yearning.” Watch the webcast recording and get...
February 1, 2016
Celebrating God’s Grace Community
Our Synod celebrated the three-church collaboration in Northeast Philadelphia known as God’s Grace Lutheran Community on Sunday (Jan. 31). St. John’s Lutheran Church, Redemption Lutheran, and St. Petri-Hope now share three pastors and a board of trustees. Pastors Dee Emmert, Dana Heiserer and Tricia Neale are called by Synod Council to serve God’s Grace. Bishop...
January 22, 2016
Lutherans Honor Dr. King
The Rev. Lamont Anthony Wells offered a dynamic sermon at the African Descent Lutheran Association, Philadelphia Chapter’s annual worship service honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Sunday, Jan. 17 at Reformation Lutheran Church in Mt. Airy. Wells is director for evangelical mission in the Metropolitan New York Synod, ELCA, and newly elected national...
January 22, 2016
Winter Storm Preparations for Churches
With a winter storm set to deliver significant snow, sleet and ice to our region again, we urge you to be prepared for the possibilities of heavy snowfall, limited travel and potential power outages. Congregations can play an important role by checking on vulnerable people in the community and opening as a “comfort station” to provide...
