The ELCA introduces “Resourceful Servants,” an initiative to encourage habits that strengthen and sustain individual and congregational financial wellness and growth. The goal is to help rostered ministers move toward financial wellness early in and throughout their ministry developing the skills needed to manage household finances, assist congregations in the management of finances, teach stewardship...
Category: ELCA
August 28, 2017
ELCA Launches ‘Resourceful Servants’
The ELCA introduces “Resourceful Servants,” an initiative to encourage habits that strengthen and sustain individual and congregational financial wellness and growth. The goal is to help rostered ministers move toward financial wellness early in and throughout their ministry developing the skills needed to manage household finances, assist congregations in the management of finances, teach stewardship...
August 28, 2017
Bishop Eaton’s Leadership Initiative
ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reminds us, “It’s not only the job of our seminaries and universities to identify and raise up leaders in the church. This is something that belongs to all of us.” The Leadership Initiative encourages all of us to seek out and inspire gifted people in our congregations and communities to consider a call...
August 1, 2017
Bishop Eaton: Laborers in the Vineyard
Reflecting on the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard for LivingLutheran.com, Bishop Eaton says that grace “is not something we deserve or earn or can work for. We are all utterly dependent upon God’s mercy, and God is very prodigal with mercy. The grace that all the laborers received—those who worked all day and...
July 10, 2017
Live In The Freedom of Christ
“In May the [Lutheran World Federation (LWF)] met in assembly in Windhoek, Namibia. Lutherans from Africa; Asia; Latin America and the Caribbean; North America; and Western, Central and Eastern Europe gathered to worship, sing, deliberate, study and dance,” ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton writes in her July column in Living Lutheran. “We are 145 member...
June 12, 2017
Bp. Eaton: Ministry In Charged Times
In her June column for Living Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reflects on serving the neighbor in politically charged times. She reminds us that “active participation in public life and the duty of government to care for its people, especially the most vulnerable, have been part of the Lutheran movement since its beginning.” Read her...
March 2, 2017
Bishop Eaton: The Good Samaritan
In her March column for Living Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton ponders the parable of the good Samaritan, reminding us that our new life in Christ leads us to answer a different question—not “Who is my neighbor?” but “How are we neighbor?” Read her column in English at livinglutheran.org/2017/02/the-good-shepherd or in Spanish at livinglutheran.org/2017/02/el-buen-samaritano. The...
February 6, 2017
Bishop Eaton: It’s Not Up to Us
Whose work is it? In her February column for Living Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton lifts up the need for well-trained pastors and deacons. Where do we find these potential leaders? She says it’s the “work of the entire church.” Read her column in English at http://www.livinglutheran.org/2017/02/its-not-what-we-do/. Or in Spanish at http://www.livinglutheran.org/2017/02/no-es-lo-que-hacemos/. By Bishop Elizabeth...
November 3, 2016
“I Was A Stranger…”
I was a stranger and you welcomed me …. (Matthew 25:35). In her November column in Living Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton reminds us that migration has been part of the story of God’s people from the beginning. She urges us to “welcome the stranger, seeing him of her as a fellow traveler, a companion...
October 12, 2016
Time To Update Your Constitution
Your congregation’s Constitution is a vital statement about who you are as a community of faith, and your interdependence within the ELCA. The 2016 Churchwide Assembly made important changes to required provisions to the Model Constitution that should be included in your church’s documents, according to the Rev. Karl M. Richard, Synod secretary. (Read his...
October 6, 2016
A Big Look at the Small Catechism
Several years ago my husband’s bishop tried initiating a diocese-wide call to the catechumenate to engage those preparing for confirmation in a period of study and formation. We call it confirmation class or catechism, something generations of Lutherans have gone through. But this was a new experience for the Episcopalians in his diocese. He set...
August 22, 2016
Key Actions Of Churchwide Assembly
Gathering under the theme “Freed and Renewed in Christ,” nearly 1,000 voting members — including 18 from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod — met in New Orleans Aug. 8-13 for the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Full days included worship, legislative action, reports from Bishop Eaton and Churchwide officers and units, updates on ministries, workshops, Bible study, fellowship...
August 16, 2016
ELCA elects vice president
William B. Horne II of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Clearwater, Fla., was elected vice president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) by the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Horne was elected on the fourth ballot with 565 votes to 175 votes for Cheryl G. Stuart of St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Tallahassee, Fla., and 161...
August 16, 2016
ELCA approves Word and Service roster
The 2016 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly, by a vote of 811 to 55, approved adoption of the roster of Ministry of Word and Service. Beginning Jan. 1, 2017, associates in ministry, deaconesses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and diaconal ministers will be a single, unified roster of Ministry of...
August 16, 2016
ELCA presiding bishop reflects on work of the church and looks to future priorities
In her report to the 2016 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly, ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton reflected on the ELCA’s work over the past three years and lifted up future priorities for the church. Eaton said much of her focus the past three years has been on the “how and why...
August 11, 2016
ELCA Approves Lutheran-Catholic Ecumenical Document
The 2016 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Churchwide Assembly took several significant steps Wednesday moving forward the mission of this church as a church for the sake of the world. By a vote of 931 to 9, the assembly overwhelmingly accepted the “Declaration on the Way,” a unique ecumenical document that marks a path toward...
August 10, 2016
ELCA Assembly On Ecumenism, Refugees, Budget
Recognizing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) as a Book of Faith church, ELCA Vice President Carlos Peña reflected on the 10th chapter of Luke as he opened his Aug. 9 final report to the 2016 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” Peña said. “I think sometimes that’s because there is so...
August 9, 2016
2017 Health Cost Rise Lowest in 4 Years
Portico is taking its next wellness reformation step — introducing Care Coordinators to help ELCA-Primary health plan members navigate the complicated health care landscape and purchase care with an eye to both quality and cost. This innovation is helping Portico keep the 2017 ELCA-Primary baseline health contribution increase the lowest in four years. Over the...
August 2, 2016
Bishop Eaton: A Proclivity For Paradox
Wow, Lutherans love paradox! Law and gospel. Saint and sinner. Free and bound. David Swartling, former ELCA secretary, often noted that we are a “both and church” in an “either or world.” This proclivity for paradox, or at least the recognition that this is part of the Lutheran tradition, was often cited as a strength...
July 20, 2016
Bishop Eaton Issues Statement On Police Shootings
CHICAGO (July 20, 2016) – The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), has released a statement in response to the shootings in Baton Rouge, La., and Dallas that killed eight police officers. Eaton’s statement follows: My soul is bereft of peace: I have forgotten what happiness is. (Lamentations 3:17) Too...
July 8, 2016
Bishop Eaton Responds To Shootings
CHICAGO (ELCA) – In a July 7 video message responding to the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., and Philando Castile in suburban St. Paul, Minn., the Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), urged members to “be present in our communities.” “We are killing...
