“God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday is an opportunity to celebrate who we are as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – one church, freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbor. The suggested date for the 2016 dedicated day of service is Sunday, Sept. 11. Mark your calendars today! If your congregation cannot participate on...
Category: ELCA
July 6, 2016
God’s Work. Our Hands. Sunday
“God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday is an opportunity to celebrate who we are as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – one church, freed in Christ to serve and love our neighbor. The suggested date for the 2016 dedicated day of service is Sunday, Sept. 11. Mark your calendars today! If your congregation cannot participate on...
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 14, 2016
Presiding Bishop’s Letter on Orlando Shootings
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), has issued a letter in response to the June 12 shooting that claimed the lives of 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla. This is the deadliest mass shooting in U. S. history. In the letter Eaton states, “We...
June 13, 2016
Orlando: Christians Cannot Keep Silent
“As Christians, we turn first to Jesus” in the wake of the nation’s worst mass shooting in history at Pulse in Orlando, Florida-Bahamas Synod Bishop Robert G. Schaefer wrote in a message to that synod Monday (June 13). “But, we can no longer afford to let it end there,” he wrote. “Church, it’s time to...
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...
June 7, 2016
ELCA Advocacy Statement on Ryan Poverty Plan
Today (June 7), Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and the House of Representatives’ Task Force on Poverty, Opportunity, and Upward Mobility released a plan that will launch a bipartisan discussion on hunger and poverty and the policies required to end them. ELCA Advocacy appreciates Speaker Ryan’s leadership, and that of all who make poverty in our...
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...
January 4, 2016
Bishop Eaton: Putting the Pieces Together
In her January column for The Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton notes that “we are church together” — that is, “some days.” But “many days and in many ways we aren’t.” This year, she says, will be dedicated to looking at the future directions and priorities of this church. The complete column follows: Putting the...
November 24, 2015
ELCA Bishop Supports Refugee Resettlement
“We are shocked and dismayed by the terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut, Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East, but also in Nigeria, Kenya, Bangladesh and the Philippines,” ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton writes in a Nov. 18 message to the church. “Yet, we Christians and all others of good will cannot let fear...
October 15, 2015
Bishop Eaton: What is ‘Lutheran’?
What is ‘Lutheran’? Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton asks this question in her October column for The Lutheran. What we eat, what hymns we sing, what jokes we tell, what color we are … none of this binds us together or makes us Lutheran, she says. Our theology must define us. And it’s all about God’s grace, and...
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 10, 2015
ELCA Partners to Aid Refugees in Europe
As Europe continues to absorb hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East this summer, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is working with Lutheran companion churches and partners in Europe to assist people seeking refuge now and to meet their future needs. In a Sept. 9 “e-Alert” to ELCA members, the Rev....
September 3, 2015
Bishop Eaton: If God is Enough
We can be free from attachments to our plans, self-will, success By Elizabeth A. Eaton From time to time I am invited to celebrate congregational anniversaries. It’s wonderful to see the church in action and to meet members from all across the country. It is also interesting to see the variety of sizes and architectural...
July 27, 2015
Confronting Racism
Join ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton and William B. Horne II, an ELCA member from Clearwater, Fla., for a live webcast conversation on the complexity and implications of racism Aug. 6 at 9 p.m. EDT (8 p.m. CDT). Through its social statement – “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture” – ELCA members have expressed this church’s calling to confront racism...
July 1, 2015
Presiding Bishop on Supreme Court Marriage Decision
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), offered a pastoral letter June 30 to the 3.8 million members of the denomination in response to the recent Supreme Court ruling that same-sex couples may now exercise the right to marry. The full text of the statement follows: Dear...
June 19, 2015
ELCA Leaders Express Grief Over SC Shootings
CHICAGO (ELCA) – The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), released a statement June 18 in response to a shooting where nine people were killed at a historic African American church in Charleston, S.C. Local authorities are calling the killing racially motivated. “It has been a long season...
May 12, 2015
Bouman Shares ELCA Story
“When I was a young boy, I once went fishing with my grandfather in northern Wisconsin,” began the Rev. Dr. Stephen Bouman, and at one point his grandfather simply said, “‘the only death to be afraid of is already behind you in baptism’…and then he went back to fishing.” With that reflection Bouman, executive director...
April 29, 2015
Worship: The hub of our week
In her May column for The Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton reminds us that worship is at the heart of all we do. Despite competition, it should be the “space of our regrouping.” Read her column at www.thelutheran.org/article/article.cfm?article_id=12544.
April 1, 2015
Eaton: We Need to Talk About Race
Citing recent high-profile events in Ferguson, Mo., Staten Island, Charlottesville and across the U.S., the Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the ELCA, notes that “we are not living in a post-racial society.” In a March 25 letter and video message to the 3.8 million-member church, Eaton expressed the need for conversation – not only...
February 19, 2015
Thank You! For Mission Support
Thanks to the generosity of many of our congregations, there was an increase in 2014 in Mission Support for Synod and Churchwide ministry after years of declining or flat support. Mission Support from congregations totaled $2,148,000 — $48,000 over budget and $10,000 more than 2013, but still well below the $2.7 million received in 2006....
