Vitality Check-in Call Join the Vitality Team Saturday April 15th at 10:30am for a conversation around helping your congregation deepen its sense of vitality. Members of the vitality team will be present to talk about vitality and present ideas on ways your congregation can focus on the work of growing relationships. All are welcome as we...
Category: News
March 17, 2023
Vitality Updates for Spring 2023
Vitality Check-in Call Join the Vitality Team Saturday April 15th at 10:30am for a conversation around helping your congregation deepen its sense of vitality. Members of the vitality team will be present to talk about vitality and present ideas on ways your congregation can focus on the work of growing relationships. All are welcome as we...
March 16, 2023
A History-Making Bishop
Editor’s Note: In May, 2018, our Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod elected the Rev. Patricia Ann Curtis Davenport as the first African-American woman elected as a bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She is also the second woman to serve as our bishop. The first was her predecessor, the Rev. Claire Schenot Burkat. Dr. Addie...
March 1, 2023
Chrism Service April 4
Rostered and lay ministers, seminarians, and Lutherans from our synod are invited to the annual Chrism Service, Tuesday of Holy Week, April 4 at 10 a.m. at the Schaeffer-Ashmead Chapel on the Philadelphia campus of United Lutheran Seminary. This traditional service of Word and Sacrament includes the blessing of oil for anointing, healing prayer, and...
February 27, 2023
Black History Month: Pioneering Deaconesses
Do you know the name Emma Francis? She was the first deaconess of African descent to serve in North America and the first Lutheran deaconess to come from the West Indies.1 She was born in St. Kitts in 1876, received teacher training at a Moravian College there, and received her missionary and nursing training in...
February 21, 2023
Black History Month: More Lutheran Roots
We’ve learned more about the full work of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg at Augustus Lutheran church, Trappe, welcoming Americans of African descent. Muhlenberg arrived in British North America in 1742. At the consecration of the original Augustus Lutheran Church building on October 6, 1745, which is still standing and in use today, Muhlenberg celebrated adult baptism...
February 16, 2023
Registration Fees Waived for Some MYLE and tAble Participants
It’s with great excitement that we announce the registration fees for the first 1,000 registrants for the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event (MYLE) and the first 200 registrants for the tAble will be waived by the Gathering for the 2024 cycle. “As crucial parts of the ministry of the Gathering, we are thrilled to be able...
February 16, 2023
Youth Ministry Extravaganza – Enough!
The Extravaganza, an annual gathering of children, youth and family ministry leaders from across the country, took place Feb. 3-6 in Anaheim, Calif. The event was hosted by the ELCA Youth Ministry Network. This year’s theme, “Enough” allowed participants to consider the many ways that we need to think about the word enough: I am...
February 8, 2023
God, Guns, and the Super Bowl
By The Rev. Kayla Sadowy Right after the eagles win the NFC championship, I noticed social media posts from news outlets, influencers, and politicians hailing the decline in gun violence when the Eagles win. According to an October 30, 2022 OpEd article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, there were no shootings at all the weekends of...
February 7, 2023
Black History Month: Lutheran Roots
By Dr. Addie J. Butler Persons of African descent became involved with the Lutheran Church in the Northern colonies as early as Palm Sunday, 16691, when a free Black man (who took the name Emmanuel at his baptism) was admitted into membership in a Lutheran congregation in New York. Think of it! That was just...
January 31, 2023
Nominations for Commission for a New Lutheran Church
Last summer the Churchwide Assembly voted to establish a commission to recommend potential changes in the ELCA’s constitution and governance to reflect what Lutheran witness might look like in the 21st Century. Nominations are now open for appointment to this body, which will include three persons from each region of the church (35 members total). Potential...
January 31, 2023
Investing in Ministry: New Faith Communities
“What is exciting for me is that I get to discern with the people God has called to be His people [and] journey with them to yield the Holy Spirit call on how to be followers of Jesus…However, they may express what it means to be a church in this time and age,” says Pastor...
January 30, 2023
Hunger Leaders’ Legislative Lunch and Learn
From Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania: Dear Pennsylvania Hunger Leader, Thank you for the work you do to feed the hungry in body and spirit, as we have been fed by Christ. We know that although the sense of urgency created by the pandemic has passed, the hunger crisis is not over. In fact, with...
December 1, 2022
MinistryLink News for December 1, 2022
Read the news here: Time-Sensitive–Remembering-Sandy-Hook—Christmas-Day-Worship—Generosity-Extravaganza.html
November 10, 2022
MinistryLink News for November 10, 2022
Read the news here: Time-Sensitive–Christmas-Day-Worship—Generosity-Extravaganza.html
November 9, 2022
Bishop Eaton: Christians Against Christian Nationalism
Christian Nationalism identifies human-made governments as lockstep with God’s will and seeks to privilege Christians, typically only white Christians. This type of ideology is not only dangerous but distorts the difference between holding government accountable to God as opposed to identified strictly with God’s will. We must stand against Christian Nationalism and ask that you...
November 1, 2022
MinistryLink News for November 1, 2022
Read the news here: Time-Sensitive–Holy-Closure—Anoint-the-Vote—-Anti-Racism-Education.html
October 31, 2022
Holy Closure: Bethany, Roxborough
Remembering in prayer the saints at Bethany Lutheran Church Bethany Lutheran Church, a congregation of the Central Philadelphia Conference, will hold their final worship service on Sunday, November 20, 2022 at 3:00 pm with Bishop Davenport presiding. Rostered ministers and members of the SEPA Synod are welcome to attend the final service at Bethany as we...
October 28, 2022
MinistryLink News for October 28, 2022
Read the news here: https://conta.cc/3SE62EU
October 27, 2022
After Tornado, UDLC is a Community Rock
When an EF-2 tornado struck sections of their community on September 1, 2021, the people of Upper Dublin Lutheran Church went into action. The winds and flooding spawned by remnants of Hurricane Ida left 140 families displaced and 1,400 homes with severe damage. Almost immediately the church became a hub to distribute supplies and dispense...
October 19, 2022
MinistryLink News for October 19, 2022
Read the latest MinistryLink e-news (Redirect to https://conta.cc/3SdNuev)
