MinistryLink

Rostered and lay ministers, seminarians, and Lutherans from our synod participated in the annual Chrism Service, Tuesday of Holy Week, April 4 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 renewal of ministry vows....

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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“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...

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Read the news here: Time-Sensitive–Remembering-Sandy-Hook—Christmas-Day-Worship—Generosity-Extravaganza.html

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...

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