The Rev. Elizabeth A. Platz was ordained in 1970 at the University of Maryland's Memorial Chapel, where she serves today.

As the new academic year begins, the Rev. Elizabeth Platz is welcoming students at the University of Maryland in College Park – as she has has for nearly 45 years. On November 22 this year, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) will mark the 40th anniversary of her ordination – when her theological training and years as an assistant Lutheran chaplain at the university led to a benchmark ordination — the first time a woman was ordained a Lutheran pastor in North America.

“My congregation keeps changing,” Chaplain Platz said. “To be able to be with young people and watch them change over four years and mature — it’s exciting.”

Those whose lives she has touched speak highly of Chaplain Platz’s influence. “What she brings to the church is the notion of church leadership as servanthood — both a servant of the gospel and the people of the church — in little practical ways and in larger ways,” said the Rev. Richard H. Graham, bishop of the Metro D.C. Synod and longtime friend of Chaplain Platz’s. Read more about her ministry from church leaders and former students in this ELCA News Release (8/23/10).

A theme we’ve heard previously from Pr. Sevimli in local forums turns up in an earlier Call & Response entry. “I’d like those of us who are part of the church to speak to those who aren’t,” she urges. The post (6/28/10), ”A (radical?) proposal – ask people why they don’t come to church,” was reprinted by The Christian Century magazine (7/27/10).

To keep up with her future contributions, as well as those of other leaders, subscribe to Call & Response from the Duke Divinity Web site.

We are working on putting together forums in our synod dedicated to this issue. The first will be Thursday Aug. 26, 7 pm at Christ Lutheran Church (5101 16th Street, NW). At this forum, we will discuss what Kairos means and why this document is so important and necessary. We also hope to address the following questions:

1. Does the Kairos Palestine Document represent a commitment of Palestinian Christians to finding peace, justice, and reconciliation with their brothers and sisters through the way of the Christ we follow together?
2. Do we, in solidarity with the churches in Palestine and the Church of Christ throughout the world, affirm the belief that the mission of the Church is prophetic, to speak the Word of God courageously, honestly and lovingly in the local context and in the midst of daily events?
3. Do we affirm the path of non-violent resistance to oppression which Kairos Palestine has set forth as the means by which the Body of Christ is called to act and live?

Contributor Nathan Rich is a member of the Middle East Working Group.

Of course, for many people these questions are fraught with fear and suspicion. We hope to address some of these concerns through conversation and dialogue. I hope you will be able to join us. Please do not hesitate to contact one of us if you have any questions.

In Christ,
Nathan Rich, for Middle East Working Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/elcadcmewg

Members of the Middle East Working Group: the Rev. Conrad Braaten, Dora Johnson, Jean Martensen, Nathan Rich, the Rev. Russell Siler, Kathryn Tobias, Paul Verduin, the Rev. Paul Wee

On a horrible, weather-delayed flight from Chicago to Baltimore recently, I sat next to a man from India – a dentist. He was coming to Baltimore to visit his son.
 
When the man from India asked what I did for a living and I told him, he was very excited. “Oh,” he said, “a holy man. You must pray and meditate a great deal.” I told him I tried to be faithful in these things.
 
Then he began to tell me about his religious life. He was from near Delhi, he said, and his temple was the finest anywhere. The swami was a great man, well known and very busy, he said, but also eager to speak to anyone. “Whenever you talk to him, he really helps you,” said the dentist. “Any time of the night or day you come to my temple there are always people meditating,” he said “They are glad to see you, even if you stranger.
 
“Because I am a Hindu, I am a better person,” said the dentist. And he did in fact seem to be the only person on the plane who wasn’t muttering about how awful the trip was and about how United Airlines should be banned from interstate commerce.
 
I found the whole experience to be challenging and extraordinarily humbling. I usually have tried to avoid talking to strangers when I travel, but I am done with that. I have been praying lately that I can learn to be as faithful in speaking for Jesus Christ as this man from India was in speaking to me about Krishna.
 
I hope you have a wonderful summer, that you have the chance to rest and ponder the things that really matter to you. I hope you have the chance to tell some stranger that because you are a Christian, you are a better person. I hope that Jesus Christ is raised up and praised among us always, for the glory of God and the salvation of the world. 

Blessings in Jesus’ name,
Dick Graham
 
The Rev. Richard H. Graham
Bishop
Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

A coalition of D.C. congregations, including Augustana Lutheran, Christ Lutheran, First Trinity Lutheran, Grace Lutheran, Luther Place and St. Matthew’s Lutheran and others, is working together to eliminate the stigma around HIV/AIDS.

The church coalition has planned two events on June 27.

1. HIV testing (mouth swab) for anyone at Christ Lutheran* (noon-3 p.m.) or St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church** (1-3:00 p.m.)
2. Youth-oriented (age 10-14) discussion/engagement project on stigma and HIV at Christ Lutheran* (12:15-1:15 p.m.) – Run by representatives from Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area and Metro TeenAIDS; parents and youth leaders are welcome.

Half-page flyers describing each event are available from the synod Web site.

* Christ Lutheran is located at 5101 16th St.,NW
** St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal is located at 1525 Newton St., NW

The synod’s Creation Care Team  brings the event to our attention, and the Rev. Kendall B. Summers, pastor of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Temple Hills, Md., will lead prayers at the observance in Annapolis extending from City Dock at 3:30 p.m., also featuring speakers and music. “My hope is that while we are all angry and hurt,” said Pr. Summers of reaction to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, “that we hear the voice of God calling us to work for the good and to help shine light of hope and a way of movement toward better environmental care through the darkness.”

The movement started in Florida, when thousands joined hands on February 13, 2010, from Jacksonville to Miami Beach and Key West to Pensacola Beach, each against oil drilling in Florida’s waters. The mission of “Hands Across the Sand” includes opposition to offshore oil drilling and championing clean energy and renewables. Learn more from the “Hands Across the Sand” Web site.

Information about organizing a local event is available on that site, or phone Pr. Summers about the Annapolis event at 410-991-0293.

Matt Berg found a way to create medical records for children using a mobile phone's text feature.

Berg, 32, has spent considerable time in Africa, according to an ELCA News Release, perfecting the use of simple mobile phone technology to create a system to monitor the health of children in Africa. Berg’s mobile phone work is through a health component of the Millennium Villages project, called ChildCount+.

Learn more about Berg’s work and the attention which led him to be named one of Time magazine’s 100 people who most affect our world in “Lutheran’s Mobile Phone Technology Project Earns ‘Time 100′ Honor” (6/9/10).

And look for opportunities to do good with what you see and know as a child created in the image of God.

Introduced to the ELCA’s tagline during last summer’s ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans, “God’s work, our hands” became the artwork’s central theme.

“My youth group… spent almost 300 hours overall designing and working on this project. One of our adult church members is an artist, and he took our ideas and helped us develop them into the final design,” said Marial Shilling. “The printed words around the frame are from Deuteronomy 24:19 – ‘…that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.’ “

Ideas discussed at the workshop include:

• Start with Scripture
• Tie in with youth work
• Make global connections
• Use facilities creatively – increase rentals, install solar roofs, more
• Use visual and oral testimonies about natural disasters
• Lift up the blessing of simplicity – especially during an economic downturn
• Hold yard sales – reuse reuse reuse
• Bring it home

Find more ”Creation Care“ ideas under the “Ministries” tab of this Web site.

Do we patiently and carefully gather our resources, save things and hold onto stuff, so that in the right situation we can give it all away in joy and in a heartbeat? Or are we careful and frugal just because it seems safe, and because really we don’t know any other way to be? I wonder sometimes if care and caution, ours and other people’s too, aren’t slowly driving the joy and excitement out of the churches we love. I wonder if we are the kind of people who would pour perfume on Jesus’ feet, or if we’re the kind of people who would stand at the edge of the party and figure up the expense. 

Whatever is the case with us, we should know that we worship a God who is on the side of extravagance. When God chose to redeem us, God did not do this carefully or from a safe distance. God redeemed us by coming here among us, born in exactly the same way that each of us was born, and then dying worse than almost any of us will have to die. God chose the grand, messy gesture, the cross, the empty tomb. God did not hold back with us, and if our Lenten seasons are sometimes very quiet and thoughtful, we know what lies behind Lent is the memory of a horrible battle that gave way to a wonderful, wild victory.

Read the full text.