Want another reason to hand $1 to a Street Sense vendor this month? Helping our community overcome the HIV/AIDS epidemic is pledged in “An Open Pastoral Letter to the Residents of Washington, DC from Your Lutheran Neighbors” published in the newspaper’s current edition.*
Last year, a group of ELCA Metro D.C. Synod congregations and others stepped forward with the “God’s People Are Tested” initiative. Pastors and members led by example and learned their own HIV status, plus facilitated testing for community members, too.
“Today, we declare our commitment to tackle the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS and to educate our congregations on the importance of HIV testing,” says the recently-published letter**, taking the message from the initiative to a wider audience, in a community with infection rates rivaling “countries considered to be severely affected by this disease.”
Street Sense, with the mission of providing economic opportunities for people experiencing homelessness, was selected for placement of the letter for a couple of reasons. “It was our desire to make sure that the money we had to spend went to people who needed it,” said the Rev. Richard Graham, bishop, ELCA Metro D.C. Synod. “And we are able to reach out to an underserved community that might not otherwise know Lutheran churches care for them.”
In the letter, signatories commit to:
Extend our love, support, and compassion to all, especially those living with HIV/AIDS;
Eliminate the stigma associated with those who are living with HIV/AIDS;
Generate open dialogue in our congregations in order to make our churches safe places to talk about HIV/AIDS;
Challenge our members to examine any fears or misperceptions of HIV/AIDS that we harbor; and to
“Every Sunday, the corridors of Peace Lutheran Church become an international hub of spirituality,” opens the article by Hamil R. Harris in Saturday’s The Washington Post (1/28/12). The hallways referred to are of Peace Lutheran Church in Alexandria.
“I see the dream of Martin Luther King and others,” the article quotes Nan Apuku saying. “We have people of all nations coming together to worship…”
A photo gallery accompanying the article is posted online.
Posted by: MDC Synod Communications on Thursday February 2nd, 2012 2:49pm Comments (2)
Marhaba min il-Quds, friends and family, w-qul sane w-intu salmin! Greetings from Jerusalem*, and wishes for health and happiness this year and beyond!
Author afloat in Dead Sea
Now, over four months into my year as a Young Adult in Global Mission** in Jerusalem, I find myself feeling at home here, no longer a stranger in a new country. I can navigate the bus system, haggle with vendors and taxi drivers, hold myself to basic cultural norms for behavior, and conduct the most basic of conversations in Arabic. Still, I find it jarring to see a group of soldiers, mostly younger than I am, wielding machine guns, or to find a looming concrete wall interrupting my travel between short distances, but these realities are part of “home” for all who live here. Maintaining hope is part of the everyday struggle here, for Palestinians and me.
Thankfully, I encounter sources of joy and beauty every day that make that struggle possible and worthwhile. The sweet, loving faces of my kindergarteners, the humble sense of mutual care and hospitality among my Palestinian neighbors, the sight of a sunset beyond the Jerusalem skyline, the sense of a history that is at once ancient and living: all of these help me remember why I am here, why anybody would choose to be here, really, in this troubled place.
** Each year, YAGM sends about 50 young adults to serve through an accompaniment model of mission with churches around the world, working in churches, schools, and/or social service ministries. Currently the program is engaged in work in Argentina, Uruguay, Malaysia, Mexico, Israel-Palestine, Slovakia, Southern Africa, and the United Kingdom. Steiner was selected in April 2011 to serve in Jerusalem/West Bank for the 2011-2012 cycle as a part of the YAGM program. (adapted from Steiners blog, “A Year of YAGM”)
Posted by: Michelle Steiner on Wednesday January 25th, 2012 12:46pm Comments (0)
Take the ELCA 2012 National Advocacy Priorities Survey
Advocacy is a faith act you share with Moses, Esther, the Prophets, Luther and many Christians around the world. Advocacy is living our Lutheran belief that good government is a gift. Advocacy is pushing aside toxic politics to make space for others unheard. Advocacy is talking about your volunteering, projects and ministries to your public officials. Advocacy is your voice. Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “Advocate.”
I know, I know. You and I are Americans living in a country that seems to have forgotten how to make meaningful decisions.
Tired of politics-as-is in both major parties? We hear you!
Want to share what is important to you as a person of faith for 2012? We hear you!
Take ten minutes and tell us about advocacy priorities…*
Your opinion matters!
Let’s stand together with hope and purpose next year.
If there are greatest hits among psalms, the 23rd’s probably on top of the list. Why this psalm’s message calls to us – at funerals and in grocery aisles – are thoughts shared by the Rev. Tom Knoll of First Trinity Lutheran Church in D.C. in a recent Washington Post blog post.
“[It] simultaneously challenges the cultural assumption that the path to happiness is paved with gift cards and invites a trust in God’s providence that creates a sense of confidence and contentment that is as precious as it is rare,” Knoll writes in “I Shall Not Want” (PostLocal, 11/10/11).
An exercise testing the truth of the sentiment is suggested. On a blank page, start one column of things you’re thankful for and a second of things you want right now. “Which would have a greater impact, losing all the things for which you are grateful or gaining all the things you currently want?” Knoll asks.
Find comments from folks who did the exercise and read the full post online.
Posted by: MDC Synod Communications on Monday November 14th, 2011 12:44pm Comments (0)
Kirsten Petersen, a student at the University of Maryland in the Lutheran Student Association, wrote an article published in The Lutheran magazine this month.
“Road trip!” tells the story of a student group’s journey that “included a mix of vocational discernment, volunteer work and quality time with Mother Nature.” The trip was taken at an important juncture, when the question of direction looms large.
Click image to view video of the work of CFLS. Claudia Thorne (pictured here), CFLS Executive Director, has been very helpful as the synod makes this transition.
Side-by-side doorbells will buzz the new synod office or Community Family Life Services (CFLS) when the synod moves to 4th and E later this month. Our future landlords have a long and respected involvement with those in need in the area.
First Trinity Lutheran Church, a synod congregation, started CFLS in 1969 in response to the needs of exoffenders, poor and homeless persons in the community. Today the organization is a faith-based, independent non-profit with a mission to facilitate personal growth, independence and integration into a healthy community for people who are homeless or have low-incomes.
“Our agency has two primary goals: to resolve our clients’ short-term crisis needs and to help them break the cycle of poverty that leads to crises and homelessness,” states the CFLS Web site. Nearly 500 people monthly receive housing, youth development, employment, mentoring and emergency services through the agency.
Putting out the welcome mat for our returning veterans and their families is important around the country. Our area’s awareness is heightened, because BRAC* means 31,000 jobs are migrating to and around the metro D.C. area.
Military chaplain leaders from Bethesda, Quantico, Forts Belvoir and Meade, Andrews and Bolling Air Force Bases joined with pastors and other congregation leaders from the synod to exchange knowledge and ideas, and gain expertise. Reaching out to wounded and recovering veterans, supporting families during deployment, and engaging the vocational and service-oriented values of military members and defense-related workers in our midst were among topics discussed.
"SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST" declares this sign outside of the church where the 2011 synod-sponsored Reformation Service was held.
From his vantage point as a juror in a murder trial, Bishop Richard H. Graham had a piercing opportunity to reflect recently on our times.
“We know that the world isn’t right now. So much of the news we hear and read reminds us that things are torn and are not being mended,” he said from the pulpit of the Metro D.C. Synod-sponsored Reformation Service on October 30, 2011.
“The contrast between what Paul says [in Romans 8:1-6] and what we experience could not be more striking. He doesn’t mean that the world won’t condemn us. He doesn’t mean that we won’t condemn ourselves,” Bishop Graham expounded. “But he means that God does not condemn us.”
Want another reason to hand $1 to a Street Sense vendor this month? Helping our community overcome the HIV/AIDS epidemic is pledged in “An Open Pastoral Letter to the Residents of Washington, DC from Your Lutheran Neighbors” published in the newspaper’s current edition.*
