Veterans Day Prayers
by the Rev. Mark W. Olsen Petty Officer 3rd Class Colin Kroeker, corpsman, L Co., 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, hugs his mother, Melissa, during a homecoming at Del Valle Field, Oct. 9, 2013. With Veterans Day,...
Oct. 32 and beyond
A MONTHLY MESSAGE FROM THE ELCA PRESIDING BISHOP* This is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. For the past year it has been “All Reformation All the Time!” Everything Martin Luther. The really observant have branched out to Philipp Melanchthon...
At the table together / Juntos a la mesa
A MONTHLY MESSAGE FROM THE ELCA PRESIDING BISHOP* Old recipes are precious things. They give instructions about how to prepare a dish, but they are so much more. They are filled with memories. They connect families as they are passed...
Signs of love in Leesburg
Bleakness. That was the “take-away feeling” expressed by Amy Miller from recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia, where “violent hatred [was] being spewed against people that are our brothers and sisters.” The member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Leesburg, Virginia,...
Hands honor history on day of service
by Pat Henry* About 15 Georgetown Lutheran Church members and friends wielded shovels, pruning shears, clipboards and pens Sun. Sept. 10, 2017 as part of a service project to document gravestones at the historic Mount Zion Cemetery. [caption id="attachment_21190" align="alignright"...
Building Puentes Solidarity Worship Service
On the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria making landfall in the ELCA Caribbean Synod, we will hold an uplifting worship service, building bridges between the ELCA Metro D.C. Synod and the ELCA Caribbean Synod. Building Puentes Solidarity Worship Service Thursday,...
From the Bishop’s Desk: Horrible symptom
I have been hesitant to write about what happened in Charlottesville last weekend. So much has been written and said already. And already the events of last weekend have been absorbed into the larger political narrative floating around us. It’s...
Live in the freedom of Christ
A MONTHLY MESSAGE FROM THE ELCA PRESIDING BISHOP Recently I discovered Google Earth. I know, I’m a little late to the dance. But this is fascinating. You type in an address and up pops a photo. You can zoom in...
From the Bishop’s desk: Deepening Lutheran-Jewish relationships
Dear friends*, In my report to the Synod Assembly this year, I mentioned the opportunities and responsibilities that come to us in 2017: the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Among these opportunities and responsibilities, I said,...
Serving the neighbor in charged times
A MONTHLY MESSAGE FROM THE ELCA PRESIDING BISHOP Across this church I’ve heard stories of parishioners disturbed by the Gospel read on Sundays, believing the pastor chose the passage as a critique of the current administration. The Beatitudes seemed to...