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In a model for faithful civic engagement, veterans, legal professionals and a group of Lutherans in Pennsylvania joined other trusted community members in the spring on a mission to help voters feel safe, respected and confident when participating in one of the most important shared national traditions.
Nonpartisan volunteers staffed “celebration stations” at polling sites on primary election day as part of the Project HALO (Helping Americans Lead Outreach) initiative pilot. They offered doughnuts, flags and a chance to take a selfie or ring a bell in honor of Pennsylvania’s role in the “America 250” commemoration. Trained volunteers also provided accompaniment and served as witnesses observing activity outside the polls.
For ELCA members, it was an expression of their faith in action. The ELCA social statement “Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-being of All” affirms that “only with appropriate attention to the political can we exercise neighbor love and serve neighbor justice to hold government accountable, oppose social oppression, seek various kinds of liberation, and work toward the common good. Political engagement in this sense is a means of channeling God’s love through civic participation.”
This rang true for David Hope-Tringali, an ELCA deacon. “As a faith leader, I feel like part of my calling is to be a presence for peace in my community,” he said. “With all of the rhetoric and violence that’s been around in politics lately, I think being able to show up with these spaces and create a welcoming presence is one way I can help sow seeds of peace in the community.”
Mindy Shively, a high school teacher and member of St. John Lutheran Church in Abbottstown, saw the experience as an extension of discipleship and vocation. “Celebrating our right as citizens to vote directly aligns with encouraging my students to think critically and understand how our elected leaders impact them now and will continue to impact their lives in the future,” she said. “I’ve also never done anything like this before, and I wanted to push myself to try something new.”
To learn more about bringing this model to your community, contact Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania (LAMPa)—a member of the ELCA-affiliated State Public Policy Office network—at lampa@elca.org. Project HALO is developing tool kits for efforts of varying scales, including arts, culture and business community involvement. For more nonprofit election engagement ideas, find the ELCA Election Engagement Toolkit and more in the ELCA Resource Center.
