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Living Faithfully

Perspective: Scraped floors, open doors

Editor’s note: This month marks the 10th anniversary of the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly’s vote to remove barriers to ordination for people in same-gender marriages. Here, Emmy Kegler reflects on…

2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly – Day two
Living Faithfully

2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly – Day two

The 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly continued Aug. 6 at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee. Day two included the second plenary session, at which Elizabeth Eaton was re-elected on the first ballot…

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Voices of Faith

Will work for food

I was hiking in a hard rain one August afternoon with our youth backpacking contingent. We were raising money for ELCA World Hunger. Everything was soaked; you could wring out…

Elizabeth Eaton re-elected presiding bishop of ELCA
Living Faithfully

Elizabeth Eaton re-elected presiding bishop of ELCA

Elizabeth Eaton was re-elected presiding bishop of the ELCA August 6 at the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. On the first ballot, 897 votes were cast and 670 votes were needed…

2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly begins
Living Faithfully

2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly begins

Gathering under the theme “We Are Church,” members of the ELCA began meeting in Milwaukee August 5 for the 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, the highest legislative authority of the ELCA….

2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly – Day one
Living Faithfully

2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly – Day one

The 2019 ELCA Churchwide Assembly began Aug. 5 at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee, meeting through Aug. 10. Day one consisted of opening worship and the first plenary session, at…

Camp breaks down barriers
Mission & Ministry

Camp breaks down barriers

Last summer, during a special week for families at Outlaw Ranch in Custer, S.D., a small group of campers decided to cook tamales for everyone at camp—about 120 people. The…

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Mission & Ministry

Young voting members ready to engage

Editor’s note: “There are no young people here” is a common refrain as some worry about the future of the church. But young adults are indeed active across the ELCA…

Blessed are the peacemakers
Living Faithfully

Blessed are the peacemakers

Seven years ago, Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church, located in the Beverly neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, was pondering how to revamp their vacation Bible school program to serve as more…

Meeting Jesus at the truck stop
Living Faithfully

Meeting Jesus at the truck stop

Before Matthew Best even set foot in St. Stephen Lutheran, New Kingstown, Pa., on his first day as pastor, he saw what would become an important mission for the congregation:…

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Voices of Faith

Perspective: Toll-booth evangelism

During seminary, the best summer job I had was collecting tolls on a bridge across the Mississippi River. Not quite the call of Matthew at the tax booth (Matthew 9:9),…