Note from the Bishop

For the last several months, you have been seeing in these communications and at assembly that the ELCA is currently in the process of developing a social statement relating to Women and Justice. The realities of sexism, misogyny, violence, and economic challenges faced by women and girls in our society cannot be ignored. Additionally, while the church works to address these issues, we also must confront the reality that too often the church has and continues to contribute to a culture devaluing women’s work and gifts. I am grateful for our churchwide assembly’s commitment to this work and for your participation in this process.

Justice for women is such a vital issue in our time, both here in the United States and also globally. Our partners in Sierra Leone are now engaging in a project in partnership with the LWF and our support to educate women about issues of domestic violence and abuse. Part of being a just society is to be a place in which all people are valued, encouraged to use their gifts to serve God, and can live in safety. The church must and should engage these issues.

Social statements are teaching documents and developed by our church over the course of several years and ideally involve feedback from the entire church. However, to get that feedback, your congregation needs to engage the process. This Saturday, at Shepherd of Life, Arlington, there will be an opportunity for individuals to be led through the process in the hopes they will then engage that process in their home congregations. I pray that many in our synod will take advantage of this learning and engage in the process. If you cannot attend, please go to the resources on the web and download them so you can engage this study in your communities.

In Mission Together

June 21 is the date the Oromo people celebrate the life of Onesimus Nesib (1856-1931). Onesimus was born into the Oromo people in Ethiopia. He was captured by slave traders and taken from his homeland to Eritrea, where he was bought, freed, and educated by Swedish missionaries. He translated the Bible into Oromo and eventually returned to his homeland to preach the gospel to the people in their own language.

The Dallas Oromo Evangelical Lutheran Church (1210 W Beltline Rd, Richardson, TX 75080) will be celebrating their patron saint on June 18. All are invited to the fundraising luncheon following their 11:30 worship. Come and enjoy ethnic food and coffee, games, and an auction.

“Thank you for your support. It really means a lot for us immigrants in the land of prosperity.” – Pastor Sileshi and the congregation

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Featured Resource for June

Watch author Brian McLaren give a presentation on Finding Our Way Again.

Click here for more information about his book.

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 Save the Date

Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM) Biennial Conference

Minneapolis, MN

July 10-13

“2017 finds Lutherans giving thanks for their Reformation heritage. Our ALCM biennial conference, Rise, Remember Well the Future, will simultaneously celebrate the treasures of the last 500 years and look to the future and God’s covenant of faithfulness in all that is yet to be. Opening worship will be held at Saint Olaf College, site of the constituting ALCM convention in 1986. In plenaries led by Chad Fothergill, Daniel Schwandt, and Mary Louise Bringle, we will reflect on the changing role of the cantor—the leader of the church’s song—as we move confidently into a future blessed by our heritage and full of many changes in the church and its music.

A highlight of the conference will be a journey to Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, with its rich history of liturgical renewal and ecumenism. We will share Evening Prayer with the monks, mindful of reforms and hoped-for reconciliation among Lutherans and Roman Catholics since Vatican II. The conference, which will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a Midwest center of American Lutheranism, will also feature a hymn festival by David Cherwien and the National Lutheran Choir; a gala opening dinner and business meeting where we will give thanks for the first thirty years of ALCM; and closing worship at Central Lutheran Church.”

Where in the world is?

Bishop Gronberg:

• Jun 9 – Staff training, Briarwood
• Jun 10 – First Communion, First Sagrada Familia, Garland
• Jun 11 – Immanuel, Killeen
• Jun 14-22 – Family Vacation

Pr. Totzke:

• Jun 13 – Shepherd of Life, Arlington
• Jun 17 – Faith, Sexism, and Justice Conversation, Shepherd of Life, Arlington
• Jun 18 – Worshiping with home congregation, Bethany, Dallas

Pra. Bañales:

• Jun 13 – First Sagrada Familia, Garland
• Jun 14-15 – Lutheran Seminary Program of the Southwest, Austin
• Jun 18 – Dallas Oromo, Richardson