Lutheran Disaster Response: 2017 In Review

Lutheran Disaster Response brings God’s hope, healing, and renewal to people whose lives have been disrupted by disasters in the United States and around the world. When the dust settles and the headlines change, we stay to provide ongoing assistance to those in need. Learn more.

Click here to access the full report.

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School Kits for LWR

Does your congregation assemble School Kits for Lutheran World Relief? Summer is the perfect time to stock up on supplies! Back-to-school sales are an easy way to pick up pens, notebooks, scissors and more at a discount. Encourage parents to buy extra supplies when shopping with their children and celebrate the start of the school year with a School Kit assembly! Visit https://lwr.org/get-involved/build-kits-of-care/school-kits for more information about packing and sending School Kits.

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Disability Ministries & U. N. Update

“As a church committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is called to welcome all people in all its congregations and ministries into full participation as baptized members of the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:14-26), from the “People Living with Disabilities” social message, page 1.

The ELCA social message “People Living with Disabilities” clearly states the hope that we as part of the body of Christ would work together across our various ministries, as well as in our personal lives.

All of us are disabled in some way as we stand before God. Thanks be to God, we are a church that believes God is calling us into the world — together. We don’t have to do it alone and we don’t have to do everything. We can connect with brothers and sisters to help us invite all into full participation in this church and in the world. The Disability Ministries Resources page proposes ways to connect, invite, and participate. For more information, you can email.

Together, we can:

• Welcome all people warmly and without hesitation. We are a church that belongs to Christ. There is a place for you here.
• Use language that honors and respects the individual person, language that always puts the person first — “person with a disability.”
• Get to know people as people — not as labels, problems, or diagnoses. Find out about a person’s interests and gifts.
• Ask if a person needs help before offering assistance.
• Encourage all people to grow in their faith and their spiritual practices, and to use their gifts for the good of the church.

Related Ministries 

The ELCA relates several areas of ministry with the work of Disability Ministries. Those ministries include:

• Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Ministries
• Mental Illness Ministries
• Deaf Ministries
• Blindness and Visual Impairment Ministries

Click here to learn more.

Click here to support this important work. (Select the Disability Ministries designation.)

RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres spoke marking the start of this year’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on June 12 to a conference of signatories to the convention, which he described as one of the most widely ratified international human rights treaties. The convention reaffirms that people with disabilities are entitled to the same treatment as everyone else.

People with disabilities still often face overt discrimination, stereotyping and lack of respect for their basic human rights – with women and girls disproportionately affected. The secretary-general said that “every minute, more than 30 women are seriously injured or disabled during childbirth,” and that women and girls with disabilities face multiple barriers to accessing education, health services and jobs.

“Without women’s empowerment and gender equality, millions of women will continue to suffer from double discrimination based on both their gender and their disability,” he added. The secretary-general also spelled out the need for new approaches for and with people with disabilities, including mainstreaming disability in national legislation and development strategies.

Catalina Devandas Aguilar, U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of people with disabilities, noted that while progress has been made, it is not reaching everyone in the same way. “There is a great demand for public interventions of better and higher quality,” she said. “Only by working together will we fulfill our common goal of leaving no one behind.”

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Save the Date

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Recent Blog Posts

Bishop Gronberg:

Shepherding the scattered: Daddy Sunday, Briarwood, Kyrie-Pub Church, and Lutherans in Uzbekistan

(https://www.ntnl.org/shepherding-the-scattered-daddy-sunday-briarwood-kyrie-pub-church-and-lutherans-in-uzbekistan/ – published Jul. 23)

Let it Be Acclaimed: Summer of 2018 Ordination 1 of 4

(https://www.ntnl.org/let-it-be-acclaimed-summer-of-2018-ordination-1-of-4/ – published Jul. 25)

Pastora Bañales:

RETHINKING STEWARDSHIP: from Solemn Obligation to Inspired Choice

(https://www.ntnl.org/rethinking-stewardship-from-solemn-obligation-to-inspired-choice/ – published Jul. 25)

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Where in the world is?

Bishop Gronberg:

• Jul. 29-Aug 6: Family Vacation

Pastor Totzke:

• Jul. 11-31: Hip replacement and recovery

Pastora Bañales:

• No visits planned for this week