Videos from Assembly
We have uploaded video recordings from our 2018 Synod Assembly to our YouTube channel in the 2018 Synod Assembly playlist, or here are the individual links from the most requested items (in no particular order):
Bishop Erik Gronberg’s homily: https://youtu.be/HDJtr7UzxkQ
The Rev. Irma Bañales’ message: https://youtu.be/Ix9ecYl_M3I
Briarwood report by Matt Baumhardt: https://youtu.be/JY8zzngMLnY
Youth Gathering update and appeal by Janelle Miller: https://youtu.be/nGQ9Vm7O7Z0
Honoring Hattie Hammer, MEF executive director: https://youtu.be/u_IS6lk-GTg
Bible study session 1 of 3 (by The Rev. Mandy Brobst-Renaud, PhD): https://youtu.be/1_IF76fcVvw
Bible study session 2 of 3 (by The Rev. Mandy Brobst-Renaud, PhD): https://youtu.be/TTayKoEv6lg
Bible study session 3 of 3 (by The Rev. Mandy Brobst-Renaud, PhD): https://youtu.be/odP2whyhBok
Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Endorsed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Ecumenical Poverty Initiative (EPI) of the National Council of Churches (NCC):
The Poor People’s Campaign: A Time for Lutheran Action (published May 15)
EPI Endorses the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival (published April 11)
On May 14, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival launched a season of nonviolent moral fusion direct action in Washington, DC and across the country, and we need you to join us. In communities across America—Black, white, brown and Native—we have built a Poor People’s Campaign to become what Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “a new and unsettling force in our complacent national life.”
Weekly Themes of 40 Days of Action
WEEK ONE (May 13-19) – SOMEBODY’S HURTING OUR PEOPLE: Children, Women, and People with Disabilities in Poverty
WEEK TWO (May 20-26) – LINKING SYSTEMIC RACISM AND POVERTY: Voting Rights, Immigration, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, and the Mistreatment of Indigenous Communities
WEEK THREE (May 27-June 2) – THE WAR ECONOMY: Militarism and the Proliferation of Gun Violence
WEEK FOUR (June 3-9) – THE RIGHT TO HEALTH AND A HEALTHY PLANET: Ecological Devastation and Health Care
WEEK FIVE (June 10-16) – EVERYBODY’S GOT THE RIGHT TO LIVE: Education, Living Wage Jobs, Income, Housing
WEEK SIX (June 17-22) – A NEW AND UNSETTLING FORCE: Confronting the Distorted Moral Narrative
June 23 – Global Day of Solidarity and Sending Forth Call to Action Mass Rally in Washington DC
40 Days: Weekly Schedule
Sundays: Mass Meetings: National Broadcast @ TBD
Mondays: Nonviolent Moral Fusion Direct Action @ 2 pm in State Capitols
Tuesdays: Teaching Tuesdays – National Webinar 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm EST
Thursdays: Theomusicology and Movements Arts Culture
By engaging in highly publicized, nonviolent moral fusion direct action, the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival will force a serious national examination of the enmeshed evils of systemic racism, systemic poverty, ecological devastation, the war economy, and our distorted moral narrative. These enmeshed evils know no boundaries. That’s why we need people who care about this nation to build something better.
Action Kit
Bible study and reflection resources on the campaign (by Kairos: The Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice)
Find an event near you.
Join your state group.
Contact your state coordinating committee by emailing YOUR STATE[AT]POORPEOPLESCAMPAIGN.ORG (i.e., if you live in TX, contact texas@poorpeoplescampaign.org).
Watch the livestream.
Tell us about your participation! Share the info graphic and post on social media with the hashtags #PoorPeoplesCampaign #NTNL #ELCA #IELA
Opportunity for Young Adults
LEVN, the Lutheran Episcopal Volunteer Network, is looking for young adults (age 21-30) with Bachelor’s degrees for an 11-month program of non-profit volunteer service and learning about social justice. From the end of August 2018 to the end of July 2019, their corps members will be provided housing, utilities, health coverage, transportation, spiritual direction, and a $400/month food stipend. They also offer a $1,000 re-entry grant at the completion of the program.
The placement sites for the upcoming program year include faith-based non-profits, secular non-profits, congregations, the Sierra Pacific Synod office, and their campus ministry at UC Davis. These service sites address issues of homelessness, unemployment, children and youth ministries, computer literacy, and other important social justice issues facing our communities.
They gather each week for worship, dinner, and formation. The corps members live in intentional community in a triplex in Sacramento, CA. They’re an ecumenical program in the Episcopal Service Corps network; applicants needn’t be either Lutheran or Episcopal to apply—interest in Christian spirituality is the only expectation. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the program begins.
Visit levn.org or contact Program Director Casey Dunsworth at 530-756-1550 or programs@thebelfry.org for more information.
Featured Resources for June
Juneteenth and our Shared Humanity
From The Atlantic article, The Quintessential Americanness of Juneteenth: The most famous Emancipation holiday is more necessary now than it has ever been:
The second-most famous Juneteenth celebration came in 1968, just months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and during the disintegration of the remnants of what could properly be called the Civil-Rights Movement. The holiday exists as a national rather than a local Texan phenomenon today partly because of the decision by King’s associate Ralph Abernathy and widow Coretta Scott King to cut short the posthumous Poor People’s March on June 19 and commemorate it with Juneteenth celebrations. The holiday dispersed through the post-Great Migration black American diaspora as a sort of homegoing for King and the other lives lost to insurgent white supremacist violence. And like many black homegoings, it found a way to fuse sorrow and jubilation. What Abernathy and Coretta Scott King knew was that fusion was the only way to continue the work without breaking.
In the spirit of that 1968 observance, it is clear that now more than ever Juneteenth is a necessary cornerstone of the American tradition, and a worthy public holiday today. It is worthy because of the dizzying contradiction at its core—and all American holidays have at least a touch of contradiction. It is both a second Independence Day and a reminder of ongoing oppression and continuing forms of stricture. It is a memorial to the dead and a remonstrance to those who killed them. It is a clear articulation of the fact that America can never be free until her people are free, and a celebration of the people who have worked to make it so. Juneteenth is the purest distillation of the evils that still plague America, and a celebration of the good people who fought those evils. It is tragedy and comedy, hope and setbacks.
As a national holiday, Juneteenth, immersed as it is both in the canon of old history and in the ongoing struggle for civil rights, would be the only one that celebrates liberty in America as it actually is: delayed.
To learn more of our shared history, please read this History.com article, What Is Juneteenth?, and this PBS.org article from their African American History Blog, What Is Juneteenth? You can also learn more from this SmithsonianMag.com article, Juneteenth: Our Other Independence Day.
Living Lutheran tapped The Rev. Dr. Martin Otto Zimmann to write a series of articles to help us understand and begin to shift our world toward real and authentic love for our neighbor. He is adjunct professor of church and society at United Lutheran Seminary, Gettysburg campus, and holds a Ph.D. in American culture studies. Please take the time to read and pray on these important lessons for us all.
Perspective: When a white man teaches about white fragility (part 1 of 6)
Perspective: The Jefferson litmus test—a cautionary tale in white fragility (part 2 of 6)
Perspective: Youth lead the way in discussing white privilege (part 3 of 6)
Perspective: The strange fruit of Good Friday (part 4 of 6)
Perspective: Yearning for reconciliation is not enough (part 5 of 6)
Perspective: The neighbor we’ve ignored for too long (part 6 of 6)
While God has called and continues to call women of color as leaders in this church, their ministry experiences have often been met with challenges. This Living Lutheran cover story, Called and chosen, shares eight excerpts from “God’s Faithfulness on the Journey,” the ELCA rostered women of color project. The project presents contributors’ stories in their own voices, helping break the silence and celebrate women of color in this church.
We are called to be a publicly engaged church. Download sign templates used at the April rally against racism in D.C. with the National Council of Churches.
Thoughts + prayers + ACTION | Freed in Christ for racial justice
Save the Date
Sunday, June 10, 1:30 p.m.
Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church (Houston, TX) and ONLINE
Last fall, world religious leaders presented the interfaith climate declaration, Walk Gently on Earth, to the UN Conference on Climate Change in Bonn. The Interfaith Environmental Network of Houston invites you to a talk about the declaration by Imaad Khan, of the Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy (TICPP), who was there.
Imaad will discuss the presentation of the declaration, its message, and how houses of worship and their members can leverage this initiative. Walk Gently on Earth invites people of faith to lead the world in adopting a sustainable lifestyle. The focus for 2018 is in transforming three areas of our lives: energy use, food consumption, and travel. This talk takes place at Emerson Unitarian Universalist Church in Houston and online via a simultaneous web meeting.
Please register for this FREE event. Texas Interfaith Power and Light, the environmental program of TICPP, has joined this initiative. For more information on the Walk Gently on Earth initiative, see their site at: http://www.txipl.org/content/walk-gently-earth. For more information about this talk, please contact Lisa Brenskelle at gcs.lrc@gmail.com.
Recent Blog Post
Bishop Gronberg:
(https://www.ntnl.org/faith-flower-mound/ – published May 29)
Where in the world is?
Bishop Gronberg:
- Jun. 9 – Primera Comunión en First Sagrada Familia, Garland
Pr. Totzke:
- (No visits planned this week)
Pra. Bañales:
- Jun. 2 – Family System Diversity – Latin@ Conference, Holy Trinity, Irving
- Jun. 4 – NT-NL Congregational Vitality Team meeting, New Life in Christ, Duncanville
- Jun. 7 – First, Waco, and Lutheran Sunset Ministries, Clifton
- Jun. 8 – Prison and Serenity Worship Hour ministries, Jacksboro & Olney
- Jun. 10 – Dallas Oromo, Richardson
Upcoming Events
- Jun. 10: Walk Gently on Earth: A Multi-Faith invitation to Sustainable Lifestyles, Online
- Jun. 10-15: Building Congregational Capacity for Hispanic Ministry, Austin, TX
- Jun. 24-27: the tAble: an ELCA gathering of youth with disabilities, Houston, TX
- Jun. 24-27: The ELCA Multicultural Youth Leadership Event, Houston, TX
- Jun. 27-Jul. 1: ELCA Youth Gathering, Houston, TX
- Jul. 19-20: Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM) Regional Conference, Richland Hills, TX
- Sep. 1: Bishop Installation for the Southwestern Texas Synod, San Antonio, TX
- Sep. 7: The Bolder Board Training, North Texas
- Sep. 9: “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday
- Sep. 15: PLMA Fall 2018, Course 1, Briarwood
- Sep. 20-22: Synod Council meetings, Briarwood
- Sep. 22: MEF Board meeting, Briarwood
- Sep. 28-30: Addiction & Faith Conference, Bloomington, MN
Access our full online Calendar here. Updates made regularly.
Do you have news or announcements to share? Please submit to the Synod office (office@ntnl.org) for consideration for upcoming NT-NL News.