World Hunger Updates
A new initiative is being launched within the NT-NL Synod to bring focus to the ELCA Global Mission efforts to impact hunger on a world scale. The ELCA already has in place several programs in which congregations can participate. Learn more here:
Bishop Gronberg has tapped Anne Monson from Central Lutheran in Dallas to serve as lead on this initiative. You may have met and talked with Anne at Synod Assembly in Temple. She had a booth to present ELCA World Hunger materials.
Her first charge was to learn about what was already going on within the Synod. To this end, she passed out a survey about current and past initiatives currently or recently under way in congregations. That survey is available here: https://www.ntnl.org/hunger-survey/. If you have not already, please take a moment to fill it out and submit online.
In the next month, Anne will be contacting all who have submitted information to learn more and to determine how best to support ongoing Hunger Projects and encourage new ones. You may contact Anne directly at hunger@ntnl.org.
Please keep our shared World Hunger work in your prayers. This is important work for our Synod and for the world.
If you missed our previous communication with more details, access that here: NT-NL News for Monday, May 28. #UntilAllAreFed
“I’m a Lutheran” Request
Do you know an ELCA member who has a unique story to tell? We’re looking for nominations for Living Lutheran’s monthly “I’m a Lutheran” feature. Past features have included people with interesting vocations, impressive accomplishments, or exciting experiences. We’re looking for people who are passionately living and showing their faith in their everyday life and are comfortable talking about it. Send the name and contact information for your nominee, as well as a little bit about why you think they’d be a great candidate, to megan.brandsrud@elca.org.
First International Women Leaders scholar celebrates graduation
Congratulations to Sarah Abendanon of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Suriname! Sarah is the first ELCA International Women Leaders scholar to complete her program of study. She received her bachelor’s degree in marketing from Augsburg University in Minneapolis.
Learn more about the International Women Leaders program.
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
Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM) Regional Conference
July 19-20, 2018
Where in the world is?
Bishop Gronberg:
- Jun. 16-22 – Family vacation
Pr. Totzke:
- Jun. 17-20 – Vacation (attending 100th anniversary celebration at home congregation in Wisconsin)
Pra. Bañales:
- Jun. 12 – Building Congregational Capacity for Latino Ministries, Austin
- Jun. 12-14 – Region 4 Directors for Evangelical Mission (DEM) Gathering, San Antonio
- Jun. 16 – African National Gathering, Briarwood
Upcoming Events
- 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.