We are the branches: In her August column for Living Lutheran, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, asks, “Is it possible to be Lutheran and an ecumenist?” Yes, of course. For we are “scripturally, confessionally and even constitutionally wired to be an ecumenical church.” Read her column in English and in Spanish.
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Bob & Pastor Carrie Bishop “Bishop Tim preached the resurrection!” How often has your family shared milestones and life passages with your pastor or deacon over the years? Most likely, your pastor has visited you in the hospital, baptized your children, officiated at weddings, cried over divorces. Your youth and family minister or music minister
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Manis (r.) with students. Manis wins campus ministry award Lutheran Campus Ministry staff recently gathered for our National Staff Conference in Portland, Oregon. It was a wonderful event to celebrate our ministry among students, faculty and staff at college and university campuses across the country on behalf of the ELCA.
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Worship bloopers “This is not a performance,” I always tell the nervous 3rd-grader in the parish the first time they go to light the candles on a Sunday morning right there in front of Momma and Aunt Maggie and the grouchy altar guild lady and God and everybody. “It’s worship, and we aren’t perfect, nor
Reading 21: Wrap-up for Remarkable Mark You may know that many scholars contend that Mark’s Gospel originally ended quite strangely with 16:8, “and they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.” The rest, they say, were later additions to make sure Mark’s narrative included the resurrection narrative, so central to the Christian faith. Indeed,
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Reading 20: A Silent Dawn Read Mark 16: 1-8 Early morning is my favorite time of day. Everything seems fresh and new, the air filled with a great variety of birdsong in my little corner of the world, and people sounds have not yet begun. Usually I awaken with an eagerness to see what the
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Reading 19: A Savior who redeems by losing Read Mark 15:1-47 These 47 verses are an important part of the Passion history which follow Peter’s threefold denial of his Lord. The following scenes seem to escalate the chaos begun by Peter’s faithless denial. With every cluster of seemingly unredeemable bad news that follows Jesus shows
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Reading 18: Speaking Up Read Mark 14:43-72 I enjoyed visiting the Art Institute of Chicago while growing up in a nearby suburb. While I loved Impressionism, I was also drawn to the work of Ivan Albright, whose life-size painting, “That Which I Should Have Done I Did Not Do” (also known as “The Door”),
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Reading 17: “Long Live God” Read Mark 14:1-31 Aside from my immediate love for the musical “Godspell,” the thing I most remember about leaving the theater that first time I saw the movie version was the grumbling of the adults around me. I must’ve been about 14 years old that evening. And as the movie
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Reading 16—Jesus Foretells the End Times Read Mark 13:1-37 The disciples have traveled with Jesus all the way to Jerusalem, where they express awe at the magnificent temple (13:1). Jesus, however, continues teaching them that the glory they keep looking for is not the glory they will find with him. The stones of the temple
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