Congratulations to the five recipients of the ELCA Disability Ministries grants for 2023! We have invited each to offer a snapshot of the project their grant will be fun, ding.

Thank you to all applicants! It is amazing to learn about all that is being done across our church for accessibility and inclusion! We were blown away by the number of project applications submitted and all that they entailed for your ministries. We hope those not chosen this time around will consider applying in the future.

I want to offer a special thanks to the advisory team for all their hard work in reviewing the grant applications and proposals. Thank you for all you do!

–Rev. Lisa Heffernan, ELCA Disability Ministries coordinator

2023 Grant Recipients

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Davenport, IA

Located in the heart of the Quad Cities, St. Paul Lutheran Church is a congregation of over one thousand families, many of whom have children and teens who identify as autistic or neurodivergent. Social Spectrum began at St. Paul in the summer of 2022 as a support group for parents and caregivers of neurodivergent individuals to connect and find empathy with one another. The stories, experiences, and needs shared within this group clearly identified several opportunities for growth in the ways the church as a whole welcomes, supports, and empowers neurodivergent children and youth and their families.  The funding from the ELCA Disability Ministries grant will bolster St. Paul’s efforts to address these needs, amplify autism inclusivity and awareness, and hopefully inspire other congregations to do the same.  

Specifically, St. Paul’s Social Spectrum will use grant funding to: 1) launch an inclusive family-learning style Sunday School class; 2) train St. Paul staff and volunteers who work with kids on how best to nurture and support neurodivergent children and youth; 3) construct a sensory-friendly space for faith formation for all ages; and 4) equip neurotypical teens to act as buddies and advocates for their neurodivergent peers. Through these initiatives, St. Paul aims to embrace and raise up an historically under-valued and excluded population in the church, thereby modeling a more inclusive, supportive, and whole community of faith. 

Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Seymour, WI

Park Vision: Working together, Emmanuel will build an inclusive and accessible community park to inspire, support, celebrate, and equip neurodivergent children and adults to fulfill their potential in life.

What is God asking us to do? An inclusive park!

Families with neurodivergent individuals and people dependent on mobility devices face many challenges but enjoying a park shouldn’t be one of them! Inspired by God’s hope and love, Emmanuel will create an inclusive park different from others in the Seymour area and develop accompanying ministries to enrich the lives of families in our community. We celebrate, inspire, and support neurodivergent children, adults, and their caregivers by creating a gathering place for all ages and abilities.

Working together, we reach, teach, and serve by building a community playground where children of all capabilities play side-by-side. This accessible area includes surfaces and ramps for children and adults to engage equipment with or without mobility devices. Emmanuel’s truly inclusive playground is designed for all abilities to participate in various activities at varying difficulty levels within the same space. We share God’s love by respecting and embracing the different ways God has created us. We purposely removed many barriers, so all God’s children feel part of His kingdom and experience the joy of play!

Our faith leads us to establish a community where all feel welcomed and valued. The inclusive park honors this belief by including spaces for multiple uses and all generations. Along with the playground, the complete project consists of bathroom facilities and a pavilion for church gatherings, celebrations, fellowship, and faith formation.

Peace Lutheran Church, Gahanna, OH

 Our goal at Peace Lutheran Church is to move from service ‘for’ people with disabilities to service ‘with’ people with disabilities.  We currently provide a program for adults with disabilities that includes a week-long summer resident camp, a bi-weekly Bible Study/Social Group and a Saturday morning respite.  For a variety of reasons, we struggle with recruiting volunteers.

The goal of our funded project, Friendship Connections, is to empower people to volunteer their services to connect with people with disabilities, to help broaden the scope of our congregation’s current ministry to become a more welcoming and inclusive community.   With education, coaching and hands on experience participants will increase their understanding and confidence.   The project has three components: 1) group sessions targeting education, etiquette and awareness, 2) direct experiences with adults with disabilities and 3) creation of a ‘what’s next’ project for each participant to complete the one-year experience.

We are grateful for the grant and excited about the coming year as we implement our plans.  We hope to open the hearts and minds of the project participants to allow for new and fulfilling relationships with others whom they may otherwise have avoided.

 

 

North Avenue Mission, Baltimore, MD

 North Ave Mission (NAM) is a Synodically Authorized Worshipping Community of the Delaware/ Maryland Synod of the ELCA. NAM is a fellowship of people experiencing homelessness, people who are food and housing insecure, people who use drugs and people in recovery, LGBTQ+, those living with physical disability or mental illness and those with lived experience of trauma, racism and hate along with their supporters, in central Baltimore. Centering the leadership and following the visions of those most directly impacted by structural racism and unjust systems, we walk together as we care for our community and one another. Most people in the NAM community and leadership have disabilities ranging from mobility limitations which require assistive devices, treated and untreated mental illness, substance misuse disorder, significant neurodiversity, and a variety of chronic diseases. The community comes together to encourage and support one another on their journeys, to worship, and to serve the wider community.

Many in the NAM community have remarkable gifts for ministry. Some speak powerfully in testimony, others write and share profound theology and theopoetics, some have the gift of encouragement and building others up, some post daily messages of gratitude and prayer each morning. Others share their perspectives through freestyle and other creative arts. Still others pitch in to make sure Family Life is set up properly, share worship leadership, and ensure that the service runs smoothly. People with disabilities are already and have always been in leadership roles within the NAM community and now some are ready to take the next steps to hone their gifts further so they can be shared beyond the worshipping community.

Building on Leadership Gifts will provide mentoring, hard and soft skill-building, learning opportunities, and enhanced wellbeing supports for three to four specific members of the NAM community for one year so that they can grow as leaders to share their gifts both within and beyond NAM. All four of these individuals will benefit greatly from training and coaching in communications to enable them to write out drafts, workshop with each other’s writing, put into words both faith and the long-term effects of the systemic oppression they have experienced, and grasp the many and varied forms the written and spoken word can take. We are planning a six-month curriculum that will include one-on-one coaching sessions as well as small group workshops for learning, trying out public speaking in safe environments, providing feedback to one another, developing each person’s unique voice, and learning the soft skills of leadership.

Pastor Elazar Zavaletta, Mission Developer at NAM, will identify appropriate ways for these emerging leaders to be connected to settings beyond NAM, while also providing additional leadership opportunities within the NAM community. Experiencing the DE/MD Synod Assembly will increase understanding of the wider church.

Pine Lake Lutheran Camp, Crossways Camping Ministries, WI

Pine Lake Lutheran Camp (part of Crossways Camping Ministries) is excited to extend a wider welcome to faith-filled, camp programming for youth and adults with disabilities! Thanks to the generosity of the ELCA Disability Ministries, Pine Lake Camp will be able to implement new programming and additional supports for campers with disabilities.  Our new Self-Determination Camp Program is welcoming adults with disabilities in the middle of August. Young adults with disabilities will come together to create connections, experience traditional camp elements, and create individualized plans for participation in order to engage in meaningful church and community ministry upon their arrivals home.

Alongside our tailored program, we aim to include a wider community of youth and family program participants throughout the summer by employing an Inclusion Advocate who will serve three primary audiences at three primary times. Our Inclusion Advocate will work with camper families, campers seeking additional support, and the camp staff to provide meaningful supports and needed accessibility.  Our Inclusion Advocate will coordinate needed supports in advance of weekly camp programming.  In addition, support from the Inclusion Advocate to the staff or campers will happen throughout the onsite week.   Finally, Our Inclusion Advocate will record important details after the camp program has completed, in order to plan for future success in other camp programs.

In addition to our new Self-Determination Camp program and Inclusion Advocate staff position, we are investing in other ways to build meaningful relationships and opportunities for our siblings in Christ with disabilities. We are working with the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) to train, support and employ a young adult with disabilities on our current camp staff.  In addition, we welcomed a self advocate with an Intellectual and developmental disability, to lead a staff training session on best practices for including and supporting campers with disabilities.

 

 

 

This month’s article is written by ELCA Disability Ministries Advisory team member Rev. Peter Heide, written from a perspective of blindness.

“Organizations by and for people with disabilities have existed since the 1800’s.” [1] In 1921, the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) Home | American Foundation for the Blind (afb.org) was created to help veterans who had been blinded during World War I. Through the AFB, supported by Helen Keller and the national organization of Lions (Keller called them the Knights of the Blind), great strides were made creating employment opportunities for the blindness community (e.g., Randolph-Sheppard Act, 1936) Randolph Sheppard Vending Facility Program | Rehabilitation Services Administration (ed.gov) and access to books through the National Library Service (NLS) “Talking Book” program NLS at the Library of Congress – National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) | Library of Congress (loc.gov).

Yet, by the end of the 30’s, there was a realization that, if blind people were going to gain parity with sighted people, blind people were going to need to advocate for themselves. In November 1940, Jacobus TenBroek and others living with blindness, formed the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) Homepage | National Federation of the Blind (nfb.org). Its tagline is, “Live the life you want.” Through the advocacy of the NFB, progress was made in gaining better education and training for job opportunities that focused more on what blind people wished to do rather than areas sighted people relegated them to.

Later unrest in the NFB caused a number of blind people to break with the NFB. In July 1961, a new consumer group, the American Council of the Blind (ACB) Home | American Council of the Blind (acb.org), was formed. It too advocates for the needs of the blind in living independent lives. ACB’s tagline is, “Together for a bright future.”

It is little known or recognized that these organizations have not only advocated for the needs of the blind, but that these organizations have contributed to the case of Brown v Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In the 70s, Judith (Judy) Heumann led advocacy work for people using wheelchairs. She, with the NFB, ACB, the Deaf community, and other disability advocacy groups, helped write and pressure congress to pass the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), which was signed by Pres. George H.W. Bush in July 1990.

In recognition of the enactment of the ADA, July is designated Disability Pride month. The continued work of advocacy by and for the disabled continues to make life for many safer and better. At the same time, the work they do adds to the lifestyles of the sighted. The availability of audio books and voice-activated hands-free phones are only two of the things that the general population benefits from. Wheelchair ramps also benefit us all by often making bicycle travel safer and easing the lives of parents pushing strollers. Accommodations for people living with disabilities makes life for all of us better.

Happy Disability Pride Month!

 

 

[1] Disability History: The Disability Rights Movement (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

At the beginning of May, five Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) staff members attended the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) conference in St. Louis, Missouri.  

NVOAD is a coalition of community-based, faith-based and nonprofit disaster response organizations throughout the United States. Its purpose is to serve as a forum in which organizations can coordinate responses. In addition to the more than 70 national member organizations (including LDR), there are also VOADs at the state and local levels. 

The NVOAD conference is an opportunity to network with other disaster organizations and attend various workshops, plenaries and vendor exhibitions. Pastor Matthew Zemanick, Program Director for LDR Initiatives,  was one of the presenters for a session entitled “The Power of Place, Historical Trauma, and the Lifting up of Cultural Humility in Disaster Response.” 

 

Reflections from LDR staff:

“This was my first time attending the National VOAD Conference, which had a record-breaking year with over 800 participants! It was amazing to see and notice how passionate the member organizations are about their work in disaster and love what they do. It helped me personally to see a bigger picture of how diverse the groups were and how important it is to have existing relationships with NVOAD members in the blue-sky times. My favorite time was connection with our LDR Community of Practice Members over meals and meeting with some of the LDR partners in person for the first time. It was a meaningful experience in many ways from networking, to making connections, to building new relationships, and being part of important discussions.”  

-Zaya Gilmer, Program Manager, LDR-US 

 

“The NVOAD conference was a wonderful opportunity to connect with new and long-time members of the LDR network. It was great to see people in person, to build and strengthen relationships, and deepen the bonds between LDR, our colleagues, and the institutions that provide humanitarian relief around the world.” 

-Sean Coffman, Program Director, LDR Networks and Training 

 

“This was my first NVOAD conference and I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to have learned alongside the wide range of partners and organizations involved in responding to disasters. I’ve come to this work from parish ministry and community chaplaincy in an environmental justice community. As someone who grew up with a single mom who was a nurse, for me, one striking parallel between both the environmental justice movement and the VOAD movement is the amount of people with working-class backgrounds in leadership. Representation matters, especially when disasters disproportionately impact working-class and impoverished households. I am humbled and honored to be surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, which gives me tremendous hope in the ways the Spirit is guiding us.” 

-Pr. Matthew Zemanick, Program Director, LDR Initiatives 

 

Issue 87 of Administration Matters

(Delayed until June 5 from May 15 publication date)

ELCAdvantage Program

Through the ELCAdvantage Program, the ELCA churchwide organization develops agreements with participating providers that offer products and services at competitive prices. Using the program enables collective, volume purchasing of essential products and services. >More

Inflation’s effect on houses of worship

This is a difficult time for houses of worship, which have experienced the one-two punch of first COVID-19 closures and now inflation. Inflation affects both a church’s finances and its members’ finances as the price of groceries, gas, clothing and other necessities rapidly increases. While these prices are rising, cost-of-living increases aren’t matching them, which means a dollar is worth less today than it was a year ago. How can you weather this latest crisis and come out on the other side with a still strong ministry. Church Mutual is publishing a series of blog posts on how different types of organizations can best handle inflation. Here it offers five tips for houses of worship.

What’s love got to do with it?

We all know the commandment to “love thy neighbor as thyself,” but how does this apply to rostered ministers? As reported on NPR in September 2022, burnout among faith leaders is at an all-time high. The apostle Paul reminds us that if we have not love, we have nothing. Extending love to those who lead means we are generous with their compensation, forgiving of their human foibles, and reasonable and flexible with our demands, allowing them adequate rest.

Portico offers many programs for this: the Omada program for blood pressure and diabetes management, online health and fitness classes from Burnalong, employee assistance programs (including access to Talkspace for dealing with depression, anxiety and stress) and Learn to Live courses for cognitive behavioral therapy-based (CBT) support, among others. Best of all, these programs are virtual and can be accessed at home. Remind your employees who have ELCA-Primary health benefits that preventive exams are covered. Portico Care Coordinators by Quantum Health are just a phone call away to answer questions about exam and test coverage.

Operational ethics policy for congregations

Best practices for all organizations, including churches and nonprofits, recommend that business ethics and conflict-of-interest policies be in place. Such policies clarify fiduciary duties and address real or apparent conflicts of interest. >More

Three steps to stronger passwords

Strong passwords are of the utmost importance. They protect your electronic accounts and devices from unauthorized access, keeping your sensitive personal information safe. The more complex the password, the more protected your information will be from hackers and other cyber threats. >More

Five ways to demonstrate good church stewardship

Good stewardship is the careful and responsible management of all resources God provides for the betterment of creation. It is about using your gifts and talents to better the lives of others. Giving back to God’s mission in our world can go farther than you know! >More

The last few years have seen record numbers of anti-LGBTQ bills being proposed and passed, particularly in state legislatures, across the country. “As bishop of this church, I am concerned that the rights of transgender and nonbinary Americans have been targeted all over this nation,” wrote ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton in her statement on anti-transgender legislation (3/20/23). “We must stand together, dear church, faithfully advocating for the full humanity and dignity of all people. Let us recognize and affirm the humanity of our transgender and nonbinary siblings. Let us advocate for their dignity.”

With a family-informed plea, Jamie Bruesehoff, a member of the ELCA Church Council, wrote: “Our transgender siblings are crying out for justice, they are begging for mercy and protection, for support, for people to care with their words and their actions. Our rostered leaders, our seminarians, families with transgender youth, and the transgender people in our pews need the church to show up at this moment” [written for their blog and reprinted in the ELCA Advocacy Blog (4/3/23)].

A confession in ELCA social teaching serves as caution as we confront the current policy trend. “Christian churches have rarely been in the forefront to gain civil rights for people who are lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered or queer,” reads the ELCA social message “Human Rights” (p. 7). Yet many in this church have cried and heard the cries and been stirred to action.

 

SHOWING UP AND SPEAKING OUT

Showing up and speaking out in support of transgender siblings include several ELCA bishops, ELCA-affiliated state public policy offices, and lay and rostered congregational leaders from many parts of the United States.

 

Synod Sampling

As Missouri grapples with reportedly the most anti-LGBTQ bills filed of any state, more than 300 faith leaders throughout Missouri including Bishop Susan Candea of the ELCA Central States Synod and many rostered ministers of that synod added their signatures to an open letter to state lawmakers to oppose bills targeting the LGBTQ community. “Many of the bill sponsors cite their faith as a reason for their support of such legislation,” the letter (March 28, 2023) available from The Episcopal Diocese of Missouri states. “We disagree. These bills do not uphold the shared principles of mutual respect, undeniable dignity, or abiding love found in the tenets of our faiths. The signers of this statement, while representing a diversity of faiths and perspectives, are united by our opposition to further legal restrictions aimed at LGBTQIA+ people that dishonors their belovedness and worth.”

In a March 17, 2023, statement shared with the ELCA Central States Synod, Bishop Candea wrote, “This is not a social issue. These are the lives of people we know… We are all diminished by the lines we draw between ‘us’ and ‘them.’”

Also acting in coalition, Bishop Tessa Moon Leiseth of the ELCA Eastern North Dakota Synod and Bishop Craig A. Schweitzer of the Western North Dakota Synod signed on with others from the ELCA as well as other denominations to a published letter (March 10, 2023) calling for the state legislature to “oppose bills that would harm the people of North Dakota and support legislation that reflects the true values of North Dakotans, values that guide us to care for one another and build a state that welcomes everyone.”

Earlier in the year, Bishop Amy Current of the ELCA Southeastern Iowa Synod included raising attention to anti-LGBTQ legislation among items in the legislative session that aligned with Lent. “A recent study shows 44% of LGBTQ youth in Iowa considered suicide in the last year compared to 18% of non-LGBTQ youth,” she wrote to the synod (Feb. 27, 2023), noting several bills had been introduced in this legislative session that put LGBTQ adults and children at risk, including through curbing access to education, privacy, accommodations and healthcare. “Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves,” Bishop Current wrote, “These neighbors, LGBTQ children, adults, and their families are our neighbors and deserve to live with dignity and respect.”

An op-ed column coauthored by Bishop Sue Briner, ELCA Southwestern Texas Synod, and Bishop Suffragan Kathryn M. Ryan, The Episcopal Diocese of Texas, was published (March 30, 2023) in the state which has seen may anti-LGBTQ bills in the 2023 legislative session. “It is plain to see by the many anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ+ bills filed in the Texas Legislature and across the country that trans individuals are not being seen to bear the image of Christ, are not having their dignity respected, and are not being seen as an opportunity through which the rest of us, in striving for justice and peace, might honor the image of God,” they wrote. “We faithfully hold the position that God calls us to meet the needs of transgender individuals and to empower them to flourish through the means of care which medical and therapeutic professionals continue to hold up as the gold standard. We stand with our transgender siblings and their parents and doctors, opposing interference with their access to medical and psychological care because it violates the human dignity we seek to uphold.”

Bishop Michael Rinehart of the ELCA Gulf Coast Synod participated in a prayer vigil (March 27, 2023) to support LGBTQ Texans testifying against a number of anti-trans bills in the state’s House.

From the ELCA Nebraska Synod, Bishop Scott Alan Johnson co-authored with Bishop J. Scott Barker of The Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska a piece in the Omaha News-Herald titled “Midlands Voices: Legislation like LB 574 and LB 575 violates human dignity” (4/2/23 updated 5/9/23).* “These bills dishonor those who are doing their utmost to discover how they bear the image of God within themselves and in relationship to the people they love,” they write.

 

ELCA-Affiliated State Public Policy Office Sampling

ELCA-affiliated state public policy offices (sppos) have galvanized significant advocacy to promote dignity and respect under legislative threat.

• Discrimination is not a Texas Value is the headline accompanying a letter to Texas lawmakers (May 2023) organized through Texas Impact in the sppo network. “We wish to bring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) Texans to your attention, as they remain at great risk. They are the target of routine mistreatment ranging from unkindness to life-ending assault, and they are forced to navigate unjust policies and practices on a daily basis. Alarmist language, fear-based rhetoric, and general mis or disinformation fuels discrimination, and discrimination does great harm.” The letter, signed by many including Lutheran congregations and individuals, continues, “As legislation is developed, filed, and negotiated, we urge you to use the authority afforded you by your office to unequivocally reject the targeting of marginalized people, and to both protect and do good for vulnerable Texans.”
• Kansas Interfaith Action, a sppo, has been attentive to developments in the Kansas legislature. “We spent quite a bit of time and effort recruiting and preparing testimony on several bills targeting trans people in Kansas,” wrote Rabbi Moti Rieber, executive director (February 2023).
• The Columbus Dispatch published a Letter to the Editor (Dec. 2022) by ELCA Deacon Nick Bates, director of Hunger Network in Ohio. “Sadly, there are lawmakers in Ohio that want to ban the right of kids to play as their authentic selves. I am discouraged by legislative proposals such as House Bill 151 that deny our trans and non-binary youth the opportunity to play sports,” he wrote. “House Bill 151 replaces love with bureaucracy, it replaces compassion with big government. We should welcome these children, because God already has.”

 

ALL OF US

There is some encouragement to hear voices of Christians confronting this struggle, but our advocacy remains vital. “As we celebrate Pride Month in June, we know that there are 29 states that still have harmful laws that are harmful to our LGBTQIA+ siblings,” says John Johnson, ELCA Program Director for Domestic Policy. “As too many states across the country join in introducing anti-trans legislation at the state level, we must remain allied, together, and vigilant.”

The ELCA social message “Human Rights” articulates a summons for God’s people in the ELCA to renewed attention and courage, discernment and action to promote and protect human rights. It says, “Christians are called to participate in God’s work in society, and we should expect to participate in history as rights are discerned, defined and defended” (p. 11).

In your communities and states, your advocacy is important. Reach out to your sppo or synod staff or task force for support and collaboration. Federally, our ELCA Witness in Society advocacy staff are monitoring for opportunities for federal policy action. The 🗺️ “Synod and District Map” can help you identify federal policy makers in your area to whom you may want to reach out to urge federal action.

Thank you for showing up and speaking out.

 

---

*Reference added to ELCA Advocacy Blog post 6/15/23

 

Faith Lens will not be published over the summer. But don’t worry, it will be back in the fall.

 

The next Faith Lens is scheduled to be posted on September 5, 2023 for Sunday, September 10.

 

In March 2023, countries in southeastern Africa were hit by one of the most powerful cyclones in memory. Tropical Cyclone Freddy moved across Madagascar, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, bringing torrential rain and powerful winds. Freddy was one of the longest-lasting tropical cyclones and most intense cyclones on record, generating accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) that the World Meteorological Organization has said was equivalent to a full North Atlantic hurricane season.

The storm created new challenges and worsened existing challenges in the country of Malawi, where over 70 percent of the population lives below the international poverty line of $1.90 per day.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to join colleagues from the ELCA in visiting the Blantyre region in southern Malawi to learn more about the impact of the cyclone and to hear about the ways the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi (ELCM) and its development arm, the Evangelical Lutheran Development Service (ELDS), are accompanying communities impacted by hunger, poverty and disaster, with support from ELCA World Hunger and Lutheran Disaster Response.

The stories we heard of the cyclone were devastating. The people who spoke with us told of homes destroyed by winds and rock slides, livestock and fields of crops washed away, and family members lost in the floodwaters. The pain was palpable as they shared their stories and showed us piles of bricks that used to be their homes. Many of the people we met spoke of trauma and a need for both material goods, such as food and clothing, and spiritual and emotional care as they discern a path forward.

Yet, we also heard a bold commitment to continue moving forward, to replant and to rebuild, and to continue making progress against hunger and poverty. “We cannot remain idle,” one woman said. A man from a community near Chimvu echoed her: “We have to keep going.”

ELCM and ELDS are accompanying the communities as they forge a new path ahead. With support from Lutheran Disaster Response, ELCM and ELDS are distributing food in areas hit by Tropical Cyclone Freddy. The bags of meal and soya will not meet every need, but they will provide critical food for the hardest-hit communities. And, as we heard, the food is an important symbol of the ongoing presence of ELCM and ELDS within the communities. It is a sign that they are not alone.

Despite the challenges of recovery, the communities accompanied by ELDS and ELCM are also continuing the important long-term work of reducing food insecurity and poverty. With support from ELCA World Hunger, ELDS is working with communities to expand food production, support small businesses and strive for gender justice. Our group had the chance to visit newly planted fields of sweet potatoes and cassava, to learn about women-owned businesses and even to meet some young piglets.

There is much need in the communities we visited, but there are also so many assets and strengths to witness. The leaders in each community inspired us with their hope, determination, creativity and resilience that make it possible for this work to continue.

Below, you have the chance to virtually witness some of this for yourself through a virtual tour of the communities in Zomba and Phalombe. In this virtual tour, you will be able to meet some of the people we visited, to watch as one leader describes her fuel-efficient wood-burning cookstove, to hear the exuberant singing and dancing of the communities and to learn more about how ELCA World Hunger, Lutheran Disaster Response, ELCM and ELDS are partnering together to accompany our neighbors in Malawi.

The virtual tour is accessible on computer or mobile device. Each text box also has an icon for a screen reader. Click on the picture or link below to get started.  Once the tour opens, scroll down just a bit to find a button allowing you to view it full-screen. To navigate, simply click any of the pulsing icons on the pictures. Each icon will pull up a video, picture or text box. You can use the back arrow and the home icon at the top left of the screen to go back or to re-start.

May the people and the stories you encounter in the tour inspire your ongoing prayers for continued recovery from Tropical Cyclone Freddy and inspire your hope and active support through the strength and courage of our neighbors in Malawi.

Hunger and Hope in Malawi: Virtual Tour

Ryan P. Cumming, Ph.D., is the director of education and networks for the Building Resilient Communities team in the ELCA.

“In the Scriptures, God assigns a sacred responsibility to human beings: we are to care for and keep God’s creation for future generations,” opens the ELCA’s most recent social message, “Earth’s Climate Crisis.” It continues, “With God’s help humanity can turn from the present course, take loving and just action, and live more harmoniously within God’s beautiful and verdant creation.”

Creation Care Ambassadors (Ambassadors), trained through a certification program of Lutherans Restoring Creation (LRC) with ELCA collaborator Blessed Tomorrow, empower themselves to make a difference with tools, resources and networking to act and advocate for climate solutions. Reach out to an Ambassador to help support local congregational and synod creation care activities using the 🗺️ LRC locator map, and consider taking the free training.

“[This network] helps us engage with all the ways we care about our environment as people of faith, and makes us able to talk about climate change – not as a political issue, but as something that affects how we love our neighbor,” says Phoebe Morad, LRC Executive Director and ELCA Creation Care Network Associate. “We’re saying to the Creator we worship – thank you for this creation,” she describes, and Ambassadors can prompt informed and faithful response. “And then we are acting, together.”

Stephanie Coble Lower attended the Susquehanna Summit in Oct. 2022, an interfaith environmental gathering, after her Ambassador training. “One thing I have discerned is that I love connecting organizations in our work. There is so much more we can do together as opposed to individually,” she said. Great times to invite an Ambassador to facilitate presentations and conversations on faith and climate include conferences, small-group forums and retreats, and important days like Earth Day and holy seasons. “I pray daily for opportunities and guidance [about] how my expertise and passion can be used to benefit God’s creation,” Lower adds.

Many of us find ourselves enjoying and centering the natural world in our daily activities anew this spring. “As Lutheran Christians, we confess that both our witness to God’s goodness in creation and our acceptance of caregiving responsibility have often been weak and uncertain,” is a confession in Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice, the third-ever ELCA social statement passed nearly three decades ago. As climate change presents humanity with a kairos moment, let’s center and enjoy anew actions together of creation care.

Following are updates shared from submissions of the Lutheran Office for World Community and state public policy offices (sppos) in the ELCA Advocacy Network this month. Full list and map of sppos available.

 

U.N. | CALIFORNIA  | MINNESOTA | OHIO | PENNSYLVANIA | WASHINGTON | WISCONSIN

 

Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC), United Nations, New York, N.Y. – ELCA.org/lowc

Christine Mangale, Director

• LOWC engaged and monitored the “International Dialogue Migration 2023- Leveraging Human Mobility in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) March 30-31. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) marks the first-time migration has been fully recognized as a core development consideration by the international community. This dialogue will feed into the September SDG summit, which marks the halfway point of this 15-year mandated agenda. More information can be found here. A report has been prepared and can be shared upon request. 
• LOWC hosted a small delegation of three individuals from the ELCA’s Indigenous ministries team and partners for the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples 17-28 April. . LOWC co-sponsored and participated in a side-event, “Between Neglect and Exploitation: The case of Indigenous Communities in the Peruvian Amazon,” that focused on indigenous people from Peru and contained statements of solidarity and common struggle from indigenous people from Africa.  Additionally, the ELCA co-hosted a second side-event with Anglicans looking at “The Church and Indigenous Boarding Schools: A Time of Reckoning and Looking to the Future.”  
• LOWC also monitored the Finance for Development meetings at the UN from 17-20 April, which is the “ways and means” conversation for the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), We are in a discernment process with LWF to add depth to this area of advocacy especially as the SDGs approach their halfway point in September. 

 

California

Lutheran Office of Public Policy – California (LOPP-CA) – lutheranpublicpolicyca.org

Regina Banks, Director

It was great to connect with so many strong advocates at Pacifica Synod Assembly in Palm Desert, California on May 5-6. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and engaged with ELCA advocacy there.  

 

The Lutheran Office of Public Policy, California’s (LOPPCA) annual Lutheran Lobby Day took place on Wednesday, May 17th! Lutherans from across the state gathered to advocate for the following bills: 

• SB 4 (Wiener)- Affordable housing development & zoning reform. This bill would streamline the process for religious organizations & nonprofit colleges to develop affordable housing on their property.  
• AB 249 (Holden)- Clean drinking water in schools. This bill would increase testing & disclosure requirements of school drinking water lead levels. It would additionally allocate funding for testing filters & infrastructure improvements to reduce/eliminate lead in water.  

• AB 660 (Irwin)- Food waste, food date labeling reform. This bill would require the use of uniform terms for food product date labels, i.e. removing ‘sell by’ dates and making ‘best by’ or ‘use by’ dates clearer for consumers. The goal is to help reduce food waste, which is a large problem not only for addressing hunger but also for methane emissions and climate change. 
• AB 1534 (Irwin)- Methane emissions monitoring requirements. This bill would use remote sensing technology to better identify and then regulate methane emissions from landfills. 

 

Currently, all of these bills are in their respective house’s Appropriations Committees. LOPPCA is hopeful that they will advance to floor votes and proceed through the policy bill process in this legislative session. 

 

Minnesota

Lutheran Advocacy – Minnesota (LA-MN) – lutheranadvocacymn.org

Tammy Walhof, Director

Affordable Housing: The final negotiated Housing Omnibus bill passed with $1.07 billion/FY24-35 biennium. Included were programs addressing homelessness, rental assistance, rental-home preservation, manufactured-home coop purchase, first-time & workforce homeownership, lead-safe homes, and more. The Senate accepted the House’s seven-county metro area sales tax for ongoing housing funding (causing the loss of bipartisan Senate support), in exchange for lowering spending levels.

Lutheran Advocacy-MN focused on big-picture funding/investments, as the Homes for All 2023 Agenda was long and complicated. We are pleased so many Homes for All details were addressed, and that our big-picture advocacy helped secure bipartisan support for the original Senate bill! 

We’re also glad many (though not all) rental reforms we’ve supported over several years passed separately.

Sacred Tiny Home Communities: Sacred Tiny Home bipartisan language remains in the final Labor Omnibus Bill. We anticipate passage soon by a close margin since other aspects of the Omnibus are controversial.  

We are delighted that some of our Minnesota ELCA synods passed resolutions in support of these Sacred Settlements, and committed to encouraging congregational engagement beyond solely legislative support/action.

 

Negotiations Continue: Other areas for which we’ve had action alerts continue to be in play in various negotiations. Among those are… 

• Homeless Shelter and Homeless Youth Funding in Health & Human Services bill negotiations.
• Inclusion of Next Generation Climate Act updates to reflect current science and emphasize the need for lowering harmful emissions across the spectrum in Energy & Climate negotiations.
• Funding for the Minnesota Climate Innovation Finance Authority (MnCIFA) to smooth the clean energy transition from both the Energy & Climate and Jobs/Economic Development negotiations. 

 

Ohio

Hunger Network Ohio (HNO) – hungernetwork.org

Deacon Nick Bates, Director

On May 11th, 2023, Hunger Network in Ohio in partnership with the Ohio Council of Churches and Dominican Sisters of Peace, held a Budget Advocacy Luncheon – Praying for Our Daily Bread. There were over 100 attendees present, representing over 28 organizations. Additionally, 20 legislators and their staff were present at the event. Speakers included Representative Jay Edwards (Ohio House Finance Chair), Representative Bride Rose Sweeney (Ranking Member of the Ohio Finance Committee), and Bishop Gregory V. Palmer of the West Ohio Conference, UMC. We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to co-host this impactful event, and to have made an impact to ensure that one day, everyone in Ohio will receive their daily bread. 

   

 

Pennsylvania

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry – Pennsylvania (LAMPa) lutheranadvocacypa.org

Tracey DePasquale, Director

Lutherans turned out in record numbers for the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania (LAMPa) annual day of advocacy on April 27. More than 150 attendees participated in workshops on hunger, climate, clean water, housing insecurity,  LGBTQ+ policy and resources for the new study guide on civic life and faith, before traveling to the Capitol to advocate on hunger and housing priorities in the upcoming budget.

“The day was full of energy,” said LAMPa Director Tracey DePasquale. “It was wonderful to be gathered again after four years!”

The Rev. Dr.  Roger Willer, ELCA director of theological ethics in the Office of the Presiding Bishop, offered the keynote on Discipleship in a Democracy. “The response to the keynote and workshop on progress toward the new social statement gives us hope that these resources will spark good conversations and that our congregations will find the resulting statement useful in their witness and in their daily discipleship,” DePasquale said. 

Even the day’s worship was based on materials used in the study guide, making it a great sending for our work in the Capitol. Watch a recording here. 

Advocates from each synod were recognized as a way of lifting up their work and inspiring others. Read their stories. 

DePasquale has also been busy with legislative visits on environmental justice, participating in SEPA Synod Assembly, a consult with Lutheran Disaster Response, and a conference on science-based targets for faith-based organizations sponsored by World Resources Institute and Georgetown University.   

 

Washington

Faith Action Network (FAN) – fanwa.org

Elise DeGooyer, Director

We have good news to share as the 2023 Washington State Legislative Session adjourned on April 23. We are celebrating some victories and historic milestones for the people of our state: 

• Our hunger and safety net bills were among the first to pass and be signed by the Governor this session—adding $28M for emergency food and nutrition services, school meals for 90,000 more K-12 students, and basic needs supports for college students. Investments were made to expand affordable housing. 
• We especially celebrate the removal of the death penalty from state law, following decades of work and after it was deemed unconstitutional by the State Supreme Court. 

• In a year where we have grieved multiple mass shootings, our state took steps to limit assault weapons, add comprehensive background checks, and hold the gun manufacturers accountable for controls. 
• The legislature also protected reproductive choice and gender-affirming care in Washington with several bills this session. You can find our full listing of wins and analysis on our website under Legislative Agenda. 

And there is more work to do! The governor called a special session to begin on May 16 to address an impasse over an expiring law about drug possession penalties. Our coalitions’ economic justice bills to fix the state’s regressive tax system—the Wealth Tax, Guaranteed Basic Income, and Future Fund—did not move this session, but important conversations were begun. Renter protection bills to prevent homelessness also did not pass. 

 

Wisconsin

Lutheran Office for Public Policy – Wisconsin (LOPPW) loppw.org

The Rev. Cindy Crane, Director

Youth Advocacy Retreat 

Thirty youth from all six synods and several adults showed up for a weekend in April to be part of our first Youth Advocacy Retreat.   

Our organizers included Deacon Laura Ramlow Synod Minister – Communication, Faith Formation, Malawi (Northwest Wisconsin Synod);, Rev. Jenn Pockat, Associate to the Bishop, Director for Communications and Community (East Central Synod of Wisconsin); Rev. Marie Leafblad, Associate to the Bishop for Leadership Support (South-Central Synod of Wisconsin);, Rev. Cindy Crane (LOPPW director);, Ms. Stefanie Ehle, Synod Youth Ministries Coordinator (Northern Great Lakes Synod);, and Ms. Gretchen Haugse, Youth and Sunday School Ministries, St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church, Milwaukee (Greater Milwaukee Synod). 

 

Additional Recent Events 

Women of the ELCA: The Lutheran Office of Public Policy in Wisconsin (LOPPW) had a presence and spoke briefly at the La Crosse Area Synod Women of the ELCA Convention, which focused on faith and citizenship. Rev. Joanne Richmond of Our Savior’s Lutheran, La Crosse, Wisc., gave an excellent presentation.   

East Central Synod of Wisconsin Lay School: LOPPW’s director led a class on the ELCA social statements for the East Central Synod of Wisconsin Lay School of Ministry, coordinated by Rev. Mark Ziemer. LOPPW will lead one more class on Luther and social justice in May. 

 

State Budget 

LOPPW submitted these comments to the Joint Finance Committee:  2023 Joint Finance Committee Requests   

Bill King, Blacksburg, VA

Warm-up Question

Make a mental playlist of your five favorite pieces of music?  How many musical genres are represented?  Is it all K-pop, metal, classical, rap, jazz, indie?  Do you have a mix?  What do your choices say about you?

Crossing Boundaries

Taylor Swift and The National have both been very influential musical artists.  But they have typically appealed to very different audiences.  Swift is the epitome of a pop star, mining her personal struggles for inspiration and pairing them with catchy tunes which have stadiums of adoring fans singing along.  

In contrast, The National has been the poster child for an indie-rock band, more at home in a grungy after hours club than an arena.  If Swift’s lyrics often sound like a teen’s diary, The National’s are brooding and obscure to the the point of incomprehensible.

So, according to a recent article The Atlantic, it is mildly surprising that Swift and The National have collaborated.  According to the review, both benefited from the interaction.  Swift’s new albums, Folklore and Evermore, feature moodier arrangements and show her “availing herself of the freedoms and imperatives, that men in rock and roll have long enjoyed—and projecting more ambiguity rather than wholesomeness and virtue.”

From Swift, The National seems to have learned to be less morose and abstract.  “In First Two Pages of Frankenstein the songwriting is tighter and often brighter, and Beringer’s [The National’s lead singer] meanings are remarkably direct.”  

Music fans are the big winners when stars push their comfort zones and learn from one another.

Discussion Questions

• How do you react when your favorite musical artist tries something new?
• In previous generations radio stations would play a “Top 40” format, which included many different styles of music.  You might hear country, rock, soul, and a show tune in the same half hour.  Today most people create a play list of their favorites or listen to a curated list on a streaming service.  What are the benefits and costs of each experience?
• Think about a time you have collaborated with someone else?  How were you changed?  How was the product on which you collaborated better or worse?

Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21

1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

John 20:19-23

(Text links are to Oremus Bible Browser. Oremus Bible Browser is not affiliated with or supported by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. You can find the calendar of readings for Year A at Lectionary Readings.)

For lectionary humor and insight, check the weekly comic Agnus Day.

Gospel Reflection

It’s hard to say exactly what happened that first Pentecost.  A sound from heaven like a rushing wind, tongues of fire resting on the disciples—this is clearly figurative language which Luke uses to communicate an experience he can not really explain.  Yet, somehow God comes to the disciples in a way they can not deny, transforming them from a scared cadre of confused believers into people compelled to tell what Jesus taught and did.

Nor is it clear how Galileans are suddenly able to speak languages they have never studied.  Some scholars suggest that Luke (the writer of Acts) misunderstood what happened, that this is an example of glossolalia, the “speaking in tongues” we usually associate with Pentecostal worship.  But that is not what the text describes.  This is not people speaking gibberish, which others interpret.  Rather, people from across the empire hear their own languages spoken.  It is like a person born and bred in rural Iowa or Virginia suddenly preaching in flawless Mandarin or Kiswahili. 

Through we can not say exactly what happened, it is easier to see what it means.  There was no way the gospel message was going to stay confined within a tightly cloistered community around Jerusalem.  The rest of Acts shows the expansion of the Church’s ministry.  Peter goes to a Gentile centurion, Cornelius.  Paul travels through Greece, Asia Minor, and ultimately to Rome.  Pentecost serves notices that God intends for the way of Jesus to transcend the boundaries of culture, language, and religion.  This is a message for all people.

During the Church’s history that intention has often been frustrated.  Unfortunately, Christians easily misidentify their own culture as the one true expression of the gospel.  When that happens the Church’s confession is neither good nor news; it becomes just another defense of the status quo.

The Church is most faithful when it reaches beyond its comfort zone and hears and welcomes challenging voices.  It is most effective when it finds new ways to address the hurts and struggles which we all share.  Just as a lake needs a regular infusion of fresh water, so the church needs new voices.  Both grow stagnant without a renewing flow.  Unfamiliar, even disconcerting, voices are the lifeblood of the Church, keeping it in touch with the world for which Christ died.  They are God’s gift, pushing us to see how Pentecost was not a one-and-done phenomenon, but the template for how a Spirit led community looks when Christ is alive in it.

Discussion Questions

• What new voice has challenged you in the last week to think or act in a different way?
• What are your favorite hymns; do any of them come out of a culture different from your own?
• The Church is often accused of being out of touch with the world.  Do you think that is true?  What could it do to more effectively speak to your questions and concerns?
• A hallmark of the Pentecost narrative is that “each heard in his own native language.”  What new “languages” does the church need to master in order to proclaim Christ more effectively?  For example, how well do we speak “science?”

Activity Suggestions

Evangelical Lutheran Worship and many other hymnals  contain music from a variety of  nations and cultures.  Still, most of the hymns in ELW come out of Europe or North American.  Get an ELW or other hymnal and seek out hymns from Africa, Latin America, and Asia.  

• How are they different, both musically and in their theological emphasis, from those written in Europe or the United States?  How are they similar?
• How do they enrich the worship life of congregations which use them?  What would be lost if they were not part of the worship resource Lutherans share?

Closing Prayer

Surprising God, just as you came to the disciples in an unexpected way at Pentecost, come also to us.  Shake us out of complacency.  Makes us alive to the gifts which those who seem very different from us may offer to enrich our lives.  Give us wisdom to hold on to what is timeless, your unfailing love.  But also make us eager to embrace bold, creative ways to speak and live that love in our hurting world.