ELCA Blogs

Issue 83 of Administration Matters

ELCA Churchwide Assembly Pre-event: “Embody the Word” Bible study sessions

In preparation for the 2022 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, ELCA members are encouraged to participate in a series of online Bible studies. Participants will explore the meaning of “embodiment,” from Luke 24, and get the chance to engage with the presenters. Sessions take place Sunday afternoons in July from 3 to 3:45 p.m. Central time, and they can be streamed live or on-demand in the Churchwide Assembly Playlist of the ELCA YouTube channel. The presenters are:
• Rev. Jay Alanis (July 10).
• Sally Azar (July 17).
• Man-Hei Yip (July 24).
• Denise Rector (July 31).
Register for the live Bible study sessions.

Get a jump on your Portico Annual Enrollment

Health benefits are critically important to the ELCA’s rostered ministers and church staff. Want to help your organization select its 2023 health benefit option? Download Portico’s 2023 Annual Enrollment checklist and complete the two July tasks now. EmployerLink users will receive more enrollment-related information in August and September.

Prepare for “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday with new resources

On Sunday, Sept. 11, congregations of the ELCA will join for “God’s work. Our hands.” Sunday, our dedicated day of service. As you explore opportunities to participate, visit ELCA.org/DayOfService for planning resources including a tool kit, worship material, videos, posters, social media graphics and a special hymn for the day. As we continue our tradition of service to our neighbor, we remember the words of Martin Luther: “Our faith is a living, busy, active, mighty thing.” Plan your day of service.

New mileage rate July through December 2022

The Internal Revenue Service announced an increase in the optional standard mileage rate for the final six months of 2022. Taxpayers may use the optional standard mileage rates to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business and certain other purposes. For the final six months of 2022, the standard mileage rate for business travel will be 62.5 cents per mile, up 4 cents from the rate effective at the start of the year. This new rate becomes effective July 1, 2022. The IRS provided legal guidance on the new rates in Announcement 2022-13, issued June 9, 2022.

Cyber liability insurance

Cyber insurance is a specialty insurance product intended to protect businesses from internet-based risks and, more generally, risks related to information technology infrastructure and activities. The cost of containing and repairing system damages, coupled with addressing customer fraud and damage claims, can cripple a small business. Insurance against cyberattacks can help a small business cover the resulting liability and damages. >More

Choose your payroll provider wisely

Outsourcing payroll services has become a common practice for small and large organizations. This helps them to reduce costs, follow all tax laws and obtain expert solutions to pay their employees accurately and on time. The Internal Revenue Service provides tips on how to choose a reliable and trustworthy payroll service. >More

See one another and share stories on important themes in our lives as people of faith in our communities – both as church and citizens. Bring your experience, new or seasoned, and your questions. Our Christian faith compels us to attend to the world through the lens of our relationship to God and to one another. Sometimes, we may echo the sentiment: The world’s so big and I’m so small. Yet there is much we can do act for greater justice, and we are far from alone.

Register today – and invite others!

The ELCA “is called to be a part of the ecumenical Church of Jesus Christ in the context in which God has placed it—a diverse, divided, and threatened global society on a beautiful, fragile planet” (from the ELCA social statement Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective). Together, there is much we can do.

Tue. Oct. 25 – Can Talking Politics Be Healthy?

Anxiety and passions that run high in election season don’t stop when we enter our church doors. Yet we can shift the tone, facing the heightened rhetoric with tools and faith-centered convictions that break through heightened rhetoric. We can and do foster civil relationships and dialogue that invites trust amid our differences and lead healthy community conversations on the common good.
Offered in conjunction with the ELCAvotes initiative.

Choose

Day Session: 1 p.m. ET
- REGISTRATION – https://bit.ly/ELCAadvocacycafe-day1025
Evening Session: 8 p.m. ET
- REGISTRATION – https://bit.ly/ELCAadvocacycafe-eve1025

CONCLUDED: Tue. July 26 – August Recess

With the Tue. July 26 cafe exploring August Recess opportunities to start us out, drop by an Advocacy Cafe to hear from ELCA advocacy community leaders about timely topics on the last Tuesday of every month. Get to know staff, issues and one another!

CONCLUDED: Tue. Aug. 30 – Our Stories of Civic Engagement

There is no shortage of ways we and our congregations can and do get involved in civic engagement around the electoral process. As a church, we do not endorse a particular candidate, party or form of government or strive for a Christian one. Yet in Lutheran teaching, one way God works to preserve creation and build a more peaceful and just social order in a broken world is through government. Let’s have a positive impact!
Offered in conjunction with the ELCAvotes initiative.

CONCLUDED: Tue. Sept. 27 – Bringing Down Barriers to Voting

Being alert to barriers to voting and acting to guarantee that all citizens be able to exercise the right to vote can demonstrate our Christian faith as Lutherans and have value for our communities and country. The right to vote on an equal basis is a fundamental requirement for a just society, affirmed in ELCA social teaching. Let’s hear from one another about ways we remove barriers as individuals, congregations and in partnerships.
Offered in conjunction with the ELCAvotes initiative.

Independence in Inches: A July 4th Reflection by Nathaniel Viets-Van lear

For the last four years, I’ve made the same walk on Fourth of July weekend. Each walk feeling as hot as any other before it. Shoes sticking to cracked Chicago concrete. Dots of melty black asphalt. Signs of streets deserving a little tender love, as my grandma called it.

These long walks on Douglas Boulevard in North Lawndale always have something to teach me about the past. In this all-Black neighborhood, it’s a street named after a white Illinois senator, slave owner and avid advocate for slavery. One of many dark legacies in a very American city.

For the last four summers, every July Fourth weekend I walked these streets. Because I am a youth worker. And the July Fourth weekend marks the final dress rehearsal for our youth-led community walks program. A youth job program of the organization My Block My Hood My City. A program that trains young people from the west side in how to tell the stories and history of their community. They lead myself and hundreds of guests through these same steps of North Lawndale civil rights history.

Each July Fourth weekend, walking past these iconic sites of old becomes a form of timeless therapy. A reminder of time shifting while the endemic remains all too similar.

A century-old funeral home. Formerly Jewish. Currently Black-owned. Agelessly busy during the summertime.

The corner store pharmacy. Providing affordable medicine for a class in need.

A former Jewish synagogue and then Baptist church. A building that became the center of Martin Luther King Jr.’s organizing during his time in Chicago. Stone Stars of David intermixed with stained-glass crosses. An eternal center of religion and activism.

It was here that MLK organized a movement against the relegation of blacks to slums and ghettos in the city. With gentrification and segregation as prevalent now as ever before, it’s a movement to which Chicagoans of today can certainly relate.

Independence Day comes and goes. But so much remains the same.

Yet each year I still cherish my time in this space especially. This annual walk through the aged stone temple building brings visceral images to the imagination. You can almost taste 60 years ago. MLK speaking to a packed crowd of Black folks. Sweating in that Chicago heat. Folks taking significant time and significant risk to be in radical community with one another. Many of them as young as the high schoolers I work with today.

I cherish that time in that space, because it’s in that nostalgia that you feel the weight of the movement.

On July 4, 1777, our American ancestors were still struggling as slaves.

On July 4, 1877, our ancestors were new freedmen struggling to survive.

And almost 100 years after that MLK was leading our struggle for civil rights.

That struggle is in the bones of Black folk. It is in our ancestral DNA.

And where will we be on Independence Day 2065? With God’s grace, I hope to live to see it. I hope to see it and smile, as my ancestors are today watching over me as I walk these same streets. Mere footsteps on the long path to justice. Inches closer on the road to freedom.

It’s the inches that I contemplate. And it’s for the inches I celebrate. Not with a burst like fireworks and loud sparks. More like a quiet flame. That same flame I see in the eyes of our young folk. Those passionate for justice. The ones who lead the way.

BIO:

Nathaniel identifies as a multiracial activist, youth social worker, facilitator and teaching artist. Born and raised in Chicago, Nathaniel currently serves as director of youth development for the organization My Block My Hood My City. He has served in various leadership roles within the ELCA, including the Lutheran Youth Organization, the Multicultural Advisory Committee, the MYLE planning committee, and GLOCAL. He served as a multicultural consultant for the ELCA and crafted an anti-bias curriculum for the 2015 youth gathering. Nathaniel believes radical change can happen in communities with the right tools and investment.

by Kathryn M. Lohre

As Lutherans in North America, we have a remarkable opportunity to live out our Christian vocation in a multi-religious world. No matter where we live, the realities of religious diversity are not “out there,” but in our daily lives with our families, in our congregations, communities, and at work. Our ministries – whether as pastors, deacons, or lay people – are shaped by the religious diversity in our midst. The brand new “ELCA Guidelines for Ministry in a Multi-Religious World” provide a way for our ministries to also be shaped for our multi-religious context.

These new guidelines provide both general guidance, as well as recommendations for specific occasions, including prayer services, crisis and tragedy response, social ministries, pastoral care, weddings, funerals, religious rites and ceremonies, and engaging through inter-religious organizations. The guidelines are intentionally not one-size-fits-all templates. Instead, they assert that the foundation for effective inter-religious engagement is authentic relationships coupled with contextual considerations. What you will discover in this document are guideposts for how to weigh factors in light of our shared theological framework and policy commitments for inter-religious relations, consistent with our church’s three inter-religious declarations.*

You can read more about the development of these guidelines in the “Background” and “General Guidelines” sections of the document. Two noteworthy factors in the process were the input gleaned from a survey across the church that yielded the collective wisdom of more than 2,600 respondents, and the review several of our inter-religious partners provided on the penultimate draft. The ELCA is not new to inter-religious relations, and many of our pastors, deacons, and lay people are leading the way in asking bold questions and identifying best practices. The fact that we were able to receive and build upon this collective wisdom richly blessed this work.

Our inter-religious partners are able to hold up a mirror to reflect how they see us. In doing so, they can help us to see more clearly who we want to become, and even how we can continue to grow together. In his review Tarunjit Singh Butalia (Religions for Peace USA) affirmed the guidelines as, “an excellent and well-balanced document [that]…lays out the theological arguments up-front and then delves into the nuts and bolts.”

Other partners acknowledge the value of the document not only for Lutherans, but as a model for their own communities. Rabbi Burton Visotzky (Jewish Theological Seminary) wrote, “I cannot wait for it to be published so that I might share it widely as an example of “best practice” in inter-religious dialogue.” Feryal Salem (American Islamic College) added, “I am inspired to work with Muslim community leaders to think about how we might do something similar.”

We pray that these guidelines will be a blessing to you and to your neighbors of other religions and worldviews. Thank you to all of you who played a role in shaping them, and to all those who will utilize and share them with others.

**These guidelines were called for in “A Declaration of Inter-Religious Commitment: A Policy Statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America” adopted by the Churchwide Assembly in 2019. They are consistent with the inter-religious policy of this church as expressed in “A Declaration of the ELCA to the Jewish Community” (1994), “A Declaration of Inter-Religious Commitment” (2019) and “A Declaration of the ELCA to the Muslim Community” (2022).*

Kathryn Mary Lohre serves as Assistant to the Presiding Bishop and Executive for Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations & Theological Discernment for the ELCA

I was surprised as the next person when I received the Daughters of the American Revolution History Award my sophomore year of high school. I sure wasn’t one to memorize years of battles or know which general led which brigade into war. For me, the most interesting aspect of history has always been how people led their lives. What did their homes look like? What did they eat? How did they worship? What songs did they sing?

When I think back to history as it was taught to me in the 1960s and 1970s, I’ve come to realize that I learned incomplete stories. Many of my history classes were limited to dates, military campaigns, and the like. Most, if not all, historical figures were male. And white. And as much as I like the musical “1776,” it doesn’t tell the full story of what happened as our fledgling nation sought independence from Great Britain.

So much of what actually occurred in North America was not recorded or saved. What was recorded or saved was composed by the conquerors (mostly white men). How refreshing that finally, we are learning more of the truth. We are learning what occurred from the moment Europeans landed here and brought with them enslaved people from Africa. (See the 1619 Project, for example) We are learning about forced sterilizations of Indigenous sisters and the horrible ways in which they and their brothers were forced into boarding schools, stripped of their traditions, and subjected to violence. (See Reclaiming Native Truth, for example)

No, we are not responsible for these and other historical acts. But we are responsible for what we do with the knowledge of those acts here and now in the 21st century. We are responsible for learning as much as we can and for working to change systems that unfairly advantage some and discriminate against others. Our organization, through the churchwide executive board, has committed itself to undergird our mission and ministry with three anti-racism foci: awareness-raising, accompaniment, and advocacy. The work is all ours to share, in congregational units, in synodical organizations, and in the churchwide women’s organization.

So, on this Independence Day, I encourage us all to spend some time relearning our shared history. Take time to read through five reflections written by Women of the ELCA participants as part of a study of the ELCA Declaration to People of African Descent. Review the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery, adopted by both the ELCA (in 2016) and affirmed by Women of the ELCA (in 2017). It’s a start. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We need to do the important work individually and working together. In that way, all of God’s people can love and be loved, as Jesus teaches us.

Bio: Linda Post Bushkofsky is executive director of Women of the ELCA.

When war came to Ukraine and desperate people began streaming across the international borders in the frigid days of late winter and early spring, the Rev. Miroslav Mató knew he and the members of his parish would be called upon to help.

Located in Gerlachov, a small village in Slovakia about 200 miles from the Ukrainian border, Rev. Mató and his wife, Rev. Jana Matóva, prepared to offer refuge.

Rev. Miroslav Mató with some of the refugees from Ukraine that his congregation in Slovakia is hosting.

“Our congregation has three buildings that were used for summer camps for youth,” he explained. “We decided to provide these as houses for refugees … We had almost 100 refugees traveling through our congregation in a few days, and 41 of them are staying for a longer term, saying they are wanting to stay here until the war is over.”

The outpouring of generosity from parishioners has been nothing short of miraculous, Rev. Mató said, with people helping refugees from Ukraine find jobs, enroll children in school and access medical care.

“In these two months, I could see more miracles than in all my life,” he said. “People were helping, they opened their hearts to help, and I could see more and more love than I ever have before.”

The chance to offer refuge to neighbors in need, he told his parishioners, was an opportunity to put their faith into practice.

“I can see a lot of God’s love in this situation,” he said. “As I preached in my sermon [at the beginning of the war], we can now in practice show what we have studied and learned theoretically, we have an opportunity to show it in real life. God is helping us and when we are at the end of our strength, He has always answered our prayers.”

Another Lutheran pastor in Slovakia, the Rev. Michal Belanji, recalls immigrating from Serbia with his parents as a teen, to escape the war that tore apart his home country in the 1990s. The church was there for his family in their time of need, he said. Today, his church in Janoskov is hosting 38 refugees from Ukraine.

“We help because we were helped,” he said. “It’s the reason why we are here.”

All over the region, Lutherans have opened their hearts, homes, churches and communities to people fleeing the war in Ukraine. According to data from the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), as of June 21, approximately 2.8 million of the 8 million people who fled at the start of the war are still in neighboring countries. Others have either moved on to other countries or returned home to Ukraine. Poland is currently hosting 1.2 million of those refugees; Slovakia 79,000 and Hungary 25,000.

A Lutheran Legacy

The Lutheran legacy of welcome goes back a long way.

“When the Lutheran World Federation was established 75 years ago, in the whole of Europe there was a refugee crisis after World War II,” explained the Rev. Tamás Fabiny, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary (ELCH). “People had to leave their country and go to a different place. So that is already part of our identity … to be a Lutheran is to welcome refugees.”

Rev. Tamás Fabiny (far right), ELCH Bishop, with a volunteer teacher at a school for Ukrainian children in the basement of the ELCH offices in Budapest.

Lutherans in the U.S. established a ministry of welcome in the era of World War II, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), founded in 1939. LIRS resettled more than 30,000 refugees from Germany and elsewhere in Europe in the aftermath of the war, and has since assisted more than 500,000 refugees from all over the world to rebuild their lives in the U.S.

While the current situation in Ukraine is creating the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, other conflicts over the years have also led people to seek refuge and provided opportunities for the church to live out its ministry of welcome. An attempted Hungarian uprising against communism in 1956 led nearly 300,000 people to leave the country, Fabiny said, and many of those people built new lives in Austria, Germany, and even the United States thanks to the welcome of Lutherans.

“I had the opportunity to visit several of these Lutheran communities,” he said, and “people told me how wonderful it was that they were received by families who gave them shelter, helped them find a job, or the church was opened for them. So we know what it is to be a displaced person because hundreds of thousands of people left Hungary in ‘56.”

The end of the Cold War and the Romanian revolution in 1989 also brought refugees to Hungary, he said, as did the Balkan war in the early 1990s, and the civil war in Syria in 2015. When he put out a video statement in support of welcoming refugees, as part of a 2017 UNHCR campaign, however, he received a great deal of backlash for his message. The political climate in Hungary had become more hostile toward refugees, he said, and his message of welcome was not well received by the general public.

But part of his role as a church leader, he says, is to speak out against injustice, following in the footsteps of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is important for the church not only to act in service to our neighbors, he says, but also to pray and reflect on our calling as Christians to work for peace and serve our neighbors.

“We have to reflect theologically on war and peace,” he says. “We had to learn from the Nazi time when many churches were supporting Hitler theologically. There were just a few, like Bonhoeffer, who criticized [Hitler]. I think it is very important for us as a church to have prayers, of course, and also theological reflection. Action should come after that.”

Emily Sollie is a freelance writer, editor and communications consultant. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and 4-year old son, and is a member of Lutheran Church of the Reformation.

My Freedom Day as a Female, Black and Queer Pastor

To be a female, Black and gay pastor on “Freedom Day” necessitates a certain amount of introspection, for my relationship with the church has long been a queer dance whose steps I don’t often apprehend.

Galatians 3:28 says: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Yet this oneness has been elusive in the ELCA and elsewhere, has it not?

There are still churches in the ELCA that won’t hire a female pastor. If hired, we are required to perform femininity in a way that is acceptable to the congregation. Dress like a woman, but don’t be too sexy. Be a strong leader, but never too emotional. Love the children of our church, but don’t spend too much time with your own.

There are churches in the ELCA that won’t hire a person of color — full stop. For those that do, we are often required to perform race in a way that is “nonthreatening” to the community. Be a dynamic speaker, but don’t be too loud. We know that you are Black, but don’t be too proud. And for the love of God, don’t talk about race or white privilege — it makes people uncomfortable. After all, we’re all the same ….

Finally, we know there are churches in the ELCA that won’t hire a queer person. If they do, we are required to perform our queerness in ways that do nothing to change the community. Don’t talk about being gay. Don’t teach our children “that way of life.” Don’t do anything that would cause our church shame in the community.

So, to recap, it’s OK to be female, Black and queer in the ELCA as long as it does not make the 97% European-American demographic of our denomination uncomfortable in any way. I call Bullshit.

Juneteenth is Freedom Day. June is Pride Month. And every single day approximately half of humans are female. Many have said that “none are free until all are free.” When God said that we “are one in Christ Jesus,” it was not an invitation to be all the same. It was an invitation to truly embrace our diversity and to become the beloved community for which Jesus died and the Holy Spirit longs.

Beloveds, what would it look like for us to truly value one another’s diversity and to celebrate one another’s cultures, experiences and way of life? How might our churches be transformed if we practiced radical hospitality, welcoming all just as we would Christ Jesus? What would happen if we followed the Holy Spirit outside of the four walls of our buildings and into the community to experience life with the neighbors God has given us?

Might we learn to dance together? Might the Holy Spirit lead our steps — both in joy and sorrow, lament and justice-seeking? Would she blow among us, compelling us to insist boldly on peace with justice for all of her children? How might she guide us to stop performing “welcome” and to actually be welcoming for the sake of Christ?

John 8:36 says: “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” Since Christ has made us all free, let us stop shackling one another and walk in the light of freedom as one.

Bio:

The Rev. Dr. Yolanda Denson-Byers hails from St. Louis, Mo. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., in religion and African American studies. Her Master of Divinity is from Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., with a specialty in worship, preaching, education, and pastoral care and counseling. Her Doctor of Ministry is in the field of congregational mission and leadership from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn.

Pastor Yolanda is a missional leader, with a heart for social justice issues, who has, for the last 23 years, been exercising her gifts through the vocations of pastor, evangelist, campus minister, hospice chaplain and bereavement counselor. In addition, she is very proud of her ministry as a wife and mother. Pastor Yolanda enjoys reading, writing, camping and anything pertaining to a warm climate with a saltwater beach!

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.

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

Dennis Frado, Director

In a May 18 letter, bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) urged congressional leaders to support the transfer of much-needed funds to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to cover debt owed to Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in East Jerusalem. https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/8144

The ELCA registered with Secretary of State Antony Blinken “profound shock and sadness concerning the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin, the West Bank, on May 11 and the deplorable disruption of her funeral procession on May 13” through your a letter from Bishop Eaton, and called for U.S. government “specific, concrete actions against Israeli impunity when these standards are not upheld.” https://blogs.elca.org/peacenotwalls/join-bishop-eaton-in-speaking-out-about-shireen-abu-aklehs-killing/

The International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) took place in May in New York, with the participation of the ELCA program director on migration and Lutheran Office for World Community staff, joined by AMMPARO companions and global ecumenical partners. A resulting IMRF Progress Declaration announces advancements on specific targets of the 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (Compact) and affirms the Compact which the United States once refused to engage. The Progress Declaration makes direct reference to systemic racism, climate as a driver of migration, prioritization of regularization of status, and commitment to more meaningful consultation with migrants themselves. Still leaving much to be desired, it sets key target areas for growth for the next round of regional consultations, and the next IMRF in 2026.

Arizona

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Arizona (LAMA) – lamaz.org

Solveig Muus, Director

Major Grant Received! LAMA, together with its Arizona Hunger Policy Workgroup partners including Bread for the World, World Hunger Ecumenical Arizona Task-Force (WHEAT), Arizona Food Bank Network, Arizona Food Systems Network and Arizona Faith Network, received a $20,000 SPARK Grant from the Vitalyst Health Foundation. The funds will be used to bring together all hunger advocates and experts in the state of Arizona in one place at one time to strategize about hunger and food insecurity across the state. The initiative is expected to produce a game plan and policy that all Arizona hunger advocates support, and each will work to promote these in the 2023 legislative session.

LAMA Goes to Washington! LAMA director Solveig Muus joined colleagues from across the country for the Bread for the World Advocacy Summit in Washington, D.C. on June 6-7. Highlights were visits with Rep. Ruben Gallego (D, AZ-07), Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), urging them to extend the Child Nutrition Waivers through 2023 and support S.2956, the Global Malnutrition Prevention & Treatment Act. We took in the sights, attended a meeting of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, and rubbed elbows, D.C.-style.

Hunger Leaders Network Turns One! The Grand Canyon Synod’s Hunger Leaders Network reached a milestone and is just hitting their stride! Each monthly meeting features updates from a churchwide expert as well as a local hunger partner. A special highlight was a greeting and update from Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton in January.

California

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

Regina Banks, Director

The Lutheran Office of Public Policy California sponsored Lutheran Lobby Day on Wednesday, May 18th. This virtual event brought Lutheran advocates and ecumenical partners together online to advocate for measures aimed at ending deep childhood poverty in California, financial assistance for families with young children, aiding children who lost parents and caregivers to the COVID 19 pandemic, securing clean safe affordable drinking water and other issues. The event was a great success, and we anticipate that the 2022-2023 budget will include most of these important concerns at funding levels unseen in the last decade. The budget deadline was June 15.

Colorado

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Colorado (LAM-CO) – lam-co.org

Peter Severson, Director

Colorado Governor Jared Polis (seated) signs HB 22-1083 into law on Tuesday, May 31, 2022.

Ballot Season coming soon: The Colorado Legislature may be adjourned for the year, but the many campaigns for Colorado ballot measures will be coming soon to a screen, mailbox, and billboard near you. We are excited to be working on a ballot measure to fund healthy meals for all public school students! More information on this & other campaigns will be coming this summer.

Bills signed into law: Several bills which Lutheran Advocacy supported this session were recently signed into law by Governor Jared Polis, including House Bill 22-1259, Modifications to Colorado Works Program, which will boost our state’s cash assistance to very low-income households and make needed modernizing updates; and House Bill 22-1083, the Colorado Homeless Contribution Tax Credit (see photo below).

March for Our Lives Service: An ecumenical Service of Lament & Prayer was held at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral on Saturday, June 11, ahead of the March for Our Lives rally in downtown Denver. Representatives from Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist and more faith traditions were present to offer lament for recent gun violence across the United States and to call for prayer and action.

Kansas

Kansas Interfaith Action (KIFA) – kansasinterfaithaaction.org

Rabbi Moti Rieber, Executive Director

The Kansas legislature ended its annual session on Monday, May 23. We’re very pleased that of the four vetoes KIFA worked on, three were sustained:

Senate Bill 493, which would have banned municipal restrictions on single use plastic; Senate Bill 160, which would have banned he participation of transgender girls in school sports; and Senate Bill 58, also known as the “Parent Bill of Rights,” which would have opened school districts up to lawsuit if anything was taught (primarily in the areas of race and gender) to which parents objected.

The governor’s veto on a bill that added restrictions on SNAP was overridden.

Bills that in the end didn’t pass included measures that would have expanded exemptions for childhood vaccinations, as well as a bill which would have limited mail-in and drop box voting.

The Congressional maps, which our coalition sued over, were allowed to go into effect by the Kansas Supreme Court. This surprise result ignored the findings of the district court, which found that the maps had been racially and politically gerrymandered.

While we certainly wish that our more proactive legislative priorities, such as Medicaid expansion or payday loan reform, would have passed, the fact that we (and our allies and coalition partners) were able to keep some bad bills from becoming law has to be considered a victory. We are particularly pleased with the defeat of the “Parent Bill of Rights,” which was the culmination of a six-month long effort by the “Teach the Truth” coalition – under KIFA’s leadership – to protect the right to learn the truth about American history.

Minnesota

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

Tammy Walhof, Director

End of Session…

…was extremely disappointing! An agreement was announced in the final days for a Bipartisan Framework splitting the surplus into tax cuts, supplemental budget, and reserves, but bills based on the framework failed to come to final votes. A Tax Agreement could only be passed after the other Conference Committee negotiated bills were passed by both chambers.

Energy/Climate: The negotiated bill passed in committee with overwhelming bipartisan support, and included several things we supported. However, without final passage, Minnesota risks losing its share of federal funds (matches to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act).

Affordable Housing: Housing was allotted disappointingly low funding in the framework, and no negotiated bill reached agreement before adjournment.

Homelessness & Shelter Funding: Failure to come to agreement on funding in the Health & Human Services Conference Committee meant no funding for homelessness or shelters.

Special Session? A special session is still needed! The legislature didn’t finish its work! Several bills were negotiated in good faith by both chambers and parties, but they were not brought to a final vote.

Partisanship: We were frustrated by lack of transparency this session, and more partisan posturing than normal. There is always partisan posturing, but this year the polarization was worse. Sadly, a few legislators worked hard to feed into polarization and partisanship.

We thank all our advocates for tremendous efforts played out in calls, emails, old-fashioned letters, and visits with legislators. Despite how things turned out, we hope to still see those efforts bear fruition in deals yet to be made!

Tammy Walhof, Director of LA-MN, is on sabbatical from June 13th to August 12th! She is excited to have sabbath time, travel to Iceland, and visit different parts of the state to hear how communities are already experiencing climate impacts. Rachel Wyffels, Hunger Advocacy Fellow, is the primary contact person for LA-MN during this time.

Ohio

Hunger Network Ohio (HNO) – hungernetwork.org

Deacon Nick Bates, Director

I had the privilege to be with the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church in Akron in early June and was blessed with many one on one conversations with folks doing great work in their communities. The stories I heard were similar to the stories I heard a month ago at the Northeastern Ohio Synod Assembly (ELCA). If I had to summarize what I heard, in one word, it would be Anxiety. Faith leaders are confronting the anxiety of the world, and many of our siblings in faith expressed anxiety over a few key issues.

Inflation: Stock returns mean nothing to folks struggling to put food on their table. Many local pantries and community meal programs are dealing with increased demand as people are working hard but aren’t able to afford rising gas and food prices. While the pandemic might be transitioning into a new phase, it has left scars on our communities that will last for generations if policy officials don’t take action.

Addiction: For the past decade, the anxiety only has grown over the opioid epidemic in Ohio and the lack of resources to provide treatment and support for individuals struggling with the illness of addiction.

Healthcare: The lack of affordable and comprehensive health insurance, the reduction in health services for women and LGBTQIA+ are increasing the anxiety of faith leaders who are on the front lines in the battle against hunger and poverty. All Ohioans need access to healthcare services.

As the body of Christ, we have been called to serve those who are struggling today and address the root causes of the suffering by changing policies and the conditions that have created these difficult conditions for our communities.

Pennsylvania

Lutheran Advocacy Ministry – Pennsylvania (LAMPa) lutheranadvocacypa.org

Tracey DePasquale, Director

LAMPa presence in the Capitol increased as the state budget deadline grew closer. Staff participated in press events and met with lawmakers, seeking support for policies in the priority areas of hunger and poverty, housing and creation care.

LAMPa staff accompanied mothers whose families receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as they explained what a proposed cut in cash assistance grants would mean to their children and stood with families who are struggling to hold on to homes in need of expensive repairs. LAMPa is supporting a whole-home repair bill that would help people stay in their homes – part of the answer to the state’s housing crisis and a need in both old mining regions and urban centers. The repairs would also help climate goals by making homes more energy efficient. LAMPa is also advocating to lift the cap on the percent of realty transfer tax that can go into the Pa. Housing Accessibility and Rehabilitation Enhancement (PHARE) Fund to enable that fund to grow to meet challenges posed by increasing housing prices. Watch this panel discussion to learn what that would mean to communities in which Lutherans are engaged in ministry with people experiencing homelessness.

LAMPa staff also met with lawmakers in support of investments in a cleaner, healthier environment and shared the experience of Lutheran Disaster Response while urging legislators to codify and strengthen the Office of Environmental Justice.

LAMPa convened meetings of PA synod hunger leaders and green teams for legislative updates and synod report-outs.

Virginia

Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy (VICPP)

Kim Bobo, Executive Director

The General Assembly finally finished its budget work on June 1. The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy was pleased to see $40 million extra money added to the Virginia Housing Trust Fund to build affordable housing, plus $120 million for affordable housing tax credits to incentivize building affordable housing. Virginia has a terrible affordable housing shortage.

Earlier in the year VICPP had won two study bills – one looking at solitary confinement and one considering requiring unconscious bias training for healthcare professionals. VICPP is now working diligently to assure that these study bills address the concerns of legislators and that we are completely prepared for the 2023 General Assembly.

On June 25th and July 30th, VICPP will host Living Wage Canvasses around the state to encourage businesses to become Living Wage Certified. For more information about this canvass, visit https://virginiainterfaithcenter.ourpowerbase.net/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=195.

Over Labor Day Weekend, VICPP will release a report on the State of Working Virginia. Consider planning a special Labor Day service that weekend to lift up concerns for workers in low-wage jobs.

Washington

Faith Action Network (FAN) – fanwa.org

Elise DeGooyer, Director

FAN board, staff, and faith leaders Aneelah Afzali, Elise DeGooyer, Abbot Genjo Marinello, Carolyn Stevens, and Kristin Ang attended the Alliance for Gun Responsibility press conference.

We have just finished our annual regional summits and have enjoyed the time reconnecting with committed advocates in a hybrid format. These took place in Vancouver, Yakima, Spokane and Seattle, each with a Zoom option. We listened to advocates’ input in all the categories of our work: economic justice (hunger/poverty/safety net/tax reform), criminal justice and police reforms, housing and homelessness, environmental justice, healthcare, immigrant rights, and other civil and human rights. We shared the 2022 Legislative Session victories and what our coalition partners are working toward for next year. We heard the unique concerns from communities in each region, while making the connections between their regional experiences and statewide/federal policy changes needed.

Pastor Erik Kindem of Peace Lutheran, Seattle, in a march FAN co-sponsored from Temple De Hirsch Sinai to St. James Cathedral.

Our advocacy this season has included bills in Congress that will impact Washington State communities, like the Child Tax Credit, housing bills included in budget reconciliation, and H.R.5444, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act. And of course, in the wake of too many mass shootings, we have held vigils and marched, and called our network to act. We will continue to say #Enough until strong gun legislation is enacted.

This reflection is a cross-published piece, which was originally published on the ELCA Racial Justice Blog on June 6, 2022.

By Bishop Virginia S. Aebischer

June 2022 — Reflecting on and Commemorating the Emanuel Nine

On the evening of June 17, 2015, a white supremacist walked into Mother Emanuel AME Church, sat down and joined a Bible study focused on Mark 4. We all know now that he intended to start a race war. Innocent lives were taken in an act of hate, an act all too familiar in our society.

That evening nine innocent people were killed in a temple of the Lord, where love was shared and life in Christ was embraced. The Emanuel Nine are saints who still witness to us today from their graves . . . they witness to the power of God’s word and God’s love! May we never forget and may we be changed! Their family members stood up just days after this horrific tragedy and amazed the world when they voiced forgiveness in Christ’s name. They shared an understanding of the power of God’s word, that it will prevail over any attempt to stifle or kill it. God’s word will be spread far and wide.

Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, has spoken often about God’s love. “Our commitment to be an inclusive church is not based on social theory or the ways of culture,” he says, “but on our belief that the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are our sign of the very love of God reaching out to us all.”

This June, inspired by a request from an AME congregation we asked the congregations of the ELCA South Carolina Synod to study the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4, to substitute it as their Gospel reading for Sunday, June 19, and to include the names of the Emanuel Nine in the prayers of intercession. Each year our Inclusiveness Network sponsors a worship service in a central location; this year we have decided to reflect on Mark 4, the Scripture being studied by the Emanuel Nine the night they were murdered, and to ponder how it might shape the way we live into community as Jesus’ disciples.

Only God’s word in Christ has the power to stretch and transform us, to equip us and entrust us with a message and a ministry of reconciliation. Only God’s word can open our hearts to the truth that Jesus came not only for me and you but for all God’s beloved children. Only God’s word, Jesus, can bring hope for our communities and the world.

In Jesus we have the power to become communities that reach beyond themselves, and to bring the transformation of God’s extravagant love to every sister and brother. Thanks be to God for this word of life and love. “Lord, let our hearts be good soil!” In Jesus’ name. Amen.

We remember Rev. Clementa Pinckney · Tywanza Sanders · Rev. Sharonda Singleton · Cynthia Hurd · Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor · Ethel Lance · Susie Jackson · Rev. Dr. Daniel Simmons · Myra Thompson.

Resources:

ELCA worship for commemoration of the Emanuel Nine

https://www.elca.org/emanuelnine

The Rev. Virginia S. Aebischer serves as the bishop of the ELCA South Carolina Synod. (her full bio can be found as part of the original published piece on the ELCA Racial Justice Blog)

I had just started my car to drive to my internship site on June 18, 2015, when I learned from the radio about the martyrdom of the Emanuel Nine. As I drove down the freeway and the details of this atrocious act spilled out of my speakers, I had to pull onto the shoulder and collect myself before making my way to the office for whatever meetings were scheduled that day.

The murders of nine people during a Bible study weighed on me throughout the week. That Sunday we prayed for their families. We prayed that such senseless violence would cease, that God’s vision of justice would be made manifest here and now. Then, as a worshiping body, we concluded the service and gathered for coffee.

I am a white pastor in the ELCA, the whitest denomination in the country. The man who committed the racist murders at Mother Emanuel AME is a white man who attended confirmation class in an ELCA church. This was in no way the first white supremacist terror attack on a church, but it was the one that changed me.

I wish I could say that this change was rapid, that the worshiping body and I began that coffee hour discussing how we could dismantle the machinery of white supremacy in our community. But my shaking voice and trembling knees when addressing issues that could make a majority of my congregation uncomfortable would make me a liar. The truth is that, before I could lead anything like that, I had to begin dismantling the hold that white supremacy had on me, often presenting itself as “the polite way to be in church.”

The prolific and prophetic voices of Black people, Indigenous people and people of color in this denomination remind white folks such as myself that being a faithful Lutheran has very little to do with being polite. The Holy Spirit empowers us to tell the truth. We confess that we are not going to do anything perfectly, and still we are called to be in the world, loving and supporting our neighbors. We are people who live in the unfolding kingdom of God, tasked as co-creators and stewards.

The past eight years have shown us that white supremacist violence is not going to go away simply by our earnestly hoping for it. From Charleston to Buffalo, the demonic force of racist violence continues to claim the lives of our siblings of color in this country.

As white people, we need to boldly proclaim that the end of white supremacy is our vocational calling. As a church we must continue to confess that white supremacy is intertwined in our church and our culture, and to provoke conversations on how we can change those systems. We must continue to pray for God’s justice, then unfold our hands and use them to build the world in which God calls us to live.