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ELCA Blogs

ELCA Racial Justice

Relearning our shared history by Linda Post Bushkofsky

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...

My Freedom Day as a Female, Black and Queer Pastor by The Rev. Dr. Yolanda Denson-Byers

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...

A Pastor’s Reflection on The Feast Day of the Emanuel 9 by Rev. Kelly France

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...

Reflecting on and Commemorating the Emanuel Nine 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...

Remembering Tulsa by Bishop Michael Girlinghouse

For a long time, no one in Tulsa’s white or black communities talked about the massacre that destroyed the Greenwood district in May 1921. Those who were there remembered.  A few kept the memory alive.  But most simply chose to...

Being Home , by Herbert Shao

In recognition of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I share the journey of my achievements and struggles as a person of Asian descent in our church, and in our nation. I immigrated to this country when I was seven years...