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ELCA Blogs

ELCA Racial Justice

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...

Identity and Relationship in Arab-American Culture By Ryan LaHurd

In his Daily Meditation of February 6 on 1 Corinthians 12, Rev. Richard Rohr writes “Humanity consistently has to face the problem of unity and diversity. We’re not very good at understanding it. We habitually choose our smaller groups, because...