Due to a technical glitch, the following items were omitted from yesterday's MinistryLink. 
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  SEPANews Update / June 19, 2015

ELCA Leaders Share Grief Over SC Church Shootings

 

"It has been a long season of disquiet in our country. From Ferguson to Baltimore, simmering racial tensions have boiled over into violence. But this ... the fatal shooting of nine African Americans in a church is a stark, raw manifestation of the sin that is racism," ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton said in a statement released the day after the killing of nine people attending a Bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC.

 

Two of the victims - the Rev. Clementa Pinckney and the Rev. Daniel Simmons of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston - were graduates of the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.

 

"The suspected shooter is a member of an ELCA congregation," Eaton said. "All of a sudden and for all of us, this is an intensely personal tragedy. One of our own is alleged to have shot and killed two who adopted us as their own."

Let Us Pray...

The South Carolina Synod shared this prayer in a special newsletter Thursday:

 

God, our refuge and strength, you have bound us together in a common life. In all our conflicts, help us to confront one another without hatred or bitterness, to listen for your voice amid competing claims, and to work together with mutual forbearance and respect.

  

Where hearts are fearful and constricted, grant courage and hope. Where anxiety is infectious and widening, grant peace and reassurance. Where distrust twists our thinking, grant healing and illumination. Where spirits are daunted and weakened, grant soaring wings and strengthened dreams.

  

We lift to you all those who suffered harm and for the nine lost loved ones at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

  

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

  

(Adapted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Additional Prayers page 76.)

PA Bishops Support Anti-Discrimination Bill
 

The seven Pennsylvania bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America released a letter June 18 in support of legislation that would amend the Pennsylvania Public Relations Act to prohibit discrimination in areas of employment, housing and public accommodation on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. 

 

The letter anticipates introduction of legislation to update the 1955 Human Relations Act to include "sexual orientation" and "gender identity or expression" to the list of groups of people who are provided legal protection from discrimination. Several ELCA synods in Pennsylvania, meeting in assembly, took action to add increased capacity to the voices of those who support this legislation.

 

Conceding that not all of the thousands of members of ELCA congregations in Pennsylvania agree on how the church should regard sexual minorities, the faith leaders state that the differences in conviction to not keep the church body from yearning for that peaceable kingdom. 

 

See more at: http://ministrylink.org/article/pa-bishops-support-anti-discrimination-bill 
Updates on Background Checks for Volunteers

 

Under the state's new child protection laws, pastors, staff and volunteers who are responsible for or have direct contact with children must have current background checks. Checks must be in place July 1 for employees and for new volunteers approved after July 1. Current volunteers have until July 1, 2016 or three years from the date of their last clearances, whichever comes first, to obtain clearances, according to guidance from the Department of Human Services.

 

Recently, Gov. Wolf announced that the state will waive fees for state police and DHS background checks obtained for volunteers effective July 25, 2015. Some volunteers may also be eligible to submit a disclosure form in lieu of FBI fingerprint checks. This means that for some volunteers there will be no cost for background checks. In addition, the cost of state checks for staff will drop from $20 to $16 effective July 25.
ELCA Statement on Pope's Climate Change Encyclical

 

"Today we join with Pope Francis in calling on world leaders to embrace our common responsibility as work continues toward a global agreement on climate change," ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton said in a June 18 statement. "We urge leaders to support an ambitious agreement that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, encourages development of low-carbon technologies, and supports the ability of countries to cope with the effects of a changing climate and build resiliency for a sustainable future."

 

"The present moment is a critical one, filled with both challenge and opportunity to act as individuals, citizens, leaders and communities of faith in solidarity with God's good creation and in hope for our shared future."

Assembly Highlights (full-color)


September 13 -- God's work. Our hands. Sunday day of service.
Thank you!

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Bob Fisher

Assistant to the Bishop, Mission Interpretation and Communication

267.323.3743

sepanews@sepa.org