Lutheran Episcopal Advocacy in Nevada launched in March 2015, so we're not yet two years in existence.  We're doing well but we feel like the oldest child who has just graduated. 

Because LEAN is the first advocacy office in the country to represent both Lutherans and Episcopalians, we were nurtured and watched.  The two national churches invested a fair amount of money in our start-up.  Now it's time to move out on our own and allow the parent churches to start collaborative advocacy in other parts of the country.

Like new graduates, we're still trying to figure out where we go next.  Our base of operations will always be the Nevada Legislature, and our policy positions will always be the ELCA Social Statements.  During the session, our Advocate is at the legislature, meeting with elected officials, testifying at hearings, and studying proposals.  When the Legislature is not in session, all these continue, focused toward the interim committees. Our legislative agenda is partly pro-active, because the Social Statements speak to issues that are part of our sinful human condition and therefore are always with us.  But our work is also re-active.  We take positions on the issues and proposals that are before the current legislature.  Neither the legislature nor the public have the time and commitment to address every problem that needs work.  Affordable housing, financial exploitation, criminal justice, education, health care, are all issues of concern, and tend to move in and out of the main focus. The focus can shift because of a crisis, because a high-profile person or group leads a campaign, or simply because enough people realize there's a problem. 

LEAN's legislative agenda for the 2017 Session will include work on increasing the minimum wage.

Another aspect of financial exploitation that is back is payday loans. 

In 2009, Lutheran Advocacy pushed through the legislature a requirement that each person released from state prison receive proper identification, to enable him/her to find work, open a bank account, etc.  For reasons that have to do with bureaucracy, that hasn't happened, and with the help of the Nevada Commission on the Administration of Justice, we'll be working on that. 

Among the most exciting and impactful issues on LEAN's agenda is criminal justice reform.  Pretrial release . . . Category B felonies . . .Re-visit SB 99 from last session. 

Payday Loans

Minimum Wage

Marsy's law . . (SJR 17-Constitutional amendment that needs a second approval, passed the 2015 session.)

Mental Health ,  . . . .

Like a graduate who finds that roommates and study buddies now live in distant places with different lives, LEAN has seen personnel come and go.  Our board membership has been fluid, and we are looking at having to replace our Advocate and Director, Rev. Mike Patterson.  Mike serves as Pastor at Gift of Grace Lutheran Fellowship in Fernley. 

As LEAN moves forward, we hope we will have the support of individual parishioners and congregations through Second Mile Giving.  These will be like the dear aunts and uncles who still send the graduate twenty dollars on her birthday.  The gift will be needed and appreciated, but knowing you're there for us will be the greatest blessing. 

At the Churchwide Assembly and Grace Gathering this August, ELCA members and congregations will be invited to engage Martin Luther's catechisms in renewed study and conversation during the months leading up to October 31, 2017.

The English Small Catechism and Spanish El Catecismo Menor de Lutero are both included in a free mobile app. Content from the Study Edition is available as an in-app purchase. 

The ELCA Task Force on Women and Justice: One in Christ is preparing a comprehensive study for use in congregations and across the church. The task force invites individuals, adult forums and other study groups to join a churchwide conversation about issues related to women and justice in church and society and then to share responses. 

Each session in the study will include  scripture reflection, activities, discussion points, devotions and additional resources 

All participant responses will be reviewed by the task force as it works toward bringing out a first draft of a social statement in late 2017. Study response forms will be available in the printed version and online. 

The response period runs through August 2017. 

Pr. Ben Colahan - August 13, 2016, 11:00 am at Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, CA

University Lutheran Church in Palo Alto is celebrating its first 50 years of ministry! After the first worship service in 1965, the congregation was organized in 1966, ground was broken in 1967, and the buildings were dedicated in 1968. If you have had any involvement in UniLu over the years, we would love to hear from you. Please contact us at office@UniLu.Church. 
*******************************************

Do you have other Celebrations (installations, ordinations, book publishings, etc.) that you'd like listed in this column? Feel free to submit them to our enewsletter editor, Kathye Hamm.

As our summer program winds down and concludes on Aug. 5th, I would like to thank you on behalf of the Board and Staff for your continued prayers and support of Mt. Cross. Our on-site summer registration numbers were slightly up from the last few years, and our programs offered a top-notch and affordable outdoor experience for many of the children and youth from our Synod. Our Day Camp programs in your churches are also 

thriving and provide many congregations with a highly trained and motivated staff of future church leaders to help reach out to their communities with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

In order to continue providing this kind of valuable resource for the young people in our Synod, Mt. Cross does rely on your generosity through donations. Please visit mtcross.org in order to give to our camp in the redwoods which has meant so much to so many for over 68 years!

Rev. James P. Lapp,  Short-term Interim Director

Plan now to enter the contest!