"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." – 2 Corinthians 5:17-18
Though many of us celebrated on Sunday, Reformation Day is actually today – October 31. As part of our ELCA's observances, there is a symposium and closing worship for the Reformation 500 Commemoration today at Reformation Lutheran Church, Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. As a part of the symposium, pairs of ELCA Bishops and ecumenical partners will present about different aspects of how the church is still being reformed, still being made new. My contribution will be to address Racism and Racial Justice with my local AME Zion counterpart, Bishop W. Darin Moore of the Mid-Atlantic AME Zion Episcopal District. We have five minutes(!) each, with which to set the stage for a conversation.
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by Bishop Bill GohlThe Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? – Psalm 27:1 Sign in front of Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church, New York City, where my friend the Rev. Chris Mietlowski is pastor. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
#MeToo is a social media movement that cuts a significant hole in the culture of silence. Unlike so many things that trend on social media that pass quickly from one day to the next as the series of natural disasters, gun violence, political posturing and news – both real and "fake" – bear down on us; the #MeToo movement has staying power. #MeToo has been more than viral, it has exposed sexual harassment and sexual assault as being as inevitable for women and femmes as the common cold. by Bishop Bill GohlFor by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – Ephesians 2:8 This weekend, our synod's Youth + Family Ministry will gather for its first large group event of the program year: FreeRide. Middle school students and their adult leaders will gather from across Delaware and Maryland at the NorthBay Retreat Center in North East, Maryland under the year-long Reformation 500 emphasis, Reform School.
by Bishop Bill GohlI enjoy giving you a glimpse, in a very abbreviated way, of the work of the Conference of Bishops which caused me to be away from our synod for almost a week! These are just highlights from the notes of our COB scribe, Bishop Ray Tiemann of the Southwestern Texas Synod.
by Bishop Bill Gohl"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God." - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 I grieve with you the loss of life as a result of gun violence in Las Vegas. Every person wounded or killed is a precious child of God. I grieve with you the ways that violence threatens and destroys life. I am mindful with you that brokenness and sin are not somehow outside of us; great evil has surely been gestated within the Body of Christ, too.
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