Category: Lutheran

  • I’m just, It’s just…

    A message from Tammy Jones West, 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering Program Director— I’m just, It’s just…  Hello world. My name is Tammy Jones West. I am a Deacon in this church, from North Carolina, and I am serving as the Program Director for the 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering. I am

  • Called to mission

    Andrea Talentino never expected to find herself living in the Midwest. An educator with deep ties to, and a long history of serving at, East Coast institutions, she nevertheless felt called to Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill. Talentino, who was announced in December as Augustana’s next president, isn’t Lutheran

  • Praying for Ukraine

    In the days following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine my family continued to take part in the usual plans and activities. We ate together, played games, read books, loved one another, talked with our neighbors. The kids went to school, I wrote and answered emails, and my husband planned our congregation’s

  • Still loving what we cannot save

    The only time I tried to hurt my brother—who was older, stronger and didn’t try to hurt me back because it would have been too easy—was in high school when he was living with our dad and I was living with our mom and he didn’t show up for a

  • OMNIA: Striving Towards Beloved Community

    By Dr. Shanta Premawardhana  More than 50 years ago, Dr. Mary Nelson (founder of Bethel New Life in the westside of Chicago) marched with Dr. Martin Luther King and gospel singer Mahalia Jackson in Chicago. For several decades, Dr. Nelson was a faculty member of OMNIA Institute’s predecessor organization SCUPE