Last Thursday, as they have for many years, Rostered Ministers of the Northeastern Iowa Synod gathered at Nazareth Lutheran for a time of learning, worship, fellowship and renewal. Bishop Ullestad remembers that when he first proposed this idea, there was some resistance to asking church leaders to take time out during Lent. Even now occasionally […]
Rostered Ministers of the Northeastern Iowa, Southeastern Iowa and Western Iowa Synods gathered in Des Moines to reflect upon the theme “The Reformation: What’s at Stake.” The speakers were Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, Bishop Guy Erwin, Bishop of the Southwest California Synod, and the Rev. Dr. Anna Madsen, director of OMG: Center for Theological Conversation. […]
It was all Gospel all the time at the opening of the 2017 Synod Assembly. As a part of our six-year emphasis on Reformation Renewal, we are focusing this year on Martin Luther and the Gospel. Bishop Ullestad preached on the importance of preaching the Gospel and only the Gospel. There are many ways to […]
At the 2016 Churchwide Assembly, Bishop Eaton called upon ELCA members to read Martin Luther’s Small Catechism together in time for the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation on October 31, 2017. Maybe you missed this information. Or you planned to do something but life got in the way. There is still plenty of time for […]
As printed in the January STAR Throughout this year we will be celebrating the Gospel, using the witness of Martin Luther as a symbol of how that Gospel transforms individuals and the church. The Gospel is woven into what Dr. Luther said and wrote. There are several phrases of Luther’s theology that exemplify this and […]
2017 marks the 500th commemoration of the Reformation which is traditionally dated October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg to protest what he saw as abuses in the church at the time. Synods and churches throughout the ELCA are planning different ways […]
As we approach the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, congregations and synods are asking each other, “What are you doing to mark the occasion?” The Northeastern Iowa Synod answered this question in 2014 when the Synod Council voted to adopt a 6-year plan called “Celebrating Renewal”. Because the reformation was more than one […]