The ELCA Conference of Bishops met last week and wrote two letters, advocating for neighbors in need. Our leaders address lawmakers, urging them to support Annunciation House in Texas, and a Ceasefire in Gaza, calling us to join them in defending our neighbors.

Welcome the new executive director of ELCA Service and Justice! Service and Justice oversees several interconnected ministries, including ELCA Advocacy, AMMPARO, and Reconciling Works.

Read a draft of the ELCA’s newest social statement on gun-related violence and trauma. The comment period is open through Jan. 31.

How Strategic and Authentic Is Our Diversity: A Call for Confession, Reflection, and Healing Action is the report from an ELCA Task Force that was adopted by more than a two-thirds vote (855-13) by the 15th triennial Churchwide Assembly on August 9, 2019, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The purpose of this field guide is to invite and equip synods and congregations to have fruitful public conversation across the frontiers of culture about the full range of ministry matters. It also invites ministries to go beyond conversation, whenever appropriate, to deciding and acting together with those of different cultural backgrounds.

Talking Together as Christians about Tough Social Issues is a six-session introduction on how to begin conversations on tough social issues. From ELCA.

This 5-part study resource provides congregations with the opportunity to wrestle with the content and meaning of “Declaration of the ELCA to People of African Descent” and its accompanying explanation.

The ELCA Social Statement titled Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture expresses the ELCA’s calling to celebrate culture and ethnicity. This calling commits the ELCA to confront racism, to engage in public leadership, witness and deliberation on these matters, and to advocate for justice and fairness for all people. It was adopted by the 1993 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.

The ELCA’s social statement entitled Abortion is grounded in the conviction that “Christians are united in Christ through faith with both the freedom and obligation to engage in serious moral deliberation.” It was adopted by the 1991 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.

The Rev. Jim Wallis, founder and longtime editor of Sojourners, offers a faith-based perspective on the fight for social justice — explaining how religion, rescued from the deadly grip of the Christian right, can help counter the hatred and fear generated by social media.