Category Archives: North America

What are missionaries?

Posted on July 13, 2011 by | Leave a comment

This is a guest post by Brian Kokol, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (short bio at the bottom). 

Every two years, longer-term Global Mission personnel of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) engage in “Home Assignment”, which includes two months of visits alongside congregations, universities, and a variety of other organizations throughout the United States.  Among other things, Home Assignment is meant to produce a dynamic dialogue surrounding what God appears to be doing around the world, and a result, animate a heightened awareness that mission takes place everywhere and involves everyone.

After two months of driving, flying, speaking, listening, backpack living, hospitality receiving, and Lutheran pot-luck consuming, the following are some lessons learned: Continue reading →

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Posted in Africa, Church, Ecumenism, Evangelism, Justice, LWF, North America

Peace starts with us!

Posted on May 23, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Introduction to the WCC IEPC and Peace with the Earth

Greetings from Kingston, Jamaica! We are participating in the World Council of Churches (WCC) International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) along with about 1000 people from around the world and WCC member churches.

The theme of the convocation is “Glory to God and Peace on Earth.” The main objectives for the IEPC are many, but most broadly:

  1. Sharing inspirations and reflections
  2. Network-building, strategy development and other actions.

This is a harvesting event and celebration for the Decade to Overcome Violence. This is not a decision-making body, but rather a group that will crystallize emerging peace issues on the way to the 2013 WCC Assembly in Busan, South Korea.

The four themes of our days together are:

  1. Peace in the Community
  2. Peace with the Earth
  3. Peace in the Marketplace
  4. Peace Among the Peoples.

Today, we will focus on Peace with the Earth.

Part of our life together at the convocation includes bible study. The text for “Peace with the Earth” is Isaiah 11:6-9. Take a look at the text. Share it with your friends. To start your conversation, here are two questions:

What does the ‘knowledge of the Lord’ refer to in this passage?
Is the world painted in this passage possible?

In the daily plenary, the focus was to: Raise awareness on the various threats to creation, present churches’ statements and actions addressing caring for creation, offer theological and spiritual insights from various religious perspectives on peace and creation, and share practical examples on what churches can do on peace with the earth.

As three young people from the LWF, we felt connected to this work, since this same theme, sustainability (with a focus on climate change and food security) was expressed as an emerging issue among the youth at the 2010 Lutheran World Federation (LWF) assembly. Currently, groups of young people from around the LWF communion are reflecting together on bible texts that relate to this theme. Groups are sharing with one another through the worldwide web—a very “green” option!

One of the objectives of LWF Together is to use the outcomes from the bible studies and reflections to work toward sustainability in your own community. Peace with the earth begins with us!

For more information visit www.lwfyouth.org.

In a d’ Lates (Compliments of Peter Powell, Campus Security),

Daniele, Mikka and Sanna

P.S. Come back again soon! During the week, we will take turns reflecting on the remaining three themes.

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Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Enviroment, Europe, Faith, Justice, Latin America/Carribean, Life, LWF, LWF together - the earth needs you, Middle East, North America, Spirituality, Youth participation

Changing Behavior is Hard: A Perspective from the United States of America

Posted on May 13, 2011 by | Leave a comment

This is a post that first appeared in the LWF together: Guidebook.

By Allison Beebe

In North America, people know about the need for making environmentally friendly choices. However, this knowledge does not often change our actions. We are well informed. News from all over the world is available whenever we would like to access it, and yet our habits toward the environment remain the same.

It is often the case that North Americans care, but not enough to change. People want to make a difference by taking the bus, but not as much as they want their independence by driving their own car. People want to conserve water, but not as much as they’d like to take long, hot showers in the morning. People want to buy food which is grown locally and sustainably, but not as much as they want the best price at the grocery store. People want to travel in an ecologically friendly way, but not as much as they would like to fly quickly across the country. Continue reading →

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Posted in Enviroment, Faith, LWF together - the earth needs you, North America, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence, Youth

Happy Ecumenical Anniversary!

Posted on May 3, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Working Together as People of Faith, People of Peace

This morning I realized I will depart for the World Council of Churches (WCC) International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) in 13 days. 13 days!

As I begin to set my heart and mind toward Kingston in less than two weeks time, I am looking forward to meeting and being with other people of faith from around the world, the worship and sessions together, the (hopefully) warmer weather and, particularly, to living fully into the ecumenical landscape that allows us to strive for peace-making together. Continue reading →

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Posted in Church, Ecumenism, Faith, LWF, North America, Youth participation

The 99 collective is taking off

Posted on January 17, 2011 by | 2 Comments

Last weekend, I was in Chicago, USA, to attend and to speak at a conference of the Global Missions unit of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). I had also the opportunity to get to know a bit the members of an emerging movement in the ELCA: The 99 collective. They connect young people who are passionate Christians and care about social justice. Bjorn speaks here a little bit more about the background:

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Posted in Church, Faith, Justice, North America, Youth participation

A Blunt Anwer to the Canadian Question: “Where are our Youth”

Posted on October 3, 2010 by | 4 Comments

Again and again adults in our Canadian Lutheran church pose the question ”Where are our youth”.  Having just returned from hearing Shane Claiborne speak, a Christian activist and author I have long admired, I am tempted to bluntly answer this recycled query. Before I begin, let me state strongly that the answer is not praise bands, watered down theology, technological advances, bribes, or even simply adequately funding our youth ministries.

The Canadian Lutheran church fails to fascinate young people because it fails to challenge young people to challenge society, and refuses to walk with them when they do. There is nothing fascinating about a church that sits behind closed doors discussing justice, but fails to be witness to the injustice inside and outside its doors. I know many Lutherans who challenge society daily, who live out justice individually, but as a community we do not. And being a 22 year old in a secular society, I can tell you it is very lonely to try and fuse the issues of my generation with our faith alone. As long as the church collective fails to adequately address issues of social and environmental justice in new, innovative, intellectually sound ways there will be no youth in our church.

This does not mean God’s work will not continue, but it means the future location of this work will not be within the framework of the current Canadian institutionalized Lutheran church. Hear this from someone who mourns the suffering of her home community, but can no longer be pulled into the black hole of financial discussions, identity crisis, discrimination, and aesthetic squabbling while remaining enlivened for God’s Kingdom.

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Posted in Justice, North America, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation

on worship, 820 billion dollars, and not betraying my dreams

Posted on July 14, 2010 by | Leave a comment

by Mary Button, USA

Every morning here at the youth pre-assembly starts with morning worship and every ends with evening worship. These services are led by young people from a different region of the LWF. The most exciting part of worship is having the opportunity to sing songs in all the different languages spoken by the young people here. During this morning’s worship we sang in Portuguese and Spanish and at this evening’s service we sang in Polish, Slovak, Portuguese, Czech, Latin, German, and English. After morning worship we go into our Bible study groups. After evening worship we drink refreshing mocktails prepared for us by the local Saxon youth. Our bible studies in the morning are as perfect a way to start the day as ending the day sipping pistachio milkshakes in the courtyard.

Sitting together in the mornings we read scripture and connect the passages to our theme “Give us today our daily bread.” Monday we read how God provided the Israelites with manna in the desert. On Tuesday we read the parable of the mustard seed and today we read the parable of the rich fool. On Monday Bishop Kameeta added to our understanding of our Bible study when he asked, “What was so special about the manna God delivered to the Israelites? They could take it and keep moving.” In this way, Bishop Kameeta urged us to persevere, to keep faith, and to always keep moving. By starting the day connecting scripture to our theme, we ground ourselves in scripture. This morning my group’s discussion on the parable of the rich fool stayed with me as I went into my workshop session: “Doing theology contextually.” One of the questions we asked during our Bible study was: “Which characteristics of the ‘rich fool’ can we find in our society and our community today?” Of all of the questions we asked today this particular question took up most of our time. All of us were able to name people in our contexts that we identified as rich fools. In this time of financial crisis, we spent a good deal of time discussing the unequal balance of power at work in this global crisis. We were able to discuss at length something that Martin Junge, the incoming General Secretary of the LWF, shared during the conversation we were able to have with him last night: while the banks were given an $820 billion bailout, it would only take $25 billion to secure access to HIV medications to all Africans living with HIV.

Obviously, this stayed with us and is one of the many facts that we are sharing with each other and gathering up to bring with us to Stuttgart. I was thinking about our morning Bible study conversation this morning when, over coffee, in our theology workshop Martin, from France, talked about French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Martin shared with us that Sarkozy was a student radical in the 1960s, yet today could hardly be described as a radical. Martin reminded of us something else that Martin Junge told us, “you are not only the future of the LWF, but the present.” Martin assured all of that we will continue to be the face of the LWF and that soon we will be the ones in positions of power within our communion. The imperative he said was “to not betray our dreams when we get in the right place.” As soon as the words left his mouth I jotted them down in my journal, so that I can take them with me to Stuttgart, back home to Atlanta, and wherever else my travels with the LWF take me.

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Posted in Church, North America, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence

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Arms Down! Disarmament for Development

Posted on July 1, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Arms Down!! This is the logo which moves the campaign led by youth from the world’s religions who are working to engage religious leaders and believers around the world to unleash the power of multi-religious cooperation through shared action. The campaign also reaches out to international organizations, governments, national assemblies and parliaments, municipalities, media, and all men and women of good will. Through education, mobilization and advocacy, the campaign advances shared security by working to reduce nuclear and conventional weapons and to reallocate military spending to support urgently needed development, as set forth in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The goals of Arms Down campaign are:

1. Abolish nuclear weapons.

* Development of a universal Nuclear Weapons Convention.
* Adoption of measures that strengthen the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in the 2010 Review Conference to achieve complete nuclear disarmament by 2020.

2. Stop the proliferation and misuse of conventional weapons.

* Passage of a global Arms Trade Treaty.
* Full support and implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty and the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

3. Redirect 10% of military expenditure to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.

* Reduction of arms expenditure in each state and re-allocation of those funds to support completion of the MDGs – world military expenditure in 2008 is estimated to have reached $1. 464 USD trillion.
* Implementation of United Nations General Assembly resolutions that commit member states to disarmament and support development.

Nuclear weapons pose the greatest risk to life on earth as one bomb is capable of killing millions of people in a matter of minutes. Today, there are an estimated 23.300 nuclear war heads on the planet in the hands of nine countries.

Come and join this call!! Visit the Arms Down! campaign website here and sign the petition.

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Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Enviroment, Europe, Justice, Latin America/Carribean, Life, North America, Poverty, Youth, Youth participation

Encounters in Edinburgh – Mission is out of control

Posted on June 5, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Talking today to Julio Lopez, a Presbyterian minister from Argentina, he summarized his learning from the Edinburgh conference so far. He said: “Mission is alive – but it is out of control.”
He sees that there is a lot of mission happening by Christians around the world. But it is not organized by a limited number of churches and mission agencies. Quite often, it just happens – through migrants and freelance missionaries, by emerging churches unconnected with traditional churches. That is not necessarily a bad thing but points to the activity of the Holy Spirit. But it still leaves the need and the task to get into a fruitful and also critical dialogue.

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Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Evangelism, Faith, Latin America/Carribean, Middle East, North America

World Youth Conference in Mexico (August 2010) – Update

Posted on April 20, 2010 by | 22 Comments

We receive more information and some changes of the World Youth Conference sent from SOFOC (Social Forum Committee) which is available here.  You can also find these and other information at World Youth Conference website.

Registration

The deadline has been extended until 30 April 2010. There are still many countries with only 1 or no applicants. It is important that we urge our members to register to ensure we have a good quality of youth representatives participating in the Conference. Let’s not wait to the last minute!

Governments’ Forum

The invitation letters for Ministers will be sent on 15 April by the Mexican government. We encourage that all delegations for the Governments’ Forum include young people as part of the delegation. Our organisations can lobby for this within the respective countries.

Volunteers/Facilitators

For organisations who have groups in Mexico, there is a recruitment process for those who are interested in being volunteers. Volunteers must be able to communicate in Spanish and English well. These Mexican volunteers will assist with the sessions, so they must an interest in the themes of the Conference at an international level. More information can be found on the website. The deadline to register is 15 May online.

Also, there will be a need for 11 international volunteer facilitators for the workshops during the NGO global meeting. In addition to having the necessary skills to facilitate group discussions, these volunteers must be familiar with the topics of the thematic axes. Volunteers will receive orientation 3 days before the event. Food and accommodation will be provided, however, not travel. Registration information will be made available on the WYC website when the details are finalized.

Interactive Global Forum

There will be spaces to have a stand. This will provide a space for organisations to be able to engage visitors. However, each participating NGO will have a display space (on display boards, not a booth). A separate registration process for the IGF will be launched.

Pre-Conferences/Consultations

To date, only two have taken place. The first was held on 9-11 March in Strasbourg, France. The second took place during the international Forum “Global League of Breakthrough Elite” (GLOBE) at MGIMO University in Moscow, Russia.

There is one set to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Another is set to take place during the Conference of Ministers of Youth on 12-16 April in Zimbabwe.

The SOFOC (Social Forum Committee) has worked hard to ensure that the World Youth Conference is really a space where youth participation can truly make an impact in the outcomes of international processes. The maximum participation of as many youth and youth organizations at the World Youth Conference is very important. But, this is up to us. We must bring this experience back to the grassroots where it matters the most! We must act now to make sure that we take advantage of this space which has been created for youth and put it to good use.

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Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Enviroment, Justice, Latin America/Carribean, Life, Middle East, North America, Poverty/Affluence, UN, Youth, Youth participation