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Theological/Pastoral Response to the Coronavirus Pandemic

Beginning in February 2020 a new reality began to dawn on the world, a novel Coronavirus outbreak that quickly became a global pandemic named COVID-19. Suddenly we are told to wear masks, maintain social distance, and stay at home except for essentials. Events and group gatherings are canceled, including public worship. Churches are closed. We are connecting through online technology like Zoom and social media like Face Book. How do we maintain worship and pastoral care in a situation in which we can only communicate virtually?

We invite pastors and theologians to submit sermons and articles that address the COVID-19 pandemic from theological, liturgical, spiritual, and pastoral perspectives. It is precisely in crisis situations that we must draw deeply from the well of the theological tradition. Share how you are doing this.

We invite submission of papers and talks from members of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod of the ELCA, talks given to members of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, or articles from other pastors and theologians, not limited to ELCA. Send submissions in Word docx. to fcsenn70@gmail.com.

More Than Just Table Talk

June 26, 2017 by Francisco Herrera

When Frank Senn asked me to write an essay on what I appreciate/don’t appreciate about Luther I practically jumped at the chance. Why? Because writing out my answer gave me the chance to share one of my most perplexing observations of Lutherans. For what confuses me about Lutherans is not so much what they appreciate […]

Filed Under: Appreciating Luther, Reformation Jubilee 500

Why Did Luther Demonize His Theological Opponents?

June 26, 2017 by Robert Saler

For the last five years, I have been the only Lutheran teaching at my ecumenical seminary. Having taught at a Lutheran seminary prior to coming here, I was surprised by the negative reaction of other Protestants (evangelicals, Disciples of Christ, Reformed, Methodist, Episcopalian, etc.) towards the mention of Luther. This negativity has less to do […]

Filed Under: Appreciating Luther, Reformation Jubilee 500

Martin Luther, The Peasants’ War, And Anti-semitism: A Quincentennial Rumination

June 26, 2017 by Gregory Holmes Singleton

(with a bit of ersatz theology thrown in for good measure) In the past, centennial celebrations were times for rejoicing and celebration. Quincentennial celebrations were times for over-the-top rejoicing and raucous celebration.  For the last few decades, however, these milestones have often been the occasion of less than flattering revisionist historical treatments.  Cultural icons and […]

Filed Under: Appreciating Luther, Reformation Jubilee 500

An Excerpt from Peace at the Last: Visitation with the Dying

February 13, 2017 by Paul Palumbo

Peace at the Last was birthed out of congregational need and experience in a specific time and place: Lake Chelan Lutheran Church in Chelan, Washington, beginning in 2007. A member said to me “Pastor, it feels like people are coming to us to die!” For a long stretch of time our little congregation was facing […]

Filed Under: Death and Dying

Review of Dale C. Allison’s Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things

February 13, 2017 by Erin E. Clausen

Night Comes: Death, Imagination, and the Last Things. By Dale C. Allison, Jr. Eerdmans, 184 pp., $18.00 paperback. What happens to our bodies and souls when we die? Is heaven real? What about hell? Can I be Christian and not believe in an afterlife? Questions about death and the hereafter—or if there is something after—occur […]

Filed Under: Death and Dying

Review of Thomas W. Laqueur’s The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains

February 13, 2017 by Seth Moland-Kovash

The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains. By Thomas W. Laqueur. Princeton University Press, 736 pp., $39.95. This is a monumental work of history—the history of an idea as much as the history of a physical thing. In this massive book of 557 pages (not including the extensive notes), historian Thomas […]

Filed Under: Death and Dying

Minister in the Morgue: A Reflection on the Caring for the Bodies of the Dead

February 13, 2017 by Nathan Corl Minnich

After sixteen years of licensure, the funeral director part of my identity is woven deeply into the fabric of my being. Even prior to these career years, I have been around the dead. My birth placed me in a line of five generations of embalmers and funeral directors. Although much of those preceding generations make […]

Filed Under: Death and Dying

Green Burial and Spiritual Communities: One Earth, One Movement

February 13, 2017 by Suzanne Kelly

Over the last two decades, the Green Burial Movement has worked to mend U.S. deathcare ways by advocating for simple dust-to-dust human burial. Rejecting the trio of practices that have come to make up the American Way of Death – chemical embalming, the modern casket, and the burial vault – the movement calls for the […]

Filed Under: Death and Dying

Where Does the Stepfamily Sit? Pastoral Dimensions of Funeral Seating Arrangements

February 13, 2017 by Amy Ziettlow

"Her sisters sat in the front row and pushed us to the back."

Bill was a long-time member of the ELCA congregation I serve as pastor. Prior to pronouncing the benediction at his memorial service, I watched the honor guard play taps and present the flag to Mary, Bill’s widow and second wife. While part of me was – as always – moved by this sight, another part […]

Filed Under: Death and Dying

Identity in Place: A Matter of Life and Death

February 13, 2017 by Gordon J. Straw

This past summer, I went slightly out of my way to visit Oak Grove Cemetery, near Detroit Lakes, MN. This cemetery is known to my mother’s family as one of the “family” cemeteries. I’m not even sure how many of my relatives are buried there, but it’s a lot. My grandparents are buried there. My […]

Filed Under: Death and Dying

As I See It: Born, Dying, Dead, Buried, and Resurrected

February 13, 2017 by Frank C. Senn

This issue of Let’s Talk is about death. As I see it, when it comes to an open discussion of death, which affects us all in a most direct way—in our bodies—we practice avoidance. The church participates in this avoidance by not paying enough attention to the body in our ministries to the dying and […]

Filed Under: Death and Dying

On the Way: The Last Enemy to be Destroyed

February 13, 2017 by Benjamin Dueholm

The works of Belinda Carlisle were preserved for just this moment: As the credits roll, “Heaven is a Place on Earth” sparkles to life; a sundrenched California is glimpsed in long view; in close-up, a dose of lethal chemicals course through an IV and a coffin descends into the earth, as the consciousness of the […]

Filed Under: Death and Dying

All Are Welcome… But Are All Invited?

November 3, 2016 by Jennifer English

In the delicate dance of social interactions, most of us intuitively know the subtle difference between being “welcomed” and being “invited.” Imagine that you show up at someone’s house for a dinner party, bottle of wine in hand. The host greets you at the door with a big smile and invitation to come inside. Everyone […]

Filed Under: Welcoming

Survey: Is My Church Welcoming?

November 3, 2016 by Jonathan Malm

This survey was, in part, created and adapted from ideas presented in “Unwelcome: 50 Ways Churches Drive Away First-Time Visitors” by Jonathan Malm, and from conversations with Brian Zehr, Consultant with Intentional Impact. Download the Is My Church Welcoming? survey in PDF format.

Filed Under: Welcoming

Hospitality as Welcoming Others, Welcoming Mystery

November 3, 2016 by Craig Mueller

Most of the so-called welcoming churches value diversity and are quick to announce their openness to people of different backgrounds, races, sexual orientations, gender identities, religions, and socio-economic status. To that list my congregation intentionally adds an openness to those questioning and struggling with organized religion. The identities of individual worshippers are less fixed than […]

Filed Under: Welcoming

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