La Cofradía Católica-Reformada nació gracias a la necesidad de algunos pastores y pastoras, principalmente Luteranos/as y Latinos/as, de juntarse para fraternizar, compartir amistad entre colegas, intercambiar recursos par-roquiales, nutrir nuestros espíritus con prácticas devocionales como en retiros dirigidos con temas relevantes a los que estamos en el ministerio directamente, realzar nuestro respeto por la religiosidad […]

“Many lands, many customs,” wrote Martin Luther at the beginning of his Order of Marriage for Common Pastors. He advised pastors not to tamper with local custom since these customs were deeply entwined in the culture of the people. He left many medieval customs intact in his own Order of Marriage, including the announcement of […]

The Multicultural Center at LSTC opened its doors in October of 2006 as a newly funded project of the church for the purpose of strengthening the church’s commitment to multi-cultural ministries. Working jointly with the Vocation and Education unit of the ELCA, ELCA program units and the ELCA cluster of seminaries, the Center serves as […]

Presented at the Cofradía Católica-Reformada Meeting, Santa Cruz Lutheran Church, Joliet, Ill., September 14, 2006. I. What is “Religiosidad Popular?” One of Virgilio Elizondo’s signficant contributions to contemporary theological thought has been the invitation to take seriously what is called “religiosidad popular” — “popular religion” or “popular piety” in distinction to “official” or “institutionalized faith” […]

This document, as originally presented, is a mission plan in progress. A second draft of the full strategy was received in April of 2006 as a foundational document for Hispanic-Latino ministry by the Northern Illinois Synod’s Outreach Committee. That committee established a Hispanic ministry task force shortly after the strategy was received. Development of the […]

Last summer I traveled to St. Augustine’s House in Oxford, Michigan for the first of what I hope will be many visits. For fifty years, St. Augustine’s House has been tending the thin flame of Lutheran monasticism, a phenomenon marginal at best within Lutheranism and practically unknown outside of it. Yet the monastery has fine […]

This sounds a little bit like the kind of subject you would find in a questionnaire made for marketing research. You know, the sort of study where you compare and contrast what you can offer versus the needs of a particular population to find a niche within. It’s similar to the old story of the […]

My interest in and understanding of the Mother of God comes from an outreach perspective. Let me explain: I have been a missionary to Hispanic communities for the last eleven years, both as a mission developer for the ELCA’s Division of Outreach and now as a parish pastor. A missionary needs to understand his context […]

(part I) Arias, Miguel; Francis, Mark R. & Perez-Roidriguez, Arturo J., La Navidad Hispana at Home and at Church. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2000. Carrasquillo, Hector and Cassese, Giacomo, Reaching the Latino Community: A Manual for Congregational Leaders (with contributions from many leaders in the Latino Community of the ELCA). Chicago: Evangelical Lutheran Church in […]

… equipping the saints for diakonia; building up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12) diakonia is a two-year process of spiritual formation and theological education for baptized members of the Lutheran Church. This process occurs in three basic ways: By thorough grounding in the classic seminary disciplines of practical, systematic, historical, and Biblical theology; By […]