Triennial Gathering News
The Latest News from the Gathering
Women of the ELCA present in-kind gifts to Spokane
By John Brooks
July 16, 2011
The Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) presented Spokane-area organizations with hundreds of "in-kind" gifts July 16, intended to support women and children living with homelessness, in transition, or who have been victims of violence.
The gifts included phone and gift cards, school kits, clothing and quilts. The gifts were brought by nearly 2,000 participants to the Women of the ELCA Gathering in Spokane and sent to Spokane by ELCA women throughout the church.
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Rise up! Reclaim your space!
Leymah Gbowee asks Women of the ELCA what they’ll reclaim
By Elizabeth Hunter
“Sisters of the ELCA, it's time to rise up,” said Leymah Gbowee, Saturday’s plenary speaker—and peacemaker, activist, and mother from Liberia. “God is calling us today to reclaim our space.”
Her resounding call to action was answered by thunderous applause and shouts from nearly 2,000 women gathered in Spokane, Wash., for the Eighth Women of the ELCA triennial gathering.
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Run, Walk and Roll raises funds for churchwide seed grants program
By John Brooks
July 16, 2011
More than 365 runners, walkers and people in wheelchairs and scooters participated in an early-morning 5K "Run Walk and Roll" event July 16, raising $18,515 on site for a seed grant program to improve the spiritual, physical and emotional health of women. More funds will be sent to Women of the ELCA through pledges the 5K participants collected before they came to Spokane.
The 5K is part of an eight-year-old initiative of Women of the ELCA, "Raising Up Healthy Women and Girls." Registered participants began at 6 a.m. navigating the course through Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane.
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Not just the ‘usual suspects’
By Elizabeth Hunter
July 16, 2011
Who’s coming to your women’s group? At a July 15 workshop on “Building the Organization through Creative Programming,” there was standing room only. Elizabeth McBride, director for intergenerational programs and editor of Café, Women of the ELCA’s online magazine for young adult women, and Jessica Gill, a young adult mom who started her own Café group, led hundreds of participants in a discussion of creative ways to open your doors to include younger women.
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Young adult women meet over chocolate, wine
By Elizabeth Hunter
July 14, 2011
Dozens of women in their 20s and 30s, and some a little older, took part in the July 14 Chocolate Lounge at the Doubletree Hotel, sponsored by Café, Women of the ELCA’s online magazine for young adult women.
Time with generational peers was a plus, but since there “are no bouncers at Chocolate Lounge,” according Beth McBride, Café editor, a few over 40 drifted in. They were also drawn in by similar interests and friendships.
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Speaker calls women to look for revolutionary messages in unpredictable places
By Terri Lackey
July 15, 2011
That God used women as prophets in Jesus’ day—an era when men ruled—is an invitation to see God in new places, said Jane Redmont, author of a book on prayer and worship leader at the Eighth Triennial Gathering.
Mary, mother of Jesus, and her relative Elizabeth were prophets, Redmont said, chosen by God to proclaim a message.
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Healing and hope come through faith in Jesus Christ, say Gathering speakers
By John Brooks
July 15, 2011
Speakers at the opening session of the Women of the ELCA Triennial Gathering July 15 focused on the power of Jesus Christ to bring hope and healing to people in distress and to a hurting world.
Nora Gallagher, author, speaker and preacher-in-residence at Trinity Episcopal Church, Santa Barbara, Calif., recounted her own story of having an inflamed optic nerve, a condition that can cause a person to go blind in a matter of hours, she said. To treat the condition she took steroids intravenously for four days, and it took 18 months to diagnose what caused the swelling. She later developed a lesion on one of her lungs.
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