Justice & Peace
Justice Ministries
God redeems us through Christ, making us new to love and serve neighbors.”Loving neighbors includes working for justice in our personal and shared lives. Together, as a church and as individual Christians, we are called to love others as we love ourselves.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the center of our commitment to justice. Our church’s commitment is reinforced in our constitution, which directs us to human suffering, marginalization and exclusion, and to promote equality, justice and respect for the value of every person, thereby reducing systemic injustices. Our church affirms that anyone contributing to a community’s well-being is using gifts provided by God, knowingly or not.
The ELCA celebrates the many ways God calls people into lives of service for the good of the community. Together, we embody biblical values of peacemaking, hospitality to strangers, care for creation and concern for those facing poverty, hunger and disease. We are called to be a church that embraces each person and confronts racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, age, gender, familial, sexual orientation, physical, personal and class barriers that often manifest themselves in unjust treatment, inequalities, exclusion and violence.
Racial Justice Ministries
We believe Christ’s church is for all people. God calls each by name. It is not our work to sort, divide, categorize or exclude. As saints and sinners, we know both God’s healing and the persistent injustice of racism. In our lives, we join God’s work: insisting on justice, upholding human dignity and welcoming the full inclusion of all people in church and society.
When we confront racism and strive for fairness and justice, the entire community benefits. We begin to honor each person’s story and see how our many stories form the ELCA’s rich, shared witness. Our social statement, Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture (1993), offers theological grounding for undoing racism and moving toward reconciliation, healing and the embrace of all people.
The Racial Justice Ministries of the ELCA serve as catalysts and bridge builders committed to the work of:
- Equipping leaders to recognize and understand the complexity and implications of racism and racial issues.
- Training and education in the areas of anti-racism and racial justice for leaders in partnership with synods, congregations, associations and social service agencies.
- Building alliances and strategies across race, ethnicity, class, gender, age and sexual orientation to break through barriers of racism and oppression.
- Creating and supporting ecumenical networks that call for and help equip the church to be a multiracial and multicultural community.
- Working together throughout the church in public witness, programs and policies that advance racial justice — locally and globally.
- Developing and sharing educational tools and training models for congregations to use in facing the challenges of racism in a diverse, complex and changing world.
Find racial justice resources for synods and congregations here.
Migration Justice Ministry
AMMPARO (Accompanying Migrants with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities) is the ELCA’s whole-church response to migration. In the U.S., it partners with synods and community groups to welcome refugees and asylum seekers by providing housing, education, legal aid, healthcare and cultural orientation. Globally, through companion churches, AMMPARO supports people in transit or returning home with job training, trauma care and pathways to self-sufficiency.
In Spanish, "amparo" means to protect a living being from harm. AMMPARO emerged after the church witnessed children forced to flee chronic violence and poverty; its mission now centers on the dignity and rights of migrant children and their families. We seek to:
• • Address root causes of migration and treatment in transit.
• Work for just, humane policies in and beyond the U.S.
• Engage the whole church and partners to respond, accompany and advocate.
- Uphold and guarantee fundamental human rights and safety for migrants.
- Address root causes of migration and treatment in transit.
- Work for just, humane policies in and beyond the U.S.
- Engage the whole church and partners to respond, accompany and advocate.
As siblings in Christ, we bear witness to these realities and labor for solutions that honor the humanity of all God’s children.
Commitments to Justice
ELCA Advocacy helps translate Christian values into public policy that reflects justice and peace. We work to restore and reconcile communities, recognizing that local decisions profoundly impact our neighbors’ lives. In a divided world on a fragile planet, we defend human dignity, stand with people in poverty, pursue justice, build peace and care for creation. Across more than 17 states, the ELCA State Public Policy Office partners equip and mobilize Lutherans for effective, faithful advocacy.
Economic justice means ensuring all people have a sufficient, sustainable livelihood. For the ELCA, this means economic activity serves God’s will for human well-being and care of the earth. It calls us to practice fairness, provide enough for all, ensure long-term sustainability and place special concern on those living in poverty. See our social statement Sufficient, Sustainable Livelihood for All (1999) for more.
As stewards of the earth, we’re called to examine our behavior toward creation. While we take from the land for food and livelihood, we must practice good stewardship, not exploitation. Explore two ELCA resources on environmental justice: Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice (1993), our social statement on ecology rooted in God’s healing, and Lutherans Restoring Creation, a grassroots movement promoting care for creation.
ELCA Gender Justice and Women’s Empowerment is shaped by diverse voices across race, ethnicity, ability, class, sexuality and age. Grounded in Lutheran theology, we confront sexism, link faith to real-world issues and invite all genders to act together. Justice flows from God’s love and grace: redeemed in Christ, we turn to our neighbors to learn what they need. We affirm that biblical justice seeks creation’s wholeness and name the ongoing violations against women and girls in every sphere.
This strategy calls the ELCA to move beyond symbolic diversity toward systemic change that is authentic, sustainable, and accountable. It outlines principles for dismantling racism, addressing inequities, and embedding diversity into every level of church life. The focus is on equity, representation, and building communities where marginalized voices lead in shaping the church’s present and future.
God creates society so civic life seeks the well-being of all, not favoring any select group, the wealthy or the powerful. “Your will be done on earth as in heaven” reminds Christians that God cares for all creation and calls us to join that work. This social statement presents a Lutheran perspective that all are called to participate in social and political communities. Christians act for the neighbor, especially the marginalized, and assess policies by how they serve them.
The ELCA’s Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery repents of the church’s complicity in colonial harms against Indigenous peoples, offers a statement of repentance and reconciliation and commits to removing this doctrine from its teachings. The ELCA pledges to practice accompaniment with Native communities, fostering mutual enrichment, healing and justice in partnership.
