Women of the ELCA observes 'Rachel's Day: Justice for Children and Youth'

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service

In 2006 Rachel's Day is Sunday, May 7, in congregations across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Women of the ELCA, the women's organization of the church, observes Rachel's Day through special liturgies and with blue ribbons -- symbols of hope -- to speak out against the violence that children face, "to mourn the loss of our children and to renounce the forces of evil and fear that plague our nation."

"Women of the ELCA recognizes that as violence continues to destroy our communities, we cannot be whole," said the Rev. Dawn D. Hansen, director for programs, Women of the ELCA, Chicago. "As we advocate raising up healthy women and girls, we continue to raise up Rachel's Day as a way to speak out against the forces that violate community wholeness. We encourage others to speak out because no one group of children is safe, until all children are safe," she said.

The observance began at Bethel Lutheran Church on Chicago's West Side. In 1996 the ELCA Metropolitan Chicago Synod designated the first Sunday each May as Rachel's Day, and the synod's women's organization won formal acceptance of the annual observance at the Women of the ELCA Third Triennial Convention that summer. Rachel's Day gets its name from the biblical writings of the prophet Jeremiah: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more." (Jeremiah 31:15 NRSV)