Celebrating 35 Years of Ordination for Lutheran Women

Congratulations to 2003-04 Gloria Dei, Tecumseh intern Vicky on her recent ordination!

This year the ELCA celebrates the 35th anniversary of Lutheran women being ordained. The Commission for Women provides an exhibit (established 1990 for the 20th anniversary) of women's contributions to the ELCA history. Taken from that site's several pages comes the following items on the ordination of Lutheran women:

• Elizabeth Alvina Platz, ordained November 22, 1970, was the first woman to be ordained as a Lutheran (Lutheran Church in America) pastor in North America. Since her ordination she has served as campus pastor at the University of Maryland.
• Barbara Louise Andrews was the first woman ordained into the American Lutheran Church on December 20, 1970. She served as an assistant pastor, a staff chaplin and an interim pastor before her death on March 31, 1978.
• The constituion of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches wrote its constitution to allow the ordination of women and was adopted on December 2, 1976 at the church's founding convention.
• Seven of the 65 synodical bishops in the ELCA are women. They serve the following synods: South Dakota, Lower Susquehanna, Upstate New York, Slovak Zion, LaCrosse Area, Caribbean, and New England.

Thank you to all the women leaders who have prepared the road for myself and other women, no matter our vocations.

Higher Numbers Of New ELCA Missionaries In 2005

http://www.elca.org/Scriptlib/CO/ELCA_News/encArticleList.asp?a=3111

Parable of the Blogger (Luke 17:11-18)

Thank you ICTHUS.

What Bloggers Hear this is the parable of the one blogger who tracked back Luke 17:11-18 And it came to pass, as they were reloading the Jerusalem home page, that in his RSS reader he noticed the suspicious URLs of Samaria.com and Galilee.com. And as he opened a certain website, there met him ten bloggers with viruses in their hard drive and they messaged him, saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go and show your template html unto the Programmers. And it came to pass, as they went, their viruses were erased. And one of them, when he saw that his html was restored, pinged back, with a bold trackback glorifying God; and he uploaded a huge blog post of appreciation: and he was not logged in as a member. And Jesus answering said, Did not the ten bloggers get cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there none found that pinged a trackback to God, except this non-cookied non-logged non-member? And he said unto him, Boot up, load up and blog on: your faith has made your code whole.

Dear Friends,
As many of you know, I graduated in May from Northern Michigan with my B.S. in sociology. What does one do with a bachelor’s in sociology? A) Go to grad school; B) Work as a statistician or low ranking research assistant (think phone surveys); C) Work a minimum wage job that anyone can get; D) Get creative. I chose D.
Starting at the end of August, I will be a mission volunteer for the ELCA’s Young Adults in Global Mission Program in the United Kingdom. Time for God, a non-profit agency based in London, has placed me at Family Tree Trust, a group home for adults with learning disabilities. My tasks there will include helping residents to prepare meals and accompanying them to activities outside the home.
I am asking for your support in two ways. The first is through prayers of support for a God-filled and soul building year. The second is financial. I am required to raise $3500 of the $8700 it costs to support a mission volunteer for the year. This cost includes my housing and food, health insurance, travel there and back, orientation, and stipend. Please consider making a gift. Information on donating is at the end of this letter.
While gone, I will be putting out a monthly newsletter to keep in touch with everyone. You have been with me on my faith journey thus far and I look forward to you being with me as I take the next steps. Thank you.
Peace,

Katie Drefke


Please have donations to Gloria Dei by Aug.1 so that the ELCA can receive it by Aug 10.
Make checks payable to Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and write “YAGM in the UK” on the memo line.

Please send contributions to:
Kristen Longabaugh
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
108 W. Brown Street
Tecumseh, MI 49286

My Placement

As I said a couple of entries ago, I have a placement! I will be at Family Tree Trust in Hackney (north London). Directly from placement sheet I was sent:
"The family tree is a large house, which is home to 6 adults residents who all have varying levels of learning disabilities. The residents are all referred by social services, and the house aims to help each resident to live as much of an independent life as possible. Eventually the resident will move out to their own accomidation, and will receive regular checks to ensure they are coping ok."

Volunteers (that would include me) work alongside residents supporting them through daily task including escorting them to college and day centres for classes, help residents navigate the transportation system, encourage and motivate, cook meals.

This is a placement which will certainly test me, but I'm looking forward to it. A friend in Marquette has leant me her copy of The Road to Daybreak by Henri Nouwen. It is the journal of a Catholic priest as he finds a new calling to live in community with mentally handicapped persons. I'm a little more than halfway through it and I recommend it for reading.

My friends Chris and Lindsey, whom I met at DIP (discernment, interview, placemnet) also have their placements. Check them out and send your congrats!

Books for Everyone

So a couple of weeks ago, Chris "tagged" me. Something about books I think everyone should read before college/during their life. Something like that. Anyway, here's my reading list:

• Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde (I also recommend the movie)
• Illusions and Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach (read anything by him)
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Freddy the Cowboy by Walter Brooks
• My Darling, My Hamburger by Paul Zindell

There are of course others that I could recommend, but I think this covers the basics. I'm better with movie recs. Anyway... I need to tag someone, but I don't know who. SO! if you're reading this and you have a blog... TAG! you're it!

London Blasts

I just realized it, but I never posted my placement. Well, I'll be in Hackney, outside of London which is why the link below is of importance. More to come on my placement and the London bombings.
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050707052809990001

Federally, murder for hire is punishable by death. What is war?

So right now I'm really into the anti-death penalty thing. There's one of Ghandi's most famous lines "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." There's the logic that punishing a person for murder is in itself murder. Let's not forget that the death penalty actually costs taxpayers more money than a life sentence. Or how about the fact that it doesn't deter potential murderers, but in truth those states with the death penalty actually have higher rates of violent crime and murder than those states without? And finally, it's discriminatory. Death row inmates are disportionately black, poor, male, and/or mentally ill.

I'd like to recommend the following movies to you:

• Dead Man Walking written and directed by Tim Robins, starring Susan Sarandon as Sister Helen Prejean and Sean Penn as death row inmate Matthew Poncelet. This movie was based off of S. Helen's book of the same name, written after her first experience with prison ministry. The setting is Lousiana and very anti-death penalty. Watch the movie. Then watch it with Robbin's commentary.
• The Life of David Gale written by Charles Randolph and directed by Alan Parker. It stars Kevin Spacey as David Gale, a man looking at his last week of life before his execution for the rape and murder of a fellow anti-death penalty activist, Kate Winslet as reporter Bitsey Bloom covering Gale's final days, and Laura Linney as an anti-death penalty activist. The setting is Texas and while the intention was not to take a side, it can be seen as a loose anti-death penalty movie.

For your own research, start with Sister Helen's official site to learn more about her and her work, and the Death Penalty Information Center. Amnesty International USA also offers a lot of statistics.