Archives for June 15, 2020

Episode One is here!

Join in prayer where you are through this podcast offering the office of daily prayer in three chapters: Morning Prayer (Matins), Evening Prayer (Vespers), and Night Prayer (Compline).

Read about it and get the transcript on our Liturgy of the Hours: Episode One page.

Listen to the Liturgy of the Hours podcast online.

The church-wide Committee on Appeals is beginning the process of a revision of Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline, which is the juridical document that describes the grounds for which discipline may be imposed according to the practice of the ELCA.

As an important part of the process, the Committee on Appeals will be conducting an online survey and a series of digital town halls to solicit input from across the church to aid in the task of revising the document.

Please take this quick survey before it closes today, June 15.

The ELCA’s Revision of Definitions and Guidelines for Discipline page offers more information about the town halls.

If you would like help thinking through your personal financial life, you can call on Lutheran Social Service’s financial counseling service! Portico, the ELCA’s benefits provider, makes it possible for faculty, staff, and students to access up to six, no-cost-to-you sessions with a financial counselor. They can help with budgeting questions, debt challenges (including credits cards and educational debt), and housing issues. Even if you just want to get a quick read on where you are, they can help. Geography isn’t an issue. They work by phone.

Call this number: 800-528-2926. Tell them you are with Portico, and you’ll get expedited service. You don’t have to be ELCA!

There’s a cool learning opportunity coming up July 20-21! If you are interested in thinking about supporting student financial wellness, whether you are faculty, staff, or a student yourself, you are invited to register for the Higher Education Financial Wellness Summit!.

Luther Seminary is an institutional member of this group, which means you can participate without cost to you. You can access this year’s schedule online. Most of the attendees and presenters work at the undergraduate level, but there is still plenty to learn. Please email Grace Pomroy at gpomroy001@luthersem.edu for the passcode to discount your registration.

Because of the pandemic, the CD 1613 course (The Holy Land: Its People, Places, and Prayers) in fall semester 2020 has been reconfigured as a virtual pilgrimage instead of a course physically held in the Holy Land. You can still visit the Holy Land and meet some of its people, but this will all occur online.

Led by Professor Skinner and Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, students will connect with people and places in the Holy Land via the web and in real time during the mid-semester RFS period. The new format will involving reading, discussions, and cultivating a pilgrimage consciousness before engaging in virtual travel as a group. Online visits to sites, interactions with tour guides, and discussions with leaders in the Holy Land will allow students to consider what it means to encounter real sacred spaces and participate in sacred conversation.

The course still has no prerequisites, and it is being offered as a 1.0 credit elective. More specific information about the course and the RFS synchronous meeting requirements will be available later this week on the course’s draft syllabus on MyLutherNet.