The images on the news are apocalyptic. The fires on Maui and the Big Island of Hawai’i have killed at least 36 people (as I write this), destroyed people’s homes, churches, and schools. The town of Lahaina has been devastated. I have been in contact with the pastors of our Lutheran congregations on Hawai’i and Maui. So far, both congregational … [Read more...]
Know Thyself
A message from Bishop Dave Nagler The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Michael Curry, refers to his denomination as, “the Episcopal branch of the Jesus movement.” I love this and have borrowed it when describing who we are in the Pacifica Synod. My adaptation goes like this: we are “the Lutheran branch of the Jesus movement in Southern California and Hawaii”. Let me break … [Read more...]
The Gift of the Ec-centric Church
By Bishop Dave Nagler Since the conversion of Constantine in 317 a.d. to the middle of the 20th century, the Christian church had been in the center of Western society. European history lurches from the horrible Doctrine of Discovery in 1492, to the colonization of the globe for economic and political gain, to the policy of Manifest Destiny in North America. The … [Read more...]