Jackie Maddox (left), namesake of the Jackie Maddox Racial Justice Advocacy Grant, is introduced by Senior Director of ELCA Witness in Society Amy Reumann at the Gala Celebration of Advocates hosted by Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania on May 9, 2024.
Editor’s note: This post was written by Quentin Bernhard, ELCA Hunger Advocacy Fellow, below.
Racial justice initiatives through the ELCA Florida-Bahamas Synod and Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania (LAMPa) are the first recipients of Jackie Maddox Racial Justice Advocacy Grants. Maddox, whose contributions to ELCA advocacy are recognized by the grant, served in the ELCA’s Washington, D.C., office until her retirement in 2022.
“Racial justice is not an ‘add on’ to advocacy,” said Amy Reumann, senior director of ELCA Witness in Society. “It is at the heart of the church’s advocacy. Jackie exemplified this awareness in her years with the ELCA’s advocacy team, ensuring our issue analysis and priorities reflect our church’s racial justice commitments.”
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GJ - Spouting flames of activism is the Law in all Mainline Failures. Lately the term advocate has been beaten more often than an Arkansas rented mule. It will only get worse as the endowment accounts grow and the old churches dwindle away.
They scoop up all the funds using a variety of terms - it is a wonder. The Waltherians play with distorting theological terms. ELCA dares the advocates to use up all the money on their pet projects. They want to make a better place for Planet Earth, and nobody should get in their way.
They have urgent necessities, not just a crisis, but a deluge of crises, burning to save Planet Earth.
From the Same People Who Grinned While Activating
"The Sparkle Creed,"
Borrowed from Another Anti-Trinitarian Denomination
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| Yes, this is the Sparkle Creed congregation, Edina, Mn ELCA congregation. |
"Congregations across the ELCA regularly engage with the question of what actions communities of faith should take in an election season. On election day in 2016, Edina (Minn.) Community Lutheran Church opened its sanctuary doors to anyone seeking a place to pray. After the 2020 presidential election, the congregation held a prayer vigil as a space for participants to recommit to God’s call to act for justice.
In this election year, Edina Community Lutheran has taken the additional step of creating a voter engagement task force, with the purpose of equipping “members for active participation of education, encouragement, and engagement in an effort to amplify our witness to nonpartisan democratic values of equity, justice and the common good.”
At the first virtual meeting of the ELCA Election Activator Network on July 23, the convener of Edina Community Lutheran’s task force shared about how the group was set up and how their activities are unfolding. The network was launched by ELCA Witness in Society this year as a nonpartisan effort meant to support and equip ELCA members and congregations as they encourage local participation in the electoral process.
Other participants in the first session ranged from election day volunteers to food pantry workers to college students and professors to church and synod staff to passionate lay members of congregations.
The ELCA Election Activator Network was launched this year as as a nonpartisan effort meant to support and equip ELCA members and congregations."
