Take a deeper dive into the beauty and complexity of the border.

Pre-Assembly: Full-week immersion Sunday, April 16 through Saturday, April 22 - cost for programming, food, housing, and transportation is $350 per person with some additional food costs - Contact Dan Tisdel HERE for more information.

Post-Assembly: Mini-immersion will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 18th (the assembly concludes at noon), and conclude with breakfast on Saturday, May 20th. Cost for programming, food, housing, and transportation is $1`25 per person - Contact Diana Linden-Johnson HERE for more information, and/or register TODAY using the button below.

Participants will stay at Iglesia Luterana Cristo Rey in shared rooms for both events.

IN-PERSON and ZOOM WORKSHOP

BREADITATION: learn to make Gluten Free Communion Bread; it’s all about hospitality

Saturday, May 6

9:00am to 1:00pm

plus FRIDAY PREP for ZOOM participants: required the day before

IN PERSON is at Messiah Mountain Retreat Center: no prep needed the day before

COST: $20 for Zoom participant (providing your own ingredients); $40 in person (includes all ingredients and lunch)

Gluten free communion bread is easy, tasty, and all about hospitality for all. Join us in the in-person or online workshop to make gluten free communion bread, as well as fougasse, which is a light, open textured bread typically associated with the Provence region of France. Your workshop leaders are Pastor Ron Glusenkamp and Pastor Kent Mueller.

Monday, May 1 registration deadline. Limited to 12 participants in person. 

Zoom registrants will receive ingredient list, instructions, and Zoom link several weeks before the event.

Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains 75th Anniversary Gala!

The 75th Anniversary Gala celebration will be May 12, 2023 from 6:00-9:00pm at the Denver Art Museum. Save the date cards and invitations will be mailed shortly, but tickets are on sale now on the LFSRM website. Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Contact Margo Hatton at 719-250-7491 or margo.hatton@lfsrm.org for more information

The Annual Golf Tournament will be held on July 31, 2023 at the Red Rocks Golf Course. More details coming soon!

The 40th Inn Keeper Dinner in Colorado Springs will be held on September 21, 2023 at 6:00 PM at the Pinery in Colorado Springs, Colorado. More details for this wonderful Colorado Springs community event are coming soon!

For over a decade the Wolf Creek Foundation, a 501C3 nonprofit organization, has been supporting military families through the generosity of our community. Whether being deployed or returning from deployment, separation brings stress and anxiety to a military family which is often difficult to overcome.

We sponsor and facilitate weekend retreats twice a year where our military families relax, reconnect and develop much needed skills that help the entire family cope with deployments. Meals, lodging and entertainment along with dedicated programming for adults and children are offered at no cost to the family.

Military families sacrifice each day to allow us to have the freedoms we all enjoy. Become a part of something amazing. Join us today! wolfcreekfoundation.com.

ELCA Farm Bill Listening Sessions

Tuesday, April 25

ELCA farm bill listening sessions are virtual gatherings where ministry leaders, members of congregations, and those with valuable lived experiences gather our opinions and experiences informed by faith values on stewardship, justice and serving our neighbor. The farm bill connects food on our tables and cafeterias, the farmers and ranchers who produce it, and the natural resources that make growing food possible, and is in the process of being reauthorized. Please join the conversation shaping our faithful action!

Watch an invitation to participate here.

Registration links and more information at blogs.elca.org/advocacy/elca-farm-bill-listening-sessions.

Reflection from Ryan Barnhouse

Young Adult in Global Mission (YAGM) serving in Canterbury, England

My responsibilities as a support worker have remained constant for months now, but my own root system has only continued to grow. Recently, this growth has thrived off of deeper and more honest conversations with coworkers. The looming shadow of my departure has led to honest discussions on the importance of my temporary stay, and appropriately acknowledging the privilege of the situation. Over 8 months of sharing life with individuals with and without disability from across the world has opened my eyes to the lived experiences of others that I will never understand. And I’m frequently reminded that the kitchen or dining room provides the best space for this empathy to grow.

To read more, ask questions, subscribe to further newsletters/blogs, or support his journey through donation, please email Ryan at ryan.barnhouse@outlook.com

Volunteer to help with English in Hungary!

The first time I came to Budapest was in 2010 with members of Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Los Alamos, New Mexico. We visited a partner congregation in Monor, Hungary, a small town just outside Budapest. I have returned many times to study Hungarian, visit with friends, help with day camps, and learn about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary (ELCH). When I retired in 2017 from my work as Lutheran Campus Pastor at the University of New Mexico, Bishop Tamas Fabiny of the ELCH, and former Vice President for the Central Eastern European Region of the Lutheran World Federation, invited me to serve in Hungary as a volunteer building up the English Lutheran Ministry and developing a Companion Synod program with the Northeast Iowa Synod. We now have a program called English Corner. Volunteers from the USA and Canada can come for 90 days without a visa to help Hungarian English teachers in the schools with the spoken parts of their lessons. You don’t have to have any teaching experience. A school or a local congregation in the countryside provides housing in exchange for 4 days of volunteer work at kk-12 schools. Volunteers have long weekends and school breaks to tour Hungary and the rest of Europe. If you would like more information about this program please contact Pastor Liz Bell, Assistant to the Bishop of the NE Iowa Synod, ELCA at albertsonl@neiasynod.org or write to one of our volunteers, Debbi Shoopman, at: shoopmand@yahoo.com. Find us on Facebook at English Corner Delights | Facebook.

Pastor Anne Morawski is a retired ELCA pastor and volunteer with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary (ELCH) and the English Lutheran Ministry in Budapest (ELMB). Both churches are members of the Lutheran World Federation and the World Council of Churches.

AUGUSTANA ARTS PRESENTS

Emerging: New Musical Voices

Stratus Chamber Orchestra

Adam Torres, Music Director

Be sure to make your plans now to attend our final Stratus Concert of the 2022-23 Season!

Saturday, April 29 at 7:00pm at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5000 E. Alameda Ave.

Sunday matinee, April 30 at 3:00pm at First Universalist Church of Denver, 4101 E. Hampden Ave.

SEICENTO PRESENTS

J.S. Bach’s monumental St. John’s Passion

May 6 at 7:00pm

St. Paul Lutheran Church, Denver

Seicento’s performance of this monumental work will focus on historically informed musical forces and techniques, beginning with the use of period instruments such as theorbo, portative organ, traverso (wooden flute), baroque oboes, viola da gamba, and baroque strings. Seicento’s singers and instrumentalists perform at baroque pitch with the signature Seicento flair, all contributing to the realization of the work as—in the words of American choral director and conductor Hugh Ross— “transcendent in its divine benignity.’

Tickets are $15 - 50. For concert locations, directions, times and tickets, visit

seicentobaroque.org/current-season/.

A DEVOTIONAL REFLECTION

Earth Day is Saturday, April 22

Prayer Around the Cross: For the Healing of Creation

Prayers on behalf of the whole creation, based on Psalms 104 and 145 using Holden Prayer Around the Cross. From Susan Briehl and Tom Witt, Holden Prayer Around the Cross: Handbook to the Liturgy, third ed. (Augsburg Fortress, 2009), pp. 123–130. Singing Our Prayer: A Companion to Holden Prayer Around the Cross (Augsburg Fortress, 2009) is available in full score and assembly editions, and as an audio CD. www.augsburgfortress.org

A note about this litany for the Healing of Creation: These stanzas draw images from Psalm 104. You may add stanzas to include the particular places and plants, birds, trees, and animals—especially those threatened or endangered—that share your planetary neighborhood. For instance, those who live in the eastern part of Washington state might name the local rivers suffering from pollution and overdamming.

Questions- rmscreationcareteam@gmail.com.

The Tomb is Empty!

Lord of the Hills Lutheran Church

21755 E Smoky Hill Rd. Aurora, CO

Sunday, April 16, 4:00 to 6:00pm

Join Rejoicing Spirits for dinner and worship where we will unite in activities, singing, laughing and loving God. Rejoicing Spirits is an inclusive worship space for people with cognitive and intellectual disabilities, their caregivers, families and anyone who seeks an open, joyful and creative worship experience.

We will gather at LOTH on the third Sunday of each month in 2023.

If you would like more information regarding the Rejoicing Spirits experience or volunteering, please contact Pastor Ann Hultquist at native2615@gmail.com or

Karen Ullestad at kmullestad@hotmail.com.

ONLINE LEARNING

5 Simple Steps to Stop Working on Your Day Off

April 25 at 10:00am MST

You're a woman in ministry writing your sermon and catching up on administrative work on your Sabbath days.

I'm going to show you exactly how to rest instead of work.

Learn these 5 steps to stop working on your day off.

You'll create the rest that supports a life-giving ministry.

Join Dr. Crystal Hall on Tuesday, April 25 at 10:00am MT/12:00pm ET.

Learn more at crystalhallphd.com.

The Summit at Rainbow Trail

- A Faith Formation Retreat for Leaders

April 24-26

You're invited to come spend time at Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp for personal reflection, renewal, and professional development with other youth, family, children, young adult, and faith formation leaders!

This is a FREE retreat for folks in the Rocky Mountain Synod! Folks outside of the synod are welcome to join. The 2023 theme is LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Faith Formation. Deacon Ross Murray, Pastor Kelsey Fauser, and Daniel Kirschbaum will be our content speakers and conversation facilitators.

Contact Bryan at Bryan@bethany-denver.org or Alec Celecki at 303-912-0283 with questions. Use QR code to register or click button below.

"The New Jersey Synod is congregations and individuals walking together in faith to cultivate Christ-centered, generous, resilient, missional communities for the sake of the world. We are guided by six Core Values- Faithfulness, Respect, Diversity, Generosity, Change, and Interdependence.

The NJ Synod is comprised of 152 congregations, which include over 60,000 baptized members."

The Rev. Tracie L Bartholomew was elected June 7, 2019 to serve a second six-year term as bishop.

Visit njsynod.org and on Facebook.

Click here for a map of our 65 ELCA synods and 9 regions.

Share your lifetime of experience- Get the experience of a lifetime!

Wednesday, April 26 at 10:00am

The Ignatian Volunteer Corps (IVC) is an organization of men and women, 50 years old or better, who bring their extensive work, community, family, and life experiences to serve people who are materially poor for eight hours/week. In addition, IVC member receive spiritual support- gathering together to talk about their service experiences and meeting individually with a spiritual reflector to prayerfully reflect on their apostolic work and discover the deeper meaning of their service.

To learn more, come to our information session on Wednesday, April 26 at 10:00am in the basement of St. Ignatius of Loyola Parish or contact the IVC Director, Erin Benson, 720-588-3836, ebenson@ivcusa.org.