Every year, the ELCA commemorates the Emmanuel Nine on June 17. The Emmanuel Nine are nine people who were shot and killed on June 17, 2015, during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Our relationship to the shooter, as well as two of the slain, reminds us of […]
Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom, a time to gather in community and commemorate the official, announced end of slavery in the U.S., even if the history of oppression, racism, and anti-Black violence that characterized it are still part of our story in church and in the United States. As ELCA Lutherans set free in […]