Pray Without Ceasing

Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Bexley, Ohio, which last year merged with Capital University across the street, has a new dean who is widely admired. In a recent edition of her weekly newsletter, Dean Kathryn Kleinhans talked about the state of seminary education across the ELCA: “The numbers are out. This year the seminaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – together – are graduating a total of 114 students available for call. That’s not even two for each of the ELCA’s 65 synods. Geographical restrictions limit even further the number of candidates available for a call anywhere in the church. Any of our bishops will tell you that the need is much greater than that!" Why are there so few seminary graduates? It's complicated, but the bottom line is that the ELCA itself is struggling. Congregations are closing or merging (and members are always lost in mergers), few are flourishing, and those who are somewhere in between are cut...

Why Ashes on Ash Wednesday? Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite days of the liturgical year. Quiet, solemn and reflective, we cast off our selfish pride and our attachments to material things to stand before God in the humility of repentance. The heart of the Christian faith is love, and the ability to receive God’s love and extend that to others begins in humility. Paul wisely tells us in Romans 12:3, For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. Ash Wednesday, which falls on February 14 this year, is the Wednesday of the seventh week before Easter and the first day of Lent. The day is named for the practice of imposing ashes, a practice that many Lutheran congregations have found to be a deeply meaningful part of the Ash Wednesday liturgy. Using ashes as a sign of repentance is an ancient pr...