Luther inspires effort

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This article was published 28/11/2015 (3909 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The children of a Lutheran congregation in west Winnipeg are counting up their past – and their future – a loonie and toonie at a time.

“The kids come each week, and they’re excited about where their offering is going,” explains Christian education co-ordinator Terri Skakum of the hundreds of dollars already collected by children at Messiah Lutheran Church for scholarships for students in the Middle East.

Although significant, that Sunday school contribution makes up just a small fraction of a multimillion-dollar campaign underway by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

The official anniversary takes place on Oct. 31, 2017, five centuries after Roman Catholic priest Martin Luther nailed a list of 95 theses, or grievances, on a church door in the German city of Wittenberg. That action was the catalyst for the formation of the denomination that bears Luther’s name and is seen as the beginning of the Reformation.

Instead of building monuments or writing history books, the Winnipeg-based denomination of 145,000 members in 525 churches plans to spend the next two years funding scholarships, planting trees and sponsoring refugees in what they’ve dubbed the Reformation Challenge (www.elcic.ca/ReformationChallenge), explains the evangelical Lutherans’ national bishop.

“It seems to me that working together for mission-oriented goals is way more reflective of the church we want to be,” Bishop Susan Johnson explains in an email message while attending meetings in Geneva.

“It stretches us in mission, and it stretches us and our self-understanding.”

Approved at their national convention last summer, these projects have already caught the imagination of people at St. Paul’s Lutheran in Brunkild, which has raised $1,000 to plant trees and another $700 to put toward sponsoring refugees.

“Luther emphasized that life is a gracious gift, and we should respond graciously,” explains Rev. Barry Bence of the giving philosophy of the small congregation located about 50 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

“By emphasizing these things, we do all we can in this life to make this life more like God intended.”

The challenge also motivates congregations to consider sponsoring refugees in the next months, says Tom Brook of Canadian Lutheran World Relief, which is handling all the refugee sponsorships for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

Initially skeptical the denomination could sponsor 500 refugees in two years, Brooks has already fielded many calls from Lutheran churches, eager to help people displaced by violence in Syria and Iraq.

“We hope it’s a positive message that people need to reach out and be welcoming to strangers,” he says, referring to recent fears around sponsoring refugees who might turn out to be terrorists.

Brook estimates sponsoring a family of four for a year could cost $20,000, plus the time and energy to help the refugees settle into Canadian life. He says staff at his agency and the Evangelical Lutheran Church plan to sponsor a refugee family as part of the Reformation Challenge.

With many church members only a couple of generations away from being refugees themselves, helping others settle into Canadian life seems the right thing to do, says Rev. Carol Janke of Messiah Lutheran.

“We are privileged to be here in this place and this country and able to do this work in the world,” says Janke, adding her congregation is awaiting the arrival of an Iraqi family in the next weeks.

And whether or not the children of Messiah Lutheran realize the significance of an event five centuries ago, which changed the history of Christianity, they’re excited to be part of something bigger than themselves, says Skakum.

“They don’t understand the Reformation Challenge,” she says.

“They understand they’re helping other students.”

brenda@suderman.com

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