09/14/2026
From a Mike Woods posting on the ELCA page: “We stand in a Lutheran tradition which goes back over 500 hundred years now. Our Lutheran way: open minded, open hearted and musical, is wide-eyed and joyful and brave, and it is often underappreciated, the fire of it, kept alive in those congregations that are constantly reforming.
Our trust that we so cherish is balanced and clarified by baptismal covenant, the ways we walk together and intend to be with one another. Our governance is deeply communal, deliberately inclusive; where the worth and dignity of every person is held safe.
Ours is a reforming tradition that stands against fundamentalism of any kind, insisting that there’s always more to see, more to feel, to understand, imagine and try. We are constantly evolving — politically purple — and breathtakingly diverse across the spectrum of life from newborns to 100 year-olds.
Our Lutheran tradition is at ease with mystery and truths that are bound and loosed by communities of faith. It is humble, therefore, at its best, human and laughing, erring and willing to be fallible, sinning boldly and trusting in Jesus’ forgiveness even more boldly.
It is a courageous tradition also: you think of Martin Luther endangered by persecution, willing to die for freedom of belief.
The Lutheran way stands against arrogance and the end-time religions which are so brutal, so certain and so sure. Instead we are prisoners of hope, drawing our circle of inclusion wide - living by grace alone, scripture alone, faith alone.”
Sums it up nicely, I think. What do you think about his statement?
