Dressed in brown and white robes, the monks of New Melleray Abbey enter the chapel. Mid-day light pours through the arched windows of the expansive place, made of limestone and wood. They do not speak to each other. Instead, they chant together. Glor…
Editor’s note: Meridyth Bates is spending a year in Madagascar as part of the Young Adults in Global Mission initiative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Q: Tell us a little bit about your path to serve – what choices did you make, how d…
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On the ping pong table in his family’s basement, Thompson Teasdale creates art. Specifically, the beautiful watercolor paintings that now hang in the Luther Loft at St. Paul, are the work of Thompson. Using photographs of the St. Paul Memor ial Garde…
Consider three major transformations in the nation’s religious landscape – increased religious diversity, the growth of the religiously unaffiliated, and changes within the main Christian traditions – with Peter Kivisto, Augustana College professor,…
One small way that St. Paul offerings support refugees – people stripped of everything they know – is through two organizations that directly and indirectly assist refugees. This year, the congregation’s mission board voted to increase its giving to…
Politics has no place in the pew or in the pulpit. That’s a phrase we often hear uttered. Let’s look at what’s behind these references to politics in the church. If by political we mean campaigns, governmental structures and processes, or the encoura…
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Like so many beautiful things in life, Pamela Hardiman’s work came to be because of something that wasn’t working quite right. A quilt-maker at the time, she was creating a quilt she wanted to call Fire and Ice. The fire part was great, but putting i…
“Everything changes when the people you love are at risk.” I recently attended a conference for pastors and other professional church leaders where issues of race and justice were part of the discussion. Too often conversations like this remain abstr…
St. Paul’s Mental Health Awareness Team will host two upcoming events – one a panel discussion on mental wellness, and the second a presentation on depression. Both are free and open to the public. The first, onThursday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m., will…
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At 3:45 p.m. on Thursday afternoons, Dan Pepper’s classroom fills with the music of middle school students. Three dozen or so kids pluck away at ukuleles, more or less in unison, learning an instrument that has joy embedded in its strings. Dan, who t…
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It’s that time of year again. The days when haunted houses and apple orchards are filled with visitors. The time when you can eat candy corn by the fistful and walk down grocery store aisles filled top to bottom with assorted bite-sized candy. And th…
Earlier this week, the Quad Cities experienced what Winnie the Pooh would surely have called a blustery day. It was windy. The kind of wind that kindled fires in fields of dry crops. The kind of wind that would knock someone right off their bike. As…